Luke skiing deep deep pow at Seki Onsen near Madarao Mountain

Totally fell behind with the reporting. So sorry everyone.

It is so hard to keep up because we have just had so much snow and all we want to do is ride ride ride.

After the 46c's of last Sunday we entered a fantastic storm cycle that delivered 1.85m of the fresh white stuff over the following few days.

We have been here there and everywhere. One of our highlights was the joy of a 50cm morning (Tuesday). We headed out on tour to Seki Onsen. Rode freshies there all day long. Seki is a family run resort with just 2 ski lifts that accesses a seriously fun ridge line with critical terrain that leads to a cat track and winds back to the bottom of the two lifts. The runs aren't long but there is terrain there that will get advanced riders hearts a flutter. If you head out here you should definitely grab the lift pass and meal deal ticket. The lovely little restaurant has all the usual suspects. It is good honest delicious home cooking. You will see the lifties clearing the tables and the families kids racing around keeping everyone entertained. We headed back out for more lines after lunch with hardly anyone on the mountain.

After many face shots and appointments in the white room we headed off to Taiko Hotel in Akakura Onsen in Myoko Kogen where we soaked in their lovely onsen. It was glorious after the big day of riding at Seki Onsen.

Next on the itinerary was the delicious A.I.R (Artist In Residence) 8 course degustation. You can't imagine a more delicious dinner. Amazingly the whole thing is plant based. You get taken on a journey through the menu by the amazing Joel Bennetts. Joel is genuinely lovely and has a commitment to ethical and delicious food. It was such a pleasure being a part of his story.

After the amazing meal we headed back to Snowball Chalet at Madarao for a whisky by the fire and shared each others joy of the day.

Thanks to Drew from Aya Lodge for showing us around Seki and to Zoe, Luke, Grant, Gill, Amanda, Robert and Peter for sharing the day with us. It was fantastic!

Pic today is of Luke blasting down an open face at Seki...


Posted on Sun 17 February 2019