Snowboarding Hakkoda Mountain Range Japan

Japan is a popular destination for optimistic skiers and snowboarders, with Niseko in Hokkaido taking center stage as the resort of choice for foreign tourists, but is the most popular resort always the best? If night-life ranks higher on your list of pros than snow quality, then Niseko may just be the place for you. However, if it's the local powder you want to taste and not the beer, you will want to find somewhere a little less crowded.

Heading south, back on Japan's main Island, Honshu, you may just find what your looking for. Situated in the center of Aomori, Honshu's northernmost prefecture, is Hakkoda; a mountain range famed in Japan as a wild and formidable place for advanced skiers, where, in 1902, 199 members of the Japanese Army died during a blizzard. Vestiges of fear from this tragic event, and the notorious bad weather, help keep the number of skiers at Hakkoda low. For many locals Hakkoda's deep ungroomed powder and severe weather conditions are a strong deterrent but for others they are the ingredients for perfect days skiing.

Hakkoda attracts mostly advanced snowboarders, who come for the heavy snowfall and untracked runs. Hakkoda stands out from mainstream Japanes resorts; while there is a chairlift at the base of the mountain with the ubiquitous J-pop streaming over the groomed slopes there is also a whole mountain behind that is serviced by a cable-car with no groomed runs or music. Officially there are only two courses at Hakkoda, marked out with orange poles, but unofficially there is a whole mountain to explore and unlike other resorts there is no penalty for skiing out of bounds. As there is only one rope-way the number of people on the mountain is guaranteed to be low even on busy days like New Years Day.

If heavy ungroomed snow, endless back-country runs and few people aren't enticing enough then perhaps the cost is. Hakkoda has to be one of the cheapest resorts in Japan offering a one month ticket for 14,000 yen or around US$150 or US$5 a day! With accommodation next to the rope-way for as little as $55 per night you could be enjoying heliskiing quality for only $60 a day.

Aomori is accessible from Tokyo by train, plane or overnight bus. Hakkoda is a 40 minute bus ride from Aomori Station.