Backcountry & I: KIKI

Having an experienced friend as a guide, I started my life in the backcountry. Instead of meeting in the city, I wish I could ask my friends to come to the snowy mountains.

By mid-December, the news starts to arrive from all over the country about the snow. That's when my body and mind start itching to go somewhere in search of snow. I start to imagine what kind of snowy mountains I would like to visit this winter, and at the same time I think about all the experiences I have had in the past.

I not only ski and snowboard, but also snowshoe and mountaineer with crampons and ice axe (although these opportunities have been reduced to a minimum since the birth of my child nearly four years ago.) When it comes to skiing, I mainly wear telemark skis. When I first started telemark skiing, I could ski reasonably well, but I was at the mercy of these strange, heel-floating tools and could barely ski the gentle slopes. My knees buckled and I looked like a newborn fawn.

My first experience was in Myoko in Nagano. Myoko is considered a sacred place for backcountry skiing, partly because the slopes and mountains are not that severe. There was a guide based at a small slope and inn in Myoko called Seki Onsen, and every season, he attracted a lot of telemark enthusiasts. At New Year's, people from all walks of life would come and go. Some came with their families, some in couples and some alone. When I first started out, I used to drive alone and spend New Year's Eve in Seki Onsen.

Basically, everyone is free to ski as they please, but sometimes the guides, taking into account the weather conditions, make a plan to go into the mountains the next day. I invited a group of friends who had some skills and equipment (money was exchanged, so we were guide and guest) and we went into the backcountry. It was a short trip of one or two hours, but it felt like skiing in a relatively familiar backcountry, and a good chance to enjoy the backcountry without feeling too self-conscious.

Sometimes I would go on big tours with the guides, planning and preparing ahead of time. Myoko and also Tateyama in Toyama. The Myōkōzan tours usually involved staying at the Takatanaike Hutte, which had just opened in spring, and carrying sleeping bags, food for self-catering, alcohol and other snacks. During the day we would ski the surrounding mountains from the hut, and at night we would cook our own meals at the hut and eat together. It was a really fun time, a bit like a training camp.

Nowadays, Seki Onsen has changed and we are older and don't get together as much as before, but I am glad that I still connected with the people who used to come and go at Seki Onsen, not only in skiing but also in my daily life. We may have different jobs and live in completely different places, but we are all friends who got together for the same hobby of backcountry and telemark skiing.

Thinking back, I realised that in recent years I have only really been skiing on slopes because my children are still small, but I want to go to the mountains soon!（I want to go backcountry skiing!) I only meet my friends in the city, but I should ask them if they want to go to the snowy mountains with me. Who should I ask to be my guide? The fun already starts from the time we spend thinking about these things.