Overall Rating

Central Hokkaido Guiding

Central Hokkaido Guiding4.5/57
Central Hokkaido Guiding4.5 out of 5 based on 7 reviews
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    100%
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Central Hokkaido Guiding - Reviews

Central Hokkaido Guiding - Reviews

Into the White Room at Furano

11/04/2024

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  • Would Revisit
  • Would Recommend
  • Age
    N/A
  • Ability
    Expert
  • Rider Type
    Alpine Skier
  • Month:
    January
  • Admin Rating
    5

Into the White Room at Furano

11/04/2024
We’ve been to Furano various times and have explored many parts of the mountain and the backcountry, but we tend to keep going back to our fave zones. Having a guide just took the fun factor up multiple notches. There had been no fresh snow overnight, but the upper lifts had been closed the previous day, so there was plenty of fresh powder on offer. We started with a couple of traditional sidecountry lines and then staying ahead of the pack, the guide took us to a few lines that didn’t feel familiar. The terrain was fantastic and the snow was superb – it was Hokkaido skiing at its finest. Our guide was also rather entertaining! The experience reinforced that having a guide at Furano can be incredibly beneficial.

Whiteroom have been guiding in the area for a long time and it was easy to see why they have an excellent reputation and are booked out well in advance.
See our video here

Worth His Weight in Gold

31/08/2020

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  • Would Revisit
  • Would Recommend
  • Age
    36-50
  • Ability
    Expert
  • Rider Type
    Alpine Skier
  • Month:
    December
  • Admin Rating
    5

Worth His Weight in Gold

31/08/2020
Ross showing us the best powder stashes
Our guide knew that there'd be little bamboo to contend with
Knew the spots to head to
Ross showing us a nice zone
Nice pick for a run
Having a great guide is usually highly beneficial to finding the great stashes, but considering our timing, a guide was critical to us having an absolutely epic time in the powder. It was early season (between Xmas & New Years) in a really lean season, and the off-piste at most of the Central Hokkaido ski areas was pretty rank due to an abundance of leg catching bamboo. However our WRTs guide knew that Asahidake would be the best spot for powder hunting that day due to his knowledge of the weather patterns, its high elevation, and subsequent lack of bamboo.

Our guide Ross was also worth his weight in gold because Asahidake is an amazing powder gem, but only if you know it intimately. We’ve been to Asahidake multiple times, but still don’t know all the amazing zones or the exact best spot to push out. Thanks to Ross, we skied divine deep powder on some nice steep pitches. That night back in Furano, others were incredibly envious because they’d spent the day getting bamboozled elsewhere.

Thanks again WhiteRoom for a fantastic day of powder skiing and plenty of fun banter.
See our video here

Two Guided days in Furano area

27/01/2020

Kelly Bleck

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Kelly Bleck

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  • Would Revisit
  • Would Recommend
  • Age
    18-35
  • Ability
    Expert
  • Rider Type
    Alpine Skier
  • Month:
    January
  • Admin Rating
    4

Two Guided days in Furano area

27/01/2020
We had a great experience with Ian at Whiteroom Tours. He took us to two different zones in the same area, per our request that we follow the best snow. They were big days - we had requested a challenge and he definitely delivered! We learned a lot about the region, as well as the snowpack, and covered a ton of ground. Ian was very knowledgable and a great companion. He gave us a lot of information that allowed us to successfully explore on our own for the rest of our trip.

Yuko, Whiteroom Tours Guest Services Supervisor & Travel Consultant, was incredibly helpful with our booking, as well as other aspects of our trip. She was extremely communicative and helped us book other accommodations that required Japanese.

We would love to book through Whiteroom again on our next trip, to learn about other areas, and to have the assistance that they provided with so many aspects of our trip.
See our video here

Untracked Powder All Day

21/03/2018

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  • Would Revisit
  • Would Recommend
  • Age
    36-50
  • Ability
    Expert
  • Rider Type
    Alpine Skier
  • Month:
    February
  • Admin Rating
    5

Untracked Powder All Day

21/03/2018
We lost our guide for a little while!
GB showing us some untracked powder
Ross in the office
Awesome sneaky trees in the afternoon when the sun came out
More beautiful tree skiing
All the stars aligned for us to have the most epic day at Sahoro Resort with WhiteRoom, whereby we skied fresh powder all day long and didn't have to pull the skins out once or walk more than about 50 metres!

Firstly, Puki the Yuki goddess was blessing Sahoro with some powdery goodness so the snow was as fresh as it gets. Secondly, nearly all the guests staying at Club Med and the Sahoro Resort Hotel stayed on-piste, just like we'd asked them to, so the powder in the trees was all ours for the taking! And of course, the tree skiing in the off-piste and side-country zones at Sahoro is a lot of fun.

And last but not least, we had Ross as a guide who took us to so many fabulous stashes. He's an old hand at guiding in Hokkaido and managing snow safety, and it showed in his knowledge of the ski area and ability to sniff out the powder along with his approach to safety. Ross is also a very affable guy; the sort of guy you could banter with for hours and hours, which just added to the experience of the great day.

We also did a few runs with another very competent guide GB (G-Banger) and his group who were on a Central Hokkaido Explorer multi-resort tour.

Thanks WhiteRoom for a fantastic day of powder skiing.
See our video here

Whiteroom tours out of Furano

Rick Lucas
10/02/2017
  • Would Revisit
  • Would Recommend
  • Age
    51-70
  • Ability
    Advanced
  • Rider Type
    Alpine Skier
  • Month:
    January
  • Admin Rating
    2

Whiteroom tours out of Furano

Rick Lucas
10/02/2017
We had a sidecountry day at Furano followed by a daytrip to Asahidake with Whiteroom Tours lead by Sam. The tour was very professionally managed and every effort was made to maintain high standards of safety as well as finding good terrain and snow. The guides arrived on time and we felt we got the most out of the day. Highly recommended.
See our video here

Phenomenal day out with Whiteroom

Dan Pezim
23/02/2016
  • Would Revisit
  • Would Recommend
  • Age
    18-35
  • Ability
    Advanced
  • Rider Type
    Alpine Skier
  • Month:
    February
  • Admin Rating
    5

Phenomenal day out with Whiteroom

Dan Pezim
23/02/2016
We had an incredible experience with Whiteroom. We were a bit hesitant to book at first because they don't do mixed groups and it was quite expensive for just 2 people to split a guide, but very glad we spent the money. Our original plan was to head to Asahidake for some touring, but the morning of, our guide Dave convinced us that the high winds could shut down the cable car and we may have better luck on the other side of the valley at Tokachidake (we actually ended up skiing Furanodake). So we hopped in the beautiful new transport van and headed out. This was a very good decision - we got a rare clear day with the sun out and tons of fresh snow, it was absolutely perfect conditions. The area was very busy with ski tourers, but since we were a small group and got an early start we were able to break away from the main pack, and Dave's knowledge of the area kept us ahead of everyone all day. The way the mountains were laid out there, the uptracks were fairly easy going up the ridges, and the runs down are long and steep, so you couldn't ask for better touring. Dave was super chill and a great guide, and helped us achieve a huge day; if we would have gone out on our own, we would have been following big groups around all day and just skiing the most obvious, skied out lines. My only advice would be try to find a few people to go with to split the cost with (was 60k yen for the day). Great experience!
See our video here

Whiteroom trip

Shane
19/05/2015
  • Would Revisit
  • Would Recommend
  • Age
    36-50
  • Ability
    Expert
  • Rider Type
    Alpine Skier
  • Admin Rating
    3

Whiteroom trip

Shane
19/05/2015
Great two day guided trip out of Furano with Whiteroom Tours. Unfortunately there hadn't been the usual Hokkaido dumps for the previous few days so we weren't expecting epic days but Graeme (our guide) made sure he found out what we were after (fresh...) and managed to seek out some awesome runs at firstly Tomamu then Asahidake. Had a bit of hiking to achieve the freshies at Tomamu (side country through the trees) but well worth the effort. Asahidake was great but had to work again for fresh tracks. Went for a walk up to fumaroles etc as wasn't the best day snow wise.

Overall Graeme showed us a great experience incl tours of Tomamu buildings (!!) and onsen after Asahidake.
See our video here