BCK Trip to JAPAN 🎌
I am writing this little story as an 'outsider': in fact, I am not part of the gang, but I have had the pleasure of adding myself, somewhat of a stranger, to this crossing.
You will therefore read the point of view of a third, curious observer of the events.
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When Filippo confirmed to me (under my own pressure) that I could join the Backcountry Crew for the ski trip in Japan, I remember feeling mixed feelings: on the one hand, the natural excitement of anyone who loves snow, given the renowned quality and quantity of the snow that falls in Hokkaido; on the other, a mixture of fear and curiosity, given that I would be travelling with a very cohesive group and, above all, accustomed to this type of experience.
"I more or less know how to ski," I told myself, "we'll see how it goes".
With hindsight, I have to say that it was a very wide-ranging experience: lived at times with a racing heart (in the sense of beats, these guys go fast) and with legs burning from fatigue. But also with the feeling of having witnessed, indeed of having participated, in something special, in an intimate journey.
A full immersion, in every sense, in a parallel nature, very different for us Westerners, at times perhaps even strange, certainly unknown. An organic architecture made of straight and remote, soft and wild lines, a series of brushstrokes of silent hills and geometric plains.
And then, endless snow.
With this aura hovering, an atmosphere of silent complicity was easily created (not always, to be honest), the kind that can arise between those who share the same curiosity and passion, in this case for the mountains, if you prefer for the unknown.
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Hokkaido, where time flows at a gentler pace.
Those who have been lucky enough to set foot in Hokkaido know that this place is made of different colours, an almost lighter matter. There are no imposing peaks or vertical walls here, but dense beech forests and wide, sudden clearings, bamboo shoots, soft slopes made of round curves.
But above all, the most abundant snow imaginable.
In Niseko, as soon as you arrive, you immediately realise that you are in a world apart. The snow falls relentlessly, day and night, covering everything with a soft, muffled blanket, seemingly without end.
The gang.
Michi has lungs to spare, Maggi is technical and rational, Paolo is brilliant, Filippo knowledgeable: each contributes with his character to create the amalgam of the journey.
Every morning, the same ritual: an early wake-up call and hearty breakfast, a quick glance out the window and the knowledge that there is plenty of space outside to explore and time to invest.
I followed the boys down inexplicably silent slopes, through snow-covered trees and into volcanic craters emerging triumphantly from the island. YĹŤtei, the 'Fuji of Hokkaido', watchful sentinel dominating the horizon, a constant presence reminding us of the calm power of nature.
But the undisputed and obvious protagonist was another. Sometimes soft and candid, at other times fierce and beating, almost like hail; in the shape of the crystal, the bullet, the flake.
So please forgive me Roy Batty:
I have seen things that you humans could not imagine.
riders deflagrated in white powder explosions off boiling Onsen ...
and I saw rapid curves in bamboo forests at the gates of Chisenupuri.
And all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the snow.
It is time to smile.
The Onsen
You know what? On the Onsen, I won't tell you anything.
Find out for yourself, directly and without a costume!
Not a holiday, but a journey
At the end of the day, however, I think this experience helped me to develop this not particularly brilliant thought: the idea is not (only) to ski hard or find the best snow.
It is, actually, about sharing a way of life, an idea of freedom that goes beyond the technical gesture or performance. And each in his own time and in his own way.
Japan left me with a sense of calm wonder, a feeling of having experienced something authentic, something pure.
And maybe, in the end, that's the beauty of the backcountry: it doesn't matter who you are, where you come from or what your role is.
All that matters is being there, in that place, in that time: and letting nature do the rest.
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