Opening Weekend at Teine

Sapporo Teine, November 30th & December 1st

Riding fakie overlooking the coast (Photo by Dan Andrews)

Not a bad couple of days up at Teine. Far more terrain available than last weekend at Nakayama, and no crowds. In fact, we didn’t have to wait in a liftline once.

Looking up at the summit from the Highland Lodge

A good crew from the Hokkaido Cartel came up, stoked to be getting the season underway.

Crew from the Hokkaido Cartel (Photo by Dan Andrews)

The peer pressure got the better of me on Saturday morning, leading to a crashed front flip and injured hand, meaning I rode the rest of the weekend no poles Harlaut style!

‘Get upside down by Christmas’ was the challenge laid down over a few beers back in September

There’s a lot of sasa (bamboo leaves) still above the snow, but we found some decent powder stashes under the chair. The real highlight of Teine is the summit ridge, below which a number of bowls and chutes give some of the best steep skiing in Hokkaido. It’ll be a couple of weeks before they’re filled in with enough snow to be rideable.

Shredding pow no poles

Rory Bryce