Your First Backcountry Day in Hokkaido
What a guided touring day actually involves, the level you need, and the honest answer on avalanche risk.
Plenty of strong resort skiers arrive in Hokkaido wanting to tour and are not sure what they are signing up for. This is what a first guided day looks like with us, what we expect from you, and what we will tell you if we do not think the day is on.
What backcountry means here
In Hokkaido the term covers a wide range. At one end there is sidecountry — short hikes or traverses from a lift, back into the resort. At the other there is a full day on Mt. Yotei or in Daisetsuzan National Park, where you are hours from a road and entirely self-reliant as a group.
A first day is almost always at the gentler end of that range. That is not a lesser experience: some of the best skiing on the island is thirty minutes of walking from a lift.
The level you need
You need to ski or ride ungroomed snow confidently and in control, at a reasonable pace, for a full day. You do not need previous touring experience — we can teach the uphill technique — but you do need the downhill to be solid, because the snow will be deep and the terrain will not be pisted.
Fitness matters more than most people expect. Four to six hours of movement at altitude with a pack is genuinely tiring. If you are unsure, tell us honestly when you enquire and we will pick an objective that fits.
How the day runs
We meet early and start with a gear check and a beacon check — every time, without exception. Your guide will explain the plan, the conditions and the alternatives, then we go. The uphill is deliberately slow: a sustainable pace you can hold all day beats a fast start and a slow finish.
Descents are skied one at a time or in small groups to defined regroup points. Your guide goes first or last depending on terrain, and nobody skis past the agreed stop.
Avalanche safety, honestly
Hokkaido gets enormous volumes of snow very quickly, and that creates real avalanche hazard. Guides do not eliminate that risk; they manage it by choosing terrain that suits the day’s conditions. Sometimes that means a superb objective. Sometimes it means we ski trees at a modest angle and call it a good day.
If your guide says the plan is changing, that is the system working. We will always give you the reasoning.
Gear: what we provide, what you bring
A transceiver, shovel and probe are required on every guided day. If you don’t have your own, you can rent a full avalanche safety pack (backpack, transceiver, shovel and probe) from us at a discounted rate — and we will show you how to use it. Touring skis, splitboards and snowshoes come from our rental shops in Niseko and Furano if you are not travelling with your own.
You bring layers for standing still in the cold and for working hard uphill, gloves you can operate a buckle in, goggles and a spare lens, water and food. There is more detail in our gear guide.
Where a first day usually happens
Written by the Summit guide team in Kutchan and Furano. Reviewed and updated for the 2026/27 season.