Went out with my dog again, he's my only touring partner these days. 

Mid-June in Hakuba like most places requires  long sweaty approach.  We didn't have it any different.

Day 1:  skin up a long permanent snowfield for about 3km and 1200m vertical gain.  Then onto the summit of Hakuba's highest peak (Shirouma Dake, 2932m).  The line off the back was very patchy on top, so instead we continued to skin around to Asahi Dake and took that instead.

At the summit:

Views of my favourite series of couloirs in Hakuba.  Still holding snow, but a lot of rocks an deep runnels in there.

This guy:

Hakuba from the top:

And our new day 1 objective, Asahi Dake NE face (2867m).

It was too steep for me on skis, but I semi-foolishly gave it a go (I snowboard 95% of the time and am not good at it, but much better than I am at skiing).  The dog didn't want to drop in, so I forced him which is a bad thing to do.  The corn was good, a bit crusty but mostly quite smooth and even.  The main face is only 350m vert, but still a good steep workout.

Asahi Dake close-up

Asahi Beer can, available in 5 sizes.

After skiing the face I was supposed to veer off to a nice little mostly frozen lake and then up and along to an un-manned mountain hut.  But the descent was so good that I decided to keep it flowing for a while across a flat section and then into one dipping rollover after another.  I knew I was going way too far and in the end I rode down to about 2000m.  But it was spring skiing Eden in Japan.  It was incredibly good fun.  I was yelling out to the dog "we're tree skiing in June!".  The glades of small pines held good corn and all linked together into one very long continuous descent over the reverse side of the main range above Hakuba.  There was not a person or a track to be seen anywhere.  800m vert of pure spring greatness.

My line off Asahi Dake followed the lower foreground ridge and then down into the trees and linked up gullies.  The bigger background looks well worth hitting as well.

I had gone way too far down and for some reason my upper quad was badly strained, causing me to limp pretty heavily.  And my skins were soaked, so I had to use gaffer tape to keep them on.  The long skin back up was only enjoyable thanks to the scenery:

Asahi Dake again and the type of small pines we were riding.

On the way to the hut, looking back at my afternoon's playground.  Asahi is the pointy one, the NE face line obscured by the rocks.  The lookers right side also looks great. It was a wonderful afternoon of spring skiing.

For various reasons the hike to the hut sucked and took a long time.  And my leg was turning me into a  cripple.  Thankfully the atmosphere and view remained great the whole way. 

Across the Sea of Japan towards Korea:

There were two Japanese guys staying in the hut and they were both surprised to see a foreigner arrive.  Its a long way form anywhere.

Day 2:

The next morning I walked up a nearby peak (Yukikura Dake, 2610m) that I had intended on skiing but my leg hurt too much to risk the hike back up, so I just looked around and headed for home, a 7km skin/walk to the start of my descent to the car.

We went back via the summit of Shirouma where I bumped into a Japanese telemark skier who was considering the same line that I was.  I chatted to him for a while in bad Japanese and then went on my way.  He remained and contemplated the risk.  Its a great line that takes you on into 1000m directly down the face of Hakuba's poster-boy peak.  The upper section from the summit area is basically a cliff with some entry chutes, but once you are in, you are set.

One of the entries is a genuine 60 degrees, and narrow.  Someone had been down it earlier.  Its too much for me on skis with a dog:

The entry point just off the summit marked with the line:

Another way in, no easier:

The dog and I rested in the sun for a while then enjoyed a really long and easy descent off the side of the peak ranging from 20-35 degrees over 1200m vertical fall.  It gets rocky and dirty down lower, but its mid-June!  Who cares, I'll take 1200m vert any month of the year!!

Near the bottom I bumped into the guy on telemarks who was exiting his big line.  He was stoked, I was stoked to see that he went for it after I left... and we shared the stoke.  That made my day, to have someone who was out there alone and about the same thing that I was.  Earlier we had discussed the entry at the top and shared a common desire and concern.  To help us chat easily we discussed other lines we had ridden the previous day.  Then when we crossed paths again at the bottom of the peak he told me about the line I chose not to ski with him.  There was bad Japanese, bad English and perfect stoke communication going on.  It genuinely made my trip.  I spend far to much time up there alone, so it was good to have a friend in the mountains, despite being perfect strangers.