Southwest Hokkaido: Suddenly The World’s Coolest New Skiing Region

If you go back just 20 years, Japan wouldn’t have rated a mention at a dinner party discussion about potential future ski holiday destinations. Sure, Nagano was about to hold the 1998 Winter Olympics so there was obviously snow. But as a place where you’d go for a ski holiday? Japan? Are you serious?

Fast forward to 2017/18 and #japow is the hashtag on every skier’s social media feed. Japan has reached almost mythical status for its unrivalled snowfall and the unique cultural ski holiday opportunity it offers. At the centre of it all is the little farming community of Niseko – the nucleus of one of the world’s most exciting new ski holiday destinations.

Whistler has long-been one of the world’s exemplar ski resorts. Paul Mathews is the founder of Canadian mountain resort planner Ecosign, responsible for the masterplan that took Whistler to the top of the skiing world’s to-do list. The company went on to plan and consult to ski resorts the world over, including many in Japan.

“Whistler was always the Mecca that everybody in the world wanted to come to,” Mathews says.

Being cool has gotten Niseko off to a very good start. This one mountain has become a brand recognised across the skiing world that encapsulates the Japanese powder experience. The past decade has seen international companies snap up half a dozen resorts in the region (and more across the island) and each is planning or already rolling out major master-planned redevelopments.

There are many international examples of neighbouring resorts combining strengths to become iconic brand-name regions: Whistler Blackcomb, Lake Tahoe, Les Trois Vallées, and even New Zealand’s Queenstown in the southern hemisphere. The collaboration creates a buzz, offers customers more variety and options, and makes the entire prospect bigger than any one resort ever could be.

With 10 excellent ski-mountain setups within an hour’s drive of Niseko, Southwest Hokkaido has the right DNA to become a powerhouse destination. It also has more snow, consistent powder conditions, a unique cultural experience, Japanese food, onsen hot spring baths, Japanese hospitality… the list goes on. Japan adds a lot of value to the international ski holiday experience. With more and more luxury accommodation options being developed every year, the stage is set for Southwest Hokkaido to become a ski holiday destination that will rub shoulders with the best in the world.

What the aforementioned regions have over Southwest Hokkaido at this stage is a big head start. Mathews says while there is a buzz and great snow here, there is still a long way to go before Southwest Hokkaido can hope to offer the same international ski resort experiences as its older, well-established counterparts – pedestrian villages, extensive shopping options, increased in-resort dining options, entertainment. He says masterplans he is developing with Hanazono and Niseko Village will take these resorts to that level and bring world-class hotel brands – Park Hyatt and Ritz-Carlton Reserve – as well as shops and restaurants onto the snow front.

Ecosign is also working with Rusutsu, which has long been touted as “the next Niseko”. Just a short 45-minute drive away, Rusutsu offers a totally different skiing experience to Niseko, with long, wide pistes and plenty of fall-line valley skiing across three gondola-connected peaks. Rusutsu is keeping its cards close to its chest, but it has a vast base area with excellent potential to become a vibrant pedestrian village. It is also in the running for Hokkaido’s first casino license adding yet another significant draw card to the region across all seasons.

Meanwhile Kiroro Resort is the other major resort in the Niseko catchment that has an exciting masterplan underway. The resort planner responsible for one of the US’s most prestigious resorts, Beaver Creek, is working with Kiroro’s new Thai owners to create a dynamic four-seasons resort offering, complete with vast amounts of beginner to pro-level skiing options.

In the following pages, we’ve unveiled some of the plans born out of Niseko across the region, giving us a glimpse of things to come over the next decade and beyond. Where it all ends up? Let’s recap in the 100th issue of Powderlife and see. In the meantime, one thing is certain – Southwest Hokkaido is a skier’s paradise that will continue to capture the world’s attention.

*Paul Mathews is the founder of Whistler-based mountain resort planner Ecosign, who drew up the initial plans for Niseko’s Hanazono in the 1980s. He has now taken on the job once again with wider scope for a world-standard design, and is also overseeing the planning of Niseko Village with similar vision, as well as other resorts in the region.

Hanazono: On The Way To Becoming Asia’s Best-equipped All-season Resort

Once the baby brother of the Niseko United ski resorts, Hanazono is about to outgrow its older siblings in spectacular style. With the recent purchase of the adjacent mountain, Weiss, and plans for some serious new lift infrastructure including a gondola connecting the two, Hanazono will effectively double the area of its already sizeable ski terrain.

Add to that a masterplan that includes a hotel and residences by one of the world’s most luxurious hotel brands, Park Hyatt, as well as more year-round resort-based adventure activities to support its golf course and white water rafting, it’s easy to see Hanazono is on its way to achieving its goal of becoming “the best equipped all-seasons mountain resort in Asia”.

The gondola connection to Weiss Mountain will open an entire new area of pristine, untouched powder and wide-open groomed trails, creating an intermediate skiers’ paradise just 15 minutes’ ride from the Hanazono base. On Weiss Mountain, plans include two quad chairs servicing the mid and higher altitude slopes, with a smaller-capacity lift taking skiers right to the peak. From here ski touring options unlock access to a backcountry wilderness previously beyond the reach of even advanced backcountry day skiers.

Progress is well underway and by winter 2019 guests will enjoy an upgrade of Hanazono’s central quad lift to a luxury high-speed, six-seater heated lift with WiFi on board, and the first stage of the Weiss gondola landing at a mid-station. At the same time this will provide access to extensive new beginner and intermediate slopes and night skiing, all within the Hanazono resort proper and feeding directly to new and upgraded facilities around the Hanazono base. This will include more restaurants and what Hanazono says will be the best-equipped kids’ ski school in Asia.

The following summer there are plans for a mountain coaster and over 2.6km of ziplines, including boasting rights to Asia’s longest single zipline at 1800m. Linked seamlessly with the golf course, mountain trekking, Segway tours, biking and river activities, Hanazono promises to be an energetic hive of summer activity.

First developed in 1992 by current owner of Hirafu, Tokyu Land Corporation, Hanazono was then sold to a consortium of savvy Australian businessman in 2004.

They engaged Canadian mountain resort planners Ecosign to draw up a new masterplan, initiated the construction of modern new base buildings, and started implementing all-season resort infrastructure and amenities.

By 2007, word of this new “Eastern Aspen” on Japan’s northern island had spread across Asia, where Hong Kong’s billionaire tycoon Richard Li’s Pacific Century Premium Developments took an interest in the region and bought the resort, along with a swathe of the surrounding area. With Park Hyatt joining the project in 2019 the pieces of the puzzle are now well placed for the final development of a vision now in its second decade of execution.

Niseko Village: Already A Fully Fledged Year-round Resort

Niseko Village is the other Niseko United resort with a grand new masterplan, major international hotel plans, and already well and truly established four-season resort offerings. It was also the first to start rolling out its plans in 2015 and is now the most far advanced, with the aim to “develop Niseko Village into one of the world’s greatest all-season resorts”.

Situated between Hirafu and the western-most resort Annupuri, the resort was acquired in 2010 by YTL Hotels, the hospitality arm of Malaysian construction and development powerhouse YTL Corporation. YTL owns the entire base area of the resort, which includes the centrepiece 22-storey Hilton Hotel tower, low-rise boutique hotel The Green Leaf Niseko Village, a pair of new luxury townhouse condominiums Kasara, a new old-Japan-themed shopping and dining precinct, golf course and summer adventure park.

Stage 2 of the plan kicked off in mid-2017 with the start of construction on Hinode Hills, a new low-rise ski-in/ski-out condominium hotel which is expected to be managed by a major international hotel group.

Already confirmed of course is what will become the jewel in Niseko Village’s crown – a 50-room Ritz-Carlton Reserve boutique hotel and residences. “Reserve” properties are Ritz-Carlton’s highest tier luxe-level offering, described by the company as “signature, one-of-a-kind boutique resorts positioned in unique settings”.

Kiroro: A Hidden Powder-snow Wonderland

Niseko skiers and snowboarders won the lottery eight years ago when a new mountain pass was completed between Niseko and the seaside port town of Otaru. En route is the powder-snow kingdom of Kiroro, to which Route 393 now provides direct access in under an hour.

Higher and closer to the snow storms that blow in off the Sea of Japan, Kiroro extracts any hint of snow in the atmosphere. Often when there are blue skies and no fresh snowfall in Niseko, the drive out through Kutchan town will herald dark clouds hovering over the Kiroro range. By the time the potato fields give way to the alpine forest, you’ll be in the midst of a classic Hokkaido heavy-snowfall day.

Soon after Route 393 went through, so too did the sale of Kiroro to Thai resort developer Property Perfect PLC, with plans now well underway to take it to the international stage. Initially developed by Japanese conglomerate Yamaha in 1991, the music-themed resort was very much of the 1980-90s Japanese resort mould – two standalone hotels offering a handful of restaurants and light entertainment on a picturesque remote mountain backdrop, perfect for domestic clientele coming on a one or two-night retreat.

The hotels have already been refurbished and rebranded under Sheraton and Tribute Porfolio banners, and the first new condominium development goes on sale this winter. Plans include a full-scale master-planned residential and commercial village, with residential precincts to be developed in different areas of the valley.

But what is most exciting is the skiing potential. With the construction of new lifts, the skiable terrain is expected to double. Much of this will be tailored towards beginners and intermediates, but powder hunters have even more reason to smile. An exclusive ski pass system ensures a limited number of skiers on the mountain and in the backcountry each day, meaning it will take far longer between snowfalls to track out than the more popular resorts in Niseko. Plans are also well underway for cat and heli-skiing on the surrounding peaks, meaning Kiroro will arguably have the best in-house backcountry skiing operation in the whole of Japan.

Iwanai: Ocean Views And Old Japanese Town Charm

There’s a classic tale of revitalisation unfolding at a nearby fishing port an hour’s drive northwest of Niseko. Where the rocky shores of Iwanai meet the turquoise blue waters of the Sea of Japan, a once-thriving fishing town is clinging to life as its population ages and rapidly dwindles. Once 60,000-strong, the townspeople’s numbers now stand at about 13,000, with a forecast to drop below 8000 by 2040.

That forecast could soon be in line for revision, however, after an American businessman bought the town’s all-but-abandoned ski resort. Opened in 1980 when the domestic ski industry was booming, its main lift was finally turned off in 2002 after years of consistent decline. Since then the town council has kept the very bottom pair lift open for its townspeople, charging a trifling ¥500 for an hour’s use. Meanwhile the town has been running cat-ski tours on the old ski runs, which have been popular with international visitors to Niseko.

Enter John Greiner, an Ohio-born, Colorado-bred skier and businessman who just happened to ski and fall in love with Iwanai 30 years ago while working for a computer game company in Sapporo. He’s lived in Japan ever since and, keeping an eye on what’s been happening around Niseko and with a rock-solid belief in the potential of nearby Iwanai, made a bid for the resort.

Working closely with the town council, Greiner has preliminary plans to reinstate the lifts, build a fully-fledged mountain village complete with several hotels and residential precincts, and also encourage year-round tourism for the historical, coastal town. He’s already conducting tours in both summer and winter, and this year will officially reopen the resort with cat ski access. He believes, just like has happened in Niseko, the resort will bring much-needed income and life into the town and reverse its current fortunes. We’re confident he’s right.

Shimamaki: Inspiring Hokkaido’s Mechanised Ski Resort Potential

Take a slice of Iwanai and cast it 60km down the coastal highway, just past the middle of nowhere, to a picturesque, brown-bear inhabited stretch of coastline where towering mountain ranges kneel to the sea. Introducing, “Wild Shimamaki”.

Despite its natural beauty, Shimamaki’s many dilapidated and abandoned buildings reveal its economic reality. If Iwanai’s future was looking dour, Shimamaki’s is on life support. Once a healthy town of more than 5000 employed off the back of a booming herring fishing industry, the population now stands at about 1500, with 20-year forecasts cutting that to 800 or 900.

Several years ago, one of Niseko’s mechanised skiing pioneers Clayton Kernaghan decided to pursue a dream of opening up these mountains to cat skiing. His company Hokkaido Backcountry Club teamed up with the town of Shimamaki to offer visitors possibly the most authentic and extreme cat skiing opportunity in Japan. The cat ski zone peaks at 1520m with runs averaging 450 vertical metres. Terrain is a mix of open alpine bowls and perfectly spaced trees with slopes ranging from 15 to 35 degrees. Guests ski as many runs as they can handle, with an average 4000 vertical meters in a day, and a record of 6500 over 13 runs.

Last winter, the operation took 500 foreign visitors to the town, bringing much-welcome income to everyone from the local mechanic who keeps the cats climbing, to fishermen who supply mouth-watering catches of fresh seafood for evening meals. Guests experience a true remote Japanese mountain culture and hospitality, staying in traditional onsen hotels and dining out at local restaurants. As an indication of the demand for this type of experience, this winter’s tours were virtually booked out by August.

What’s next?

What’s really exciting about Shimamaki and everything else happening in these parts is that there are thousands more mountains across Hokkaido, all receiving the same incredible powder snow. And hundreds more communities that could benefit from international ski tourism the way Niseko and its neighbours have. Hokkaido Backcountry Club says they’ve already been contacted by other towns interested in starting cat ski tour industries. Whether by lift, cat, helicopter, or traditional touring methods, Southwest Hokkaido is all of a sudden one the most exciting new skiing destinations in the world.