Our week in Myoko has come to an end. It has truly been a mixed couple of days here: we’ve had chest deep, fluffy powder but it has also been raining, we’ve been hiking and sweating in the sun and, yes, we’ve had some more powder.
We all had quite high expectations as we arrived here in Myoko. It had been snowing for a day straight, we’d heard what a powder paradise this was and there was a chair lift right outside our bedroom window. Seemed like nothing could go wrong.
But frankly, we had no clue where we were. Where could we find the best off pist? And where could we sneak past the snow patrol without getting in trouble? Turning to our beloved friend wifi, we found several options right away.
There are a few different ski resorts included in the Myoko Kogen ski area.
The chair lift we saw from our window was Suginohara resort, which claims to have Japan’s longest pist, 8,5 km. This might be true, but it’s also one of the most flat pists I’ve ever seen.
Anyway, Suginohara is a small resort, but we found a really good run and had one of our best powder days here. In deep powder where you lost count of how many face shots you’d gotten we spent a very good Tuesday. The best thing about skiing here is that the Japanese people haven’t really found the charm in powder skiing, yet.
On Wednesday we woke up to bluebird skies, a perfect day for a hike! We caught the bus to Akakura Kanko resort, which is about half an hour from our lodge.
We hiked for about 1,5 hours to the top ”Maeyama” and got a long and fluffy ride down the ridge. It was a liiittle tricky getting back to the lift we were aiming for, but let’s leave it at that.
We were, some more than others, quite tired and sore on the bus back to the lodge. Quote from William: ”How can it hurt so much in a 22 year old body?”
We have a long travel day ahead of us tomorrow. Way too many train transfers, busses and taxis to get to Hakuba… We look forward to it though, it will be fun with a new place. And from what we’ve seen on this lodge’s website we might actually get to sleep in real beds for the first time in four weeks!
– Jenny
Photos by Linus Ponerup
Gabriel Bergman showing off his backflip as usual
William Nilsson finding a fluffy pillow @Myoko Kogen