Around Asahidake
Pretty much all of the riding at Asahidake is unpatrolled and thus in the backcountry. But here we’re talking about the stuff that isn’t accessed from the lift. That includes skiing on the nearby peaks of the Daisetsuzans and some other stuff below or around the ski area.
The northern part of the Kamui Mintara range (the main range of the Daisetsuzan National Park, of which Asahidake is a part) is made up of volcanic cones that come out of a plateau. The skiing up there involves flat approaches across the plateau and then climbing and skiing on the peaks. The plateau itself is just above the tree line, so the whole area is alpine. Skiing up there requires good weather. It’s super exposed to the wind (and often scoured) and navigating on the white, flat, featureless plateau in poor visibility would be miserable.
The peaks are at their best in spring. In midwinter they’re usually best for a chance to climb mountains and look at great views in good weather. They usually get too much wind to have great powder skiing, but if you got the right day skiing pow off the peaks would be outrageous.
People do a bit of touring on the edge of the plateau on either side of the ski area. I find it hard to get excited about this stuff. It’s mellow, the runs are very short, There’s lots of flat spots. It’s OK, but you’ll probably have a much better time somewhere else.
Below the ski area there’s quite a bit of terrain. Finding parking is tricky, but there’s the potential for some really great skiing that’s quite sheltered when conditions are bad up high. We’ve skied a range of terrain in here: Short, fun but relatively mellow laps that are great for introductory touring days; steep tree runs; and even some quite burly lines that we’ve looked over the top of and then scurried away from.
It’s got good points:
Climbing peaks (including Asahidake) on a clear day is rad. You can climb and ride an active volcano with fumaroles (steam vents). The views are awesome. It’s a good time.
The terrain down low is really good and well sheltered. This is a good place to rescue a day that might otherwise get shut down by bad weather.
There are lots of onsens nearby.
So what’s the bad news?
The alpine areas are generally pretty wind affected and need good weather. You generally climb these peaks for the experience, rather than the awesome snow.
The terrain on the edge of the plateau on either side of the ski area isn’t very inspiring.
Access to the terrain lower down is limited by parking.
There’s not a huge area of backcountry riding.
The lift accessed skiing at Asahidake is pretty good (see our resort write up), especially when the snow is deep (it often is). There’s some reasonable backcountry in the wider area, especially if the weather is good enough to get up high, but it’s not really a destination area for backcountry skiing. I wouldn’t book a week at Asahidake if I was planning a Hokkaido backcountry trip. To me, it makes more sense to stay somewhere like Asahikawa and then day trip up to Asahidake if it’s good.
Asahidake is accessible from:
Asahidake. There are some great onsens at the base of the lift.
Asahikawa is about an hour away.
Furano is about 90 minutes away.
Tokachidake is also about 90 minutes away.
Tomamu is a bit far for a day trip - over 2:30 each way.
There’s a bus to Asahidake from Asahikawa. It runs a few times a day and would work if you were staying overnight but for a day trip it will chew up a lot of time. If you’re planning to ski in the backcountry you’ll need a car to get to any of the stuff below the lift.
What do we offer at Asahidake?
We guide at the ski area and in the backcountry nearby.
We come here on:
Day trips from Asahidake, Asahikawa, Furano or similar.
Multi day trips, either coming up from a nearby town for a day, or staying overnight in one of the onsens (an amazing experience, especially if we can line it up with good weather).