This trip was incredible! Everything was well-planned out and I highly recommend Rising Sun guides. Toshi was our guide and he gave us the best experience! We are so lucky we had him showing us around Central Hokkaido.
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Trevor picked us up promptly and we cruised to where we left the car. After a short walk we went over avalanche protocols which was great because it’s been a while since we did our course in NZ.
We hiked through a stunning forest with Trevor doing all the hard work up front. Eventually we reached a point where the trees thinned dramatically and the wind started to affect the powder and us.
Our decent was fantastic with some steep deep powdery sections and some cruisy through the trees linking the steeper parts. We stopped at one stage and walked back up to descend on a different route.
A top day alone in the most beautiful powder surrounded by trees and mountains.
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Fantastic two days guiding for four of us. Our guide was friendly and knowledgeable. Punctual pick up. Would definitely recommend.
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First off, I have taken 3 powder hounds trips. All have been excellent and as reviewed by Greg & Lyndell.

This tour is as described - a less frills powder pursuit with a manageable amount of road time. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable, well equipped and had access to a diversity of local knowledge (both on the spot, like weather, avalanche risk and which aspects to ski) and long term (such as preferred restaurants, onsens and expectations for different travel areas).

Our guide started with an inquiry of our goals for the trip and delivered. It helped to have great snow but even on the lighter days we were able to find the less-skiied aspects. Our achieved goals in order:

1. As much powder and vert as achievable by lift accessed terrain with light hiking and as much traversing as needed to achieve.
2. Experience different onsen's, onsen every night.
3. A taste of culture in the remaining time allotted, primarily through cuisine.

Top notch add-on to my previous Niseko area only trips and a great way to experience Hokkaido in a shorter time frame, ski backcountry powder with confidence of safety and a path back to the resort and still mix in a taste of the unique Japanese culture in Niseko, small town central Hokkaido and bustling Sapporo.

Check out the cat skiing this group offers as well!

The pricing was very reasonable, and the guide operation sacrificed some quality in the Niseko hostel but more than made up for it with the other two (5 nights) accommodations, both in central Hokkaido and Sapporo. Makes sense as Niseko has gotten so expensive, this was a sacrifice I would happily make again.

We brought all our own equipment so I am only speaking to the quality of gear based on what others reported. They were very happy with it.
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We hired Rising Sun for two days after hiring another guide service for three days. Our Rising Sun Guides, especially Meg, were outstanding! We had a group of eight and Rising Sun supplied us with two guides for lift-assisted backcountry skiing. Meg was able to work with the varied abilities within our group and kept everyone happy and safe. During our two days, we had two different guides supporting Meg and all of them were professional and showed a caring for our best interests. Not to mention, finding the best snow on the hill!
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Rising Sun guides set us up wit a great trip. Our guide Vince got us into great Pow and the cat riding was perfect. Think they ordered up a bluebird day.
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We booked 2x separate days of lift assisted guiding at Niseko and Rusutsu and I can’t recommend this group enough.

At Niseko we had Meg who was perfect for us. My wife hasn’t done any off piste before and I have only done a few occasions. Meg immediately made us feel at ease and in safe hands. The whole day was really relaxed, communication was excellent and the powder was awesome! Meg is a great asset to the team.

At Rusutsu we had Nat who was also awesome! Whilst the snow wasn’t perfect we still managed to find some great pockets through the trees and had so much fun. Again, excellent communication, great people skills and a really fun experience.

I also want to mention the team who dealt with our booking (Ferran and Carlos). They were so responsive and answered all my queries.

I wouldn’t book with anyone else! Thanks so much Rising Sun Guides for the best 2x days skiing we’ve ever had.
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Signing up for this trip hugely improved our visit to Japan. Dan confidently lead us on multiple backcountry excursions to find great snow during a tough season, even though our group had little backcountry experience.

We were a little nervous about spending time in Sapporo since it's not as famous as Niseko, but the last two days ended up being our best!
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Top guiding for Rising Sun resulted in a nice week. Spotted fresh powder all days in a season with little snowfall.
Rented skis from Rising Sun. Picked up every morning and transported door to door.
Recommended to use this company if you are planning a trip to Japan for skiing.

One issue that is not related to Rising Sun,
but to Salomon Switch bindings.
My recommendation:
Never by or rent skis with the Switch binding. It is the worst binding ever tested !
Locking mechanism for front binding is popping out of position and ski is falling off.
Locking mechanism for ski stopper is popping off and suddenly you walk with brakes!

Had to use a piece of wood and force it under the locking mechanism to avoid loosing skis in walk mode.
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A wonderful trip. Our guide from Rising Sun did an excellent job of finding untracked for us every day. He had great local knowledge, and seemed to know all the secret stashes. I especially liked the flexibility of choosing any resort that had good conditions. It was an excellent way to sample a number of resorts in a single trip.
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I went sidecountry skiing with an amazing guide named Anna from rising sun guides. I would highly recommend her! This was one of the best days. We drove to Kiroro from Niseko through a whiteout blizzard and skied awesome powder off the lifts until the storm broke at which point we went backcountry skiing off the back of the mountain and had the best runs of the week. Saw blue sky and sun with views of the ocean and Otaru and skied untouched powder. We were the only ones back there and it was only around 1 hour of skinning back up each time of the 2 laps we did. I got along really well with Anna and was impressed with safety standards, she dug several pits to check snow conditions before we skied down. Would highly recommend!
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Ben was our guide and made sure we had an incredible time and got fresh tracks in spite of there being no new snow. He was extremely knowledgeable, helpful and his enthusiasm was infectious.

We could not have asked for a better company or guide to ski with! Thank you Ben and Rising Sun Guides for the trip of a lifetime!!
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Not sure where to start on for my review. Put simply I'd have to say there was a big mismatch between the service experience I was expecting and that which I received. I had been searching for, and had thought I had found a mountain ski tour around Niseko. My main goal was to learn the location of good off-piste runs near the start of my holiday with the safety, knowledge and security of a professional tour guide so that I could at least consider those runs during the rest of my holiday.

Had I known this was taking place in a different resort. And more importantly that there was no potential for breaks or lunch I would not have taken it. As a skier on their 2nd day in 5 years - some breaks/food/drink were essential. The guide was very much in a rush/panic all day - Im not sure why because we had left on time? This may be due because there was a big queue at the first lift. So much so that he chose to ’skip’ taking the lift - and skin up the whole way instead. It’s worth pointing out that the cost for skipping the lift was NOT returned to us.

As I had reported prior to the event I had zero uphill experience. I was alongside experienced tourers and as a result I fell behind. My lack of experience and perhaps bad uphill technique lead to fatigue and later exhaustion.

For full disclosure I should say that I had suffered an ankle sprain prior to ski holiday, but I honestly do not feel that was the a significant factor in the tiredness. Since it’s relevant here I should say whilst it’s hard to evaluate one’s own level of fitness (depends who you compare yourself too), I took my fitness level seriously before the event. I was racing 10km on Sat mornings followed later the same day by 2 hours of squash. Plus another 4 hours of squash, 2 hours of Ski Fit (app fitness programme), and 2-3 hours of jogging each week for several months prior to the event. 

I requested on 3 separate occasions to the guide to do one run without me, where they skinned back up to the same location. This would have been a safe option and give me the break that I needed. That request was denied on every occasion - and could have easily been accommodated. As a result I became ever more exhausted, to dangerous levels. As a previous ski guide myself (on-piste, not touring) I think this was dangerous and reckless. And is not something I'd ever allow to happen, nor would my employers have allowed it either.

Whilst the guide was a pleasant enough socially, and I should say he offered and did carry my back pack at one stage to aid me - I feel I have to point out the short-falls listed above. Whilst I realise there is a commercial incentive to accept everyone into each event, you’ll either need to do a better job of ensuring participants are of a similar level (for example perhaps you should only be accepting those with prior uphill experience, or have a telephone interview before allowing them in), or ensuring that the safety needs of ALL those attend are delivered.

Editor's Note: It appears there was a significant mismatch between Simon's expectations and what was outlined regarding the tour on Powderhounds and via the multiple emails between Simon and the operator. The following is comments from the operator, some of which are based on discussions with the guide and other guests.

"We`re really sorry to hear about the difference between expectations and this guest`s experience. We are however surprised as this trip was sold as a backcountry ski tour from the beginning and throughout the booking process we made it clear that we would be earning our turns by hiking all day. We were also clear that we would not be skiing on chair lifts at any time and that lift tickets would not be required. As such we didn`t charge for lift tickets. Accordingly there were no tickets to refund. With regards to the request to sit out for a lap. Unfortunately this isn`t an option when backcountry skiing; particularly on cold snowy days. It sounds like a great idea at first however in the winter it takes little more than a few minutes to go from hot and sweaty to freezing cold. This is not a good situation for a tired person and something we cannot allow to happen. The only choice in these situations is to evaluate if another lap is possible for the whole group or for the whole group to call it a day. Our certified ski guide encouraged this guest and determined that he was up to the challenge. Again we are really sorry that this experience did not live up to expectations however we do feel that the details of the trip were effectively communicated and that our priority of safety was maintained throughout the day."
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I have never had a better guide, ever! From the moment our guide Tak picked us up, we were in the best hands. Each morning he studied the weather carefully so he could choose the best ski resort every day. He'd run in and get our tickets and then we'd follow him to his secret stashes all day for unlimited powder! He was kind, snow-smart, patient with my boot issues, and super fun to hang out with. He was also super cool to hang out with after skiing, from ramen bowls to onsens to beers. Really, if it weren't for our guide, we would not have had such an amazing five days of powder, and we certainly wouldn't have found all those stashes! And having a Japanese speaking guide was key to navigate everything in Japan, from convenience stores to menus to buying ibuprofen! He taught us so much! The whole operation at Rising Sun was great--they received my skis via UPS and had them delivered to my hotel, and also were really fast to communicate by email. Best guiding experience ever! Worth every penny!
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