From our base in Nakafurano, Central Hokkaido, we can access much of the best backcountry skiing on the island within a 2hr drive. We recommend a base near us in Nakafurano or Kamifurano out of the busy Furano traffic. This is Furano Adventure Tours and what we recommend to most people.
If you are booking us for Furano Adventure Tours, you must be prepared to miss your hotel breakfast. Start early, finish early is our mantra for the famous places. If you want to ski more adventurous locations, steep terrain or the places we ski on our off days then booking several days is advised.
While we have historically guided much of the ski area side country within 1.5 hrs drive of Furano, we have evolved to a strong backcountry focus. Your own avalanche and touring gear is essential.
We decide the destination each day depending on the conditions and what we think is suitable for your group. While not essential, having your own rental car and being prepared to use it also expands our options.
Furano Adventure Tours
Since around 2022 when the popularity of backcountry skiing in Hokkaido started to increase exponentially, we started increasingly guiding other remoter parts of Hokkaido and kept very quiet about it. In the age of social media, and now ai, access to information has become much easier. This has created a strange paradigm where some trail heads are busy to the point of access issues and occasionally closure, while nearby locations of similar quality can have almost no traffic at all.
This is a trip format where we make a base far enough away from popular ski towns to explore locations that have not been 'blown up'. This is the frontier of backcountry skiing in Japan. This requires at least 3-4 days booking and starts and ends in the Furano valley.
We spent half of in 2026 season guiding other parts of Hokkaido and Tohoku (Northernmost part of the mainland), where Midori is from.
Logistically, Northern Explorer trip is working much better for groups of 2 so we can avoid driving a Toyota Hiace. We prefer to embrace the Japanese country vibe and drive late '90s SUVs.
Northern Explorer
From a base in Asahikawa it is a short drive to Kamikawa which provides excellent access to North Daisetsuzan National Park.
We can drive out to meet you from our base in Nakafurano or connect you with the most experienced local guide in Kamikawa.
The terrain here is suitable to all conditions. Several trail heads provide easy access to a range of altitudes of protected forests for storm ski touring, and the Kurodake ropeway provides fair weather access to high altitude open North facing terrain.
From moderate ski touring to steep technical chutes. We know Kamikawa and Kurodake backcountry better than anyone.
Kamikawa, Asahikawa, Kurodake
Contrary to others who offer discounted spring guiding for lower prices, expecting lower quality of snow due to warmer conditions, we view this as the time to aim high, push for big days with alpine starts to ski big lines.
Every March - April we are exploring steep lines often in remote terrain which more often than not means 1st ski descents. After a season of guiding we have well developed ski legs and are ready to chase the lines that we have been dreaming about. See below video of a new line near Furano that required camping:
Spring expeditions
Especially for the trips that require camping, bookings are case by case basis depending on what you can convince us you are capable of.
However, there are many ways to access big terrain without camping. In March, the longer days give us enough time to make it happen when the conditions cooperate. See video below: