Yutaka Takanashi grew up amidst the concrete of Tokyo, dreaming of forests and mountain streams. His heroes were adventurers such as Naomi Uemura, the first man to reach the North Pole solo, and world-famous nature photographer Michio Hoshino – Japan’s Ansel Adams.
As soon as he finished high school, he followed his heart north to Hokkaido. He soon took to skiing but switched to snowboarding when he found he wasn’t improving as fast as he wanted. He fell in love with the floating sensation he achieved snowboarding the then plentiful untracked powder within Hirafu. Day in, day out.
But one day he realised he was missing out on something – skiers, and particularly telemark skiers, were able to quickly and easily access parts of the mountain he couldn’t on his snowboard. He strapped on a pair of telemarks which opened up a whole new world of terrain to him.
And he seemed to be able to telemark much better than he could ordinary ski. So much so that he tried his hand in the competive arena, participating in several world cup and world championship events.
But competitive skiing left him unsatisfied, and he returned to the arena where telemark equipment comes into its own – big, steep lines in the world’s biggest alpine mountains. 12 years ago he became an ambassador for outdoor adventure brand Patagonia, and has since been on six expeditions to Alaska, as well as skiing the great ranges of North America, South America and Europe.
However, every time he came back to Niseko he realised how lucky he was that he could ski in such incredibly deep, dry powder at such low altitudes.
These days Takanashi-san still skis almost every day in winter, and is busy running Toyru, his backcountry and telemark skiing shop and year round guiding company just below the gondola in Hirafu.