“This is the best snow I’ve ever skied,” beamed Gavin.
“It’s definitely up there for me,” agreed Tim.
“It’s the best I’ve skied too,” I added.
For a zone so low in altitude, we’d not expected such incredible snow. We were hovering around the 450m mark, and surface conditions were deep. Everywhere. We didn’t even attempt climbing the final 100m along the long, flat ridge to the summit. Everything off the ridge was just so good.
This was my first time to ski Urausu-yama, but it had been on my radar for some time. Tim had skied it before, so had some beta on skiing options. We met up at the snow clearing near the trailhead, and set off. There was a party in front of us, so we had a free ride – no breaking trail for us at least for the flatland approach.
Lost in conversation on the skin track, we missed our planned access to the ridge that would take us straight to the summit ridge. We backtracked a little and forged our own way up the ridge. We could have followed the existing skin track, but it wasn’t clear where it was going.
The snow flurries came and went, punctuated by short periods of clear sky and warm sun.
We made short work of the climb to where the summit ridge flattens off somewhat and started having a look at our options for skiing. The weather was off-and-on, so the thought of summiting appealed much less than lapping the very appealing looking slopes on either side of the ridge – mostly southeast and northeast aspects.
The southeast bowl directly below the summit was just visible through the murk, and it was clearly heavily cracked. Had there been more reliable visibility, we would have been more keen to look at it more closely, but for now, we set our sights on the slopes lower down.
The southeast slopes directly below us at around 550m were also cracked, but only at the very top. We decided if we skirt around the side of the upper section, we’d get some very good skiing for the rest of the fall line.
I dropped in first, hugging the skier’s left of the slope, to set up for some photos. The snow was sublime. Deep. Steep. Perfection.
We ended up lapping that southeast slope twice. It was just so good.
Actually armpit deep.
After the second lap, we skied one of the northeast bowls, down into a gully that linked up with the snowed-in forestry road. This too was deep. Not as steep as the southeast aspect, but even deeper.
Pretty sure this ranks as neck-deep?
The run-out via the gully had already been skied, which was handy. The party before us had made all the calls regarding snow bridges and hole-dodging – of which there was plenty. I’m not really a ‘ski the gully’ guy, but Tim, who lives with the Yubari Range in his back yard, was in his element.
Once at the forestry road, we had to make the call to put on skins or pole our way out. Gavin opted to pole out. Tim and I opted for skins. Gavin beat us back to the van by a large margin. It was one of those should-I-shouldn’t-I sort of exits, when it came to skins or no skins.
All together it was an amazing day out. For the elevation and access, just incredible.
6 thoughts on “Urausu-yama”
Did something similar to this on 25 Feb 2025 – although we skipped the south face as it looked quite thin for fresh stuff and had quite a few visible cracks. The terrain looks fantastic so would love to visit when theres a decent amount of snow there.
The bowls on the NE side were super fun though and, despite any recent notable snowfall, still had some fun powder stashes. A few cracks here and there, esp in the first couple of bowls you reach, but mostly quite obvious and easy to avoid. We finished by riding out through the bottom of the second bowl – quite technical with some tricky gullies to navigate but still manageable. Enjoyed the area so much we may head back again tomorrow to see what this fresh dump has delivered…
Thanks for the updates Stuart! Super helpful. Looks like a good thing you’ve got going on with hongkongclimbing.com too!
cheers Rob – lots of work gone into that site over the years…
Went back to Urausu yesterday and had a blast with the fresh snow, mostly lapping the big open bowl area east of Point 541. Tracks from 2-days ago were all nicely buried so it was a clean playground. Descended in the next bowl over just below the last down tracks you show in the map – you kind of stay skiers right of the ridge to avoid some steep drops and then contour left above a deep ravine, before dropping into this lower down and contouring its right side to reach the track. Gives a nce long run to finish up with before the long (but pleasant) skin back out along the track.
another little trip vid added here that some might find useful to get a quick feel for the area: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXM4x56v5D4
This is excellent Stuart! Thank you!
Sounds like you found the good conditions!