A long time ago, when we first started skiing here, our resort write-up for Asahidake opened with:

Deep snow, sweet terrain, great accommodation and relaxing onsens. Asahidake is a good time waiting to happen.

And while Asahidake still has deep snow, fun terrain, great places to stay, and good onsens, you now have to share it with a large number of international visitors. Where once there were empty trams, there are now hours-long queues. Where you used to able to arrive at a leisurely 10:30, ski untracked lines while the handful of visitors got lost in the fog, and then trundle home feeling smug, now there are tracks. So many tracks.

It’s hard for me to be objective about Asahidake. I got there just as it was getting known with international skiers. If you can catch it on a quiet day (especially early season or late season) it’s still a great place to ski. And for some people deep pow turns between tracks is still fun skiing, so they’ll be able to scratch out a good day.

But I digress: Asahidake is about 90 minutes from downtown Asahikawa and it gets a ridiculous, nonsensical amount of quality powder snow. The terrain is fun (if a bit short) and on a good (and quiet) day the riding here is outrageously fun.

Before we get stuck into the details, a note about terminology. The word “Asahidake” is often used to mean…

• The tallest mountain in Hokkaido, a volcanic cone rising from the Daistsuzan plateau to 2291m elevation. The “dake” suffix effectively translates to “peak” or “mount”, so notionally in English we could call this “Mt Asahi”.

• An onsen resort (basically a collection of hotels with built-in hot springs) at roughly 1100m elevation at the foot of Mt Asahi, partway down the edge of the Daisetsuzan plateau.

• Asahidake Ropeway, a tram or cable car that goes up to the edge of the plateau from the onsen resort.

The peak itself is another 600m vert from the top of the lift, all of which is above treeline.

The vertical relief of the Daisetsuzan plateau and the volcanic peaks above it act as a trap for clouds blowing across the island. As those clouds get pushed up by the rising ground, they cool and produce snow. How much snow? Well, no one is really measuring. When almost every day is a powder day, no one bothers to keep track.

The skiing:

Asahidake is serviced by one cable car that takes you from the village at 1,100m to the edge of a plateau just above the tree line at 1,600m. Above the cable car it’s flat (you’re on the Daisetsuzan plateau) with the volcanic cones the Daisetsuzan mountains rising in front of you. Except you probably can’t see them. All that cloud catching and snow making means the weather is often quite bad. But fear not - after some stuffing around in the fog on the edge of the plateau, once you get to the actual skiing lines there are usually enough trees to provide definition and a bit of shelter.

The key thing to understand about Asahidake is that it’s not really a ski resort. The cable car was set up for hikers and tourists visiting the hot springs in summer. But at some point someone decided to plough two groomed runs from top station back to the parking lot, which made skiing here possible - without those groomers to pack the snow down the bottom part of the mountain is too flat to ski, especially in deep conditions. The position of the lift and the groomers isn’t optimised for good skiing, and as a result the actual area of decent skiing is limited. It doesn’t take many people for the place to track out, and those people have well and truly arrived.

Skiers’ right of the gondola has more mellow terrain that’s perfect for a warm-up lap or intermediate powder skiers. There are a few flat spots out there, so you need to be careful to link up with the groomer at the right time or you can end up with a bit of a hike.

Directly below the lift there are steeper open pitches near the top that drop into the trees. The skiers’ left of the cable car has a bunch of fun terrain, with short, steep tree shots; open bowls; and some great ridge and gully lines. The terrain and snow in here can be phenomenal if you know where to look and when to make your exit.

Which brings me to a common question: Do you need a guide to ski at Asahidake?

For routefinding, I’d say no. You’ll probably have a more efficient day with a guide who can get you straight to the best lines and link up the various bits of the mountain smoothly. But these days there are enough groups skiing all over the place that the entry and exit track tend to get cut pretty quickly. You can ski here without a guide and have a good time.

For safety, that depends on your group.

Asahidake is not a ski resort. There is no avalanche control and no ski patrol. If you get hurt off the groomers you’re on your own. It’s avalanche prone. Do you have the skills and experience to make good decisions about avalanche hazard? There are plenty of natural hazards like trees, buried snags, and open creeks/swamps. If you get hurt, does your group have the skills and equipment to get back to safety? If you take your skis off you could easily be neck deep in snow. Are you prepared for that? There have been numerous fatalities here from avalanches or people getting lost. Treat this place with respect.

I would very strongly recommend having touring gear. You’ll get better riding - the long and better quality runs to the far skiers’ left involve a convoluted traverse to get back to the groomers which usually works better in tour mode. But also if you need to self-rescue or correct a routefinding mistake you’ll need touring gear to move.

This is probably a good place to point out that we don’t guide at Asahidake. We did, back when it was quiet. If you’re thinking about asking us to guide you here I’d suggest you use your guiding budget to go somewhere else, with no crowds, where the snow is as good and the terrain is better. There are plenty of options and we’d be happy to show you.

I cannot really convey to you how hard it can snow here. Asahidake can be deep on a level most first time visitors have never experienced. This can bring great joy but also some unexpected hazards…

I’ve seen it snow 40cm in an hour here. No bullshit - I timed and measured it. Skiing down the groomer there was so much snow in the air it was hard to breathe.

I’ve skied 110cm dust on crust. Hitting the bottom every turn. The snowflakes were like down feathers. As soon as you moved they blew everywhere and you couldn’t see.

Once while trying to shuffle out of a drainage I stopped going forwards and started going down. By the time I was up to my neck I realised there was a serious problem. I had to take off my skis, throw them forwards, and swim out of the hole.

This place gets an awful lot of snow and despite not skiing there for years it’s probably still responsible for maybe half of the top 10 deepest days of my life. But it’s also very busy now. As someone who can usually count the number of times I cross a track in a season on one hand, it’s not a good place for me. But most people don’t have that luxury, and if you’re used to competing for untracked snow or aiming your turns for the clean patches then you could probably have a good time.

We discuss the backcountry in the area more here, but Asahidake opens up a lot if you’re willing to hike a little. Above the cable car is the peak, which has a huge volcanic bowl with steam vents. There are a range of good lines on the flanks of the peak, and heading into the volcanic bowl itself, but it’s alpine terrain so you need good weather and the snow is usually smashed by wind. It’s still worth doing for the adventure on a good weather day.

The real advantage of hiking is that it opens up longer and more sustained lines to the skiers’ left of the cable car. A short (20 minutes or less) flat hike along the edge of the plateau takes you to some sheltered terrain with enough trees to ski well in all conditions. There are a series of south facing gullies and bowls that avoid most of the prevailing northwesterly wind. It snows so much here that it pays to have good options for poor visibility, and this area delivers.

The evenings:

The village at Asahidake sits at the base of the cable car within the national park and is small and quiet. There's not much nightlife here, no public bars or restaurants, just a few hotels and ryokans.

Our favourite accommodation in the village is the youth hostel, Daistetsuzan Shirakabasou. Don’t be put off by the hostel tag, this place has traditional Japanese rooms with tatami mats and comfortable futons, a little reading room to sit with your favourite ski mag, amazing home cooked Japanese food, including traditional breakfasts and dinners, and the finest Japanese beer available in a can from a vending machine. There are hot spring baths fed by the local stream on the ground floor, a ski waxing setup, and impeccable vibes.

If you need a day off from skiing powder, there are also trails for snow shoeing and cross country skiing that take you through forests and past natural hot spring seeps. You can rent gear from the National Park visitor centre.