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The Mountain

HL Mt Annapuri Niseko is as good as it gets

For those skiers and boarders who have been living under a rock for the last few years, Niseko is one of the best destinations in the world for powder…more than 12 metres of it a year.  Tucked up on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, it sits just across the sea from one of the coldest, most inhospitable climates in the world: Siberia. 

Not much good if you’re a Soviet political prisoner but great if you ski because the weather fronts howl across Siberia before dumping their booty all over the resorts of Mt Annapuri, Niseko. 

Most weeks of the season will give you at least three or four mornings of fresh tracks with no crowds to speak of and plenty of terrain to explore. The adventurous will be skiing first tracks until well after lunch.  Unless it snows all morning, in which case you’ll be skiing clean lines until you can’t stand up anymore.

Grand Niseko United is comprised of four resorts – Grand Hirafu, Hanazono, Higashiyama and Annapuri – all accessible under the one ticket.  There’s no shortage of back-country to explore and given the Japanese tend to stay on trail, you’ll probably have it all to yourself.  Your day pass also entitles you to night skiing so the real fanatics can be on the mountain from 8.30 in the morning until 9.00 at night - for the price of a long lunch.  Night skiing is truly a great experience and with the largest lit ski area in Japan, you’re not stuck on the front slope doing green runs.

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