Kamoidake is another one of those little powder gems in Hokkaido that has been struggling to remain afloat. Ageing infrastructure and limited visitation has resulted in a ski area that is not breaking even, so if you’re annoyed at us for talking about your secret little powder area, we do not apologise.

We visited one afternoon and returned the next day for fresh snow. It was dumping with snow in Asahikawa, and whilst not as much snow had reached Kamoidake, we knew we were in for a good day. It was pretty much just the defense force and us there. The quality of the snow was really good and getting better by the minute.

After warm up laps on-piste we headed for the “low-hanging-fruit” trees but some local ninjas had already been there. It was completely fresh in the sidecountry and some of the terrain was steep whilst other parts were too steep aka cliffy and had an associated ravine. It required a bit of scouting around to find good runs. We also swapped designated drivers and did laps on the west side.

It was a fun time getting fresh lines but none of them came without a bit of mucking around.

The new terrain park was in situ but no one was using it, possibly because the defense force didn’t need to practise tricks!

We wandered into the hotel to have an onsen. It was supposedly open but the whole place looked uninhabited and spooky, so we gave it a skip.

We visited Kamoidake from Asahikawa staying at the OMO7 Asahikawa, and visited various other ski areas in the region.
See our video here