NORTH FACE - THE ULTIMATE NISEKO PEAK EXPERIENCE

Riding North Face on a deep powder day with blue skies above is both magical and exhilarating. To me, it is the ULTIMATE NISEKO PEAK EXPERIENCE. But there is a reason East Face and the Back Bowl (Kozan) are more popular. If you go down East Face, you will end up on a cat-track that leads back to the Hanazono resort, usually a 20-minute walk back depending on where you come out. If you drop into the Back Bowl, you can ride all the way to the Annupuri gondola, which is very convenient. If you go down North Face, however, you will eventually reach a road that is buried under meters of snow and closed during the winter. And there is no cell-phone coverage. Returning to the resorts, Hanazono or Annupuri, takes a long time, even with touring equipment, so don't go if you don't have any. Skiers with no skins can make it back to Hanazono. Most of them choose to ski the fall-line of North Face all the way down instead of following the line shown on the map below. As a result, the area in the bottom third of this run is almost always left with a lot of untouched powder. To have this at the end of a run is what makes it so epic. Check out the end of the YouTube video. Riding North Face could also serve as the first run on day of touring the backcountry. There are several options and I will cover them in a future blog.

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