It has been a long road for the Powder Project. It started out with me sleeping in the van between trips in 2017, grew into a busy one-person operation by 2020, shut down due to covid, reopened in 2024, and rebuilt to be flat out in 2025. At the end of that season I was working more than I sustainably could and feeling decidedly uneasy about operating alone in increasingly remote and consequential terrain.
So in the 2025 off-season I scrounged up some money to turn the one-man-show into a team event.
To do that we needed secure housing. After years of finding last-minute seasonal rentals in Higashikawa we bought a house in Shunkodai on the outskirts of Asahikawa.
To make that happen we needed a Japaneses company that could buy assets and sponsor work visas. I’ve always believed that the economic benefits of ski tourism should go to local communities and it feels good to be investing and paying taxes here.
Most importantly, we hired George Loomes. I’ve worked with George for years in New Zealand and it was a pleasure to ski with him in Japan and get some fresh guiding psyke for exploring new terrain and making the most of the ridiculous snow we get here. As well as singlehandedly doubling the size of our operation, George brought us professional Search and Rescue experience and a strong operational risk management skillset which is perfect as we expand.
I thought, perhaps naively, that having another guide would give us a measure of redundancy and additional safety in the backcountry. And while that would be true for a serious incident where it’s worth diverting or cancelling a trip to respond, for minor incidents it just meant we had twice the change of things going wrong.
And they did go wrong…
We had car trouble. We had our first substantial injury (a busted knee on the skin track - thankfully close to the car). We had more car trouble. We had to perform feats of bureaucracy. Someone broke a splitboard. I made many trips to the Asahikawa Town Office to stamp documents with my new, very important, company stamp. I got buried in a very low key avalanche. We had yet more car trouble.
And despite this, we skied rad stuff, day after day. We explored new zones west of Asahikawa. We found new trailheads for sled accessed skiing. We consistently sent our guests home happy and keen for more.
I think we’re through the worst of the administrative hump now. I’m actually back in Hokkaido as I write this sorting out a few things for the house so we’re ready for an even bigger and better season in 2027. We’re growing the team and looking to open up new areas for guiding. And we’re continuing to build in more support and safety so that we can keep you and each other safe for many more years of great skiing. I hope you’ll continue to join us.