For those who weren’t around, Kurodake closed for January (totally normal) and February (scandalous, terrible, unheard of) of 2025. This was sad and bad. So I was very interested to hear a rumour in Sounkyo that Kurodake would stay open for all of 2026.

Bookings are open for 2026. We usually give priority to groups coming back from last year, so we’ve alraedy got a few tenative bookings pencilled in. I went through our booking for last winter and we started turning people away in April! If you want to ride with us, get in touch ASAP…

We’re very excited to announce that the Powder Project will resume guiding in Hokkaido for the 2024 season.

We’re still running our 5 and 10 day packages as well as day guiding and custom trips, full details are on our trips page.

I was about to write my customary apology for getting this end-of-season wrap up out a bit late. But then I realised it’s still March. The spring skiing is great in Hokkaido. I only left a week ago.

But a lot has changed in the last few weeks.

It seems a bit strange to write an end-of-season wrap up now. Skiing is a strange thing to be thinking about in the face of a global pandemic. But as I lay on the couch mid-quarantine in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney (all international travellers are required to self-quarantine for two weeks upon returning to Australia. We got to choose where we’d hang out. Now the army escorts you to a hotel) I recalled a conversation with a new guest, Magnus, back in February. He’d had a bit of a logistical debacle getting to Hokkaido and as we shuttled around collecting replacement gear he said something like:

“This is still worth it. If we get a few great powder turns, those moments stay with us for the whole year.”