Backcountry Skiing in Hokkaido

If Japan is exceptional and the snow far more impressive than what we expected, it was before everything else thanks to Daisuke that we could live such a unique experience. We had the opportunity of discovering the best ski spots of Hokkaido : Rusutsu, Niseko, Neemy Onsen, Mount Yotei, Sapporo Kokkusai, Mount Furano, Mount Tokachidake, Mount Asahidake, Horakanai Pass, Otaru and Kiroko. 10 days of pure happiness during which we had the luxury of taking care of nothing since we fully trusted Daisuke who is such an incredible skier and guide, and who understood very well what our expectations were related to that trip. I definitely recommend him for any skier looking for powder snow, to go out of the beaten tracks and to learn about the Japanese culture.

The trip was truly amazing. Toshiya was our guide, he is the only winter guide on Rishiri (in summer there are 5 guides apparently). He is great, he and his sister run a ryokan (hotel) which is nice, great food and with a nice onzen (natural hot spring) to relax after skiing (they can open a big door so you can see the mountain and the stars whilst enjoying the bath. Bit hard to get to Rishiri but the powder on the big mountain pays for everything, truly amazing. Toshiya climbed the top over 500 times so he knows the mountain and the good spots to find the best conditions depending on wind etc. According to him the best season is February/early March. The wind is the main factor whether or not to reach the top and that is the same most months however powder is best not too late in the season (we were in early March). Temperature is not too bad despite being very close to Siberia. I may go again next year!

Incredible scenery, terrain with endless possibilities, no crowd, pure Japanese ambiance. What do you want more? A experienced guide that will share his passion with a legendary smile? Check! Toshiya and his family are the additional element that make this kind of trip just epic.

Tomáš and Vojta are doing a great job and I can really recommend Sherpas Ride to everybody who's looking for an unique experience in Japan.

I was not backcountry skier before. Thank to Vojta and Tomas it was my experience with powder outstanding. I would recommend Japan trip to any skiing fan. Thank you guys for gr8 adventure.

Best ski guiding in the World..... Awesome Japanese trips. Very good organization... Nice people.... All in all perfect..... Looking forward to book the next trip.

Best skiing ever with Sherpas Ride in Japan..

Vojta and Tomáš create a pleasant and enjoyable atmosphere and always look for the best snow conditions in the region. You will enjoy the best skiing experience ever!

Thanks guys for running a great trip.. 2017, see u there!

Vojta is not only an excellent skiing instructor - he is a great person. It was my second time skiing after a terrible skiing accident ten years ago. Vojta took personal care of me. He improved my technique immensely, gave me confidence and most importantly enabled me to love and enjoy skiing once again. Thanks Vojta!

A week in powder paradise with Daisuke, the best guide we could have wished for this experience! Snow as light as air, the most exquisite local cuisine and natural hot springs, all shared among friends. What could be better? The entire trip exceeded our dreams. Japow is everything they say and more

The week was fantastic. Daisuke is the best guide ever seen. He finds the best snow. He takes care of all of us. He provides new material. He brings solutions all the time for every question even not linked to the snow. Thank you !!!

L'expérience du ski de randonnée à son paroxysme ! De la neige fraîche et légère jusque dans les narines! Quelle séjour inoubliable... Au delà de cette aventure sportive incroyable, on a vécu une vrai expérience japonaise. En dehors des circuits touristiques; à la découverte du Japon, avec les japonais, mangeant japonais matin midi et soir, bref vivant japonais! Avec notre guide Daisuke, un guide très compétant, skieur de renommée mondiale surnommé le japonais volant! Chaque jour des paysages différents plus sublimes les uns que les autres. Des montagnes, des volcans, des forêts.. le tout avec deux points communs: jamais personne et abondance de neige fraîche. Ne cherchez pas à imaginer ce que cela pourrait être, il faut le vivre pour le croire!!

I had a great day out with Wataru-San earlier this month (January 2017), we went to Sapporo-Kokusai and did some runs in really deep snow. Wataru enabled me to access terrain that I would not have been able to find without his knowledge and had I have known about him earlier, I would have stayed at his lodge and gone out with him for more than one day. The day was a very Japanese experience with the deep powder, traditional onsen and local dinner after the ski day. Although I had some of the equipment already, it's good that Wataru has all the equipment for hire, as not all the guides can do this.

We had an amazing experience on Rishiri, perfect snow, good weather and a guide who knows the island like his pocket. The very steep slopes and the overwhelming nature satisfied every wish we had.  We have been looking for a guided tour avoiding the normal tracks on Hokkaido and then saw the pictures of the floating mountain. And definitively the adventure included.  We went to the southern part of the island, as Toshi-san knew that there would be the best snow conditions. The first 5km we have been toed in by a snow mobile and then climbed up a several times, riding different gullies each time. Toshi-san is an amazing person, always happy, friendly and very welcoming. As said before, he knows every bit of the island and guided accordingly bringing us to breathtaking places. We all would and will totally recommend him to friends visiting Japan. The reality was much better than expectations! We had some concerns regarding the weather conditions and difficulty but got lucky with the weather and never felt that Toshi chose a route too difficult. Rishiri is a floating mountain! Steep like in the Swiss alps, but just one single mountain, which makes the it much more imposant. On the sunny day, we could see the Sibirian mainland. What are your top 3 memories during the trip ?  Riding very steep slopes in perfect snow, Toshi-san with his warm and welcoming attitude, and the travel to get there and back

Obviously after a trip like that it goes very well! It was a great trip, the group was great and the guides too !! Very competent and they knew their subject! I found the trip checking on the internet and discovered explore-share.com. I was looking for a freeride ski trip in Japan, that only ! We had heard so much about this famous snow … We choose to hire Sherpa guides for 2 reasons : It was the best price for 9 days of ride, and the stay included very little hiking. Knowing that we were looking for freeride and not ski touring, the choice was quickly made. In addition, all equipment was provided (skiing, safety equipment). It was the first time we made such a trip, and frankly speaking, to be repeated! Great snow. The only downside is that we missed some more steep ski runs. But we are not disappointed as we went there for the snow and it was excellent. The fact of having the guide is useful when you do not know the area, the resort. If I had to go back, I would go without a guide because there is no use for me. Once you know a little bit the area, it is impossible to get lost .. We simply followed the 'freeride doors' that everyone takes. I would recommend this trip as it was a very good experience, well organized stay, competent guide, and top destination! No regrets!!

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(Travelled Feb 2017) Josef's colleagues Vojta, Cyril, Kuba and Thomas run a top notch guiding company. They led my group on an amazing 8 day trip in Hokkaido during the second half of February 2017. They prayed to the snow gods and we were rewarded with 6 feet (~150 CM) of light delicious JaPow over the 8 days, surfing snow all over the region. It was beyond epic. Great bunch of dudes, highly competent guides, I would ride with them any day! Highly recommend for anyone considering hitting up Japan or any of their other awesome trips.

We had an awesome freeride experience with sherpasride last year! Vojta, Tomas and Kuba are doing a great job. The camp is unique and with the best breakfast you can imagine thanks to Kuba. Therefore we came back to Japan shredding some powder with the guys again! It's not about business, it’s about passion!

Best Backcountry tours in JAPOW, awesome spirit, fantastic guiding, good food and excellent local knowledge. Our group has had a blast with Thomas and Vojta. Highly recommend to go with these guys

I had a great week with good snow, a good choice of resorts and restaurants. With Thomas and Vojta you will get in a short time a perfect glance of hokkaido...

No words can describe the amazing experience I had with Sherpasride! They are going above and beyond to find places with the best conditions every day and are providing a very professional guiding. The trip was an unforgettable experience which I definitely want to do again and I can highly recommend Sherpasride, you will enjoy the time with Sherpasride to the fullest! Thank you Vojta, Kuba,Cyril and Thomas for everything!!

Those guys are amazing! 9 days of ski that I will never forgget! Hope to see you soon guys! Spanish kisses!

Even If snow conditions aren't the best ones in the season the guides will always tAke you for the fresh pow! ( Japow:) . Great 10 days of freeriding and enjoying japanese food,onsen and countryside of Hokkaidó.

What a blast! We had the most epic trip with the boys from sherpas ride. Vojta assembled a very good group with strong riders. We got blessed with the weather and found fresh powder lines every day. Vojta always made sure to keep us busy and entertained - no day like the previous one, new highlights every day!! It was a good mix of resort skiing and ski touring. On our off day we went swimming in the ocean followed by whiskey tasting tour. Even got to play around with a drone. Seriously, what more can you ask for? Definitely coming back for more. I 100% recommend this camp. If you want to have a great time in japan with easy going guides that ski hard and always find fresh powder stashes at a really decent price, look no further.

I have snowboarded at a lot of different resorts across the world and Japan has some of the best snow that I have ever ridden. There is so much of it! I also really enjoy the Japanese culture and food. The whole Japan snow experience is AMAZING. I have gone there twice before to Niseko, so this time I wanted to try something different. I loved visiting Northern Hokkaido and was glad that Naoki could bring us to local restaurants and also show us where to go for backcountry! His knowledge is amazing. I don't think we would have had such an authentic experience without him. We did a 4 day backcountry powder tour in February, 2017 and it didn’t snow very much the first few days but with Naoki's expertise, he was able to take us to locations where we found POWDER! ASAHIDAKE and SAPPORO KOKUSAI were AMAZING! Those 2 were my favorite by far, but i loved all 4 days. They were all different which I liked. Naoki also brought us to onsens after, which we all enjoyed very much! Naoki was THE BEST guide EVER! We laughed a lot together. He taught us Japanese and we taught him English. He was super knowledgeable about every single mountain we went to and could read the terrain so well. He could even tell us which areas to avoid and which sides had better snow. I always felt super safe under his supervision. The added surprise was Naoki taking us to eat local Japanese restaurants. We ate ORGANS for the first time. It was so fun and such a great experience. WE LOVE NAOKI! We want to do another guided tour in Japan with him. We consider him a friend now. Also he took pictures of us which we did not expect and they turned out to be AWESOME! I would love to go on a guided tour to some steeper areas like Hakuba. Maybe in 2 years we will meet Naoki again. He was super knowledgeable, fun, and safe! He is also a really good snowboarder. Our of 5, I would rate him a 6!!! =)  

Wataru is an enthusiastic, talented guide who was a pleasure to meet. Unfortunately the day we went up was one of the worst weather with howling winds and warm weather. However, he made the most of it and we still found deep, untracked powder. One thing that could be better is his rental services. The only boot he had of my size was faulty and could not tighten properly so I had to stop several times during the day to adjust them. I would have preferred if I could have rented boots elsewhere.

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Outstanding. Daisuke is very knowledgeable and went above and beyond. Highly recommended. Regards, Kevin

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Daisuke was an awesome guide! We ran into some unstable snow, so we modified our original plan and found some great snow on a safer slope. Daisuke was super helpful skiing and also in helping us to figure out logistics for the rest of our trip. I would and will recommend Daisuke to everyone I know going skiing in Japan!

This a beautiful day and a half tour with views of the ocean behind you and unless it's a weekend you'll likely be the only people on the mountain. The first day didn't involve much skiing, there is a 3 hour hike then skins off and a nice gentle slope down to the hut. Unfortunately this had been tracked out by snowmobilers. So we didn't lap it and got to the hut at 2.30pm. AKI kept us entertained with stories of his incredible experiences from around the world. The second day, the two slopes that we lapped were really playful and not a track in sight! Would highly recommend AKI as a guide and hut is brilliant!

Jun was an excellent guide! He took us to some fantastic tree skiing on Yotei and we got to do a few laps since the weather did not allow us to summit. We had a really great trip and would highly recommend Jun as a guide.

I skied with Kehoe Seki, who took my up Mt Iwaonupuri. He is among the most knowledgeable, helpful and friendly guides I've skied with. I highly recommend.

Rishiri You Beauty! Toshiya is an amazing guide, a great character and also a very good host surrounded by a friendly team at Maruzen Pension. How special to have Toshiya sharing his local knowledge of Mount Rishiri, his "back garden" as he like to call it! A perfect playground for all powder enthusiasts, so many faces and ridges to use; make first lines in waist deep pow and ride all the way back down to sea level! I wish I had never left and I cannot wait to come back! Thank you Rishiri.

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One of the best trips I have ever done. One of the most beautiful places I have visited in Japan and the rest of the world. Toshi is an exceptional guide, is an expert on the islands skiing and has a fantastic set up including accomodation. His pension is perfect for daily excursions into the backcountry. I cannot recommend this trip enough except that I don't want eveyone else to know about this very special place.

Toshi and his team are fantastic - great guiding and accom, and Rishiri has some amazing terrain for backcountry ski/snowboarding.

Excelent, We had great fun, Wataru was very helpful, he taught us a lot about backcountry. He provided all the gear with skis snowboards, skins etc. Asahidake is a must do. We will come back again in the future to explore more mountains!

Jun Is An excellent and cheerful guide who will help you find the skiing you want what ever your level

Myself and my husband and brother had a fabulous day! We got great snow! Wataru showed us some great places to get the powder stashes! Unfortunately my skill level could not make the utmost of this awesome day but I enjoyed it so much anyway. If I can make it back to Hokkaido I will try my hardest to book with Wataru again.

Wow what a Tour! Jun guided us perfectly, we made it to the top of yotei. An Incredible experience!

English very limited. But otherwise the experience, the accommodation, the snow, the place and the guide were truly amazing!

Great for experienced backcountry ski/board tourers. Daisuke looked after us very well. We experienced some of the local culture going to onsens and restaurants after a hard day on the snow. The yakitori stand at the end of the first day was a real treat.

My wife and myself had the wonderful opportunity to spend three days with Naomi Kawata as our backcountry country guide. First off Naoki is a very easy going person. wen felt at ease with him right away. also he has the right guide qualifications.Safety in the mountains was the number one priority. he is very knowledgeable about anything backcountry (example how to apply your skins when your knee deep in snow} Naoki was able to take us to a mountain where we three were the only people there it was an absolute blast! Naoki took us to a few local restaurants that were amazing. you had better know japanese in these places or have Naoki with you, that's how local they were. Well to sum it up three great days skiing with an excellent ,extremely versed guide. we will definitely get with Naoki next year. We highly recommend him to anyone looking for a good safe time. Ed &Iris

Truly excellent guide, with unique knowledge of backcountry spots for freeride and touring. Extremely nice guy too.

I can not rate Toshiya because he was not our guide. Our experience was marred by a void of communication prior to the trip. We never recieved email or other communication prior to our trip, despite frequent requests. Simple questions like, "Do we need crampons?" were unanswered. The day before our arrival, we called Toshiya (whos phone number was being withheld). He was unaware of what day we were visiting, he did not know how many days or how many people in our group.

The "Guided powder ski tour" was amazing, also thanks to your brilliant and professional guide Gunther Winkel also a big thanks to Jun Horie for the skitouring equipment. On behalf Daniel and myself we want to thank you for a very professional guided powder ski tour, showing us Niseko in the best way of ski touring.

I would like to give Naoki five stars out of five. He was just great: professional, safety first approach, helped us with our splitboards, found great terrain and was very friendly and kind during the hole day!

Should have extended each day by at least 1 run

I recommend this trip for any backcountry skier who likes to ski Japan powder. Toshi has a great set up with snow mobiles for initial access and a large variety of steeper terrain for skinning up and skiing down. Can suit a range of wind directions and conditions. The accommodation is new and comfortable and the Japanese dinners and breakfasts are great if you like seafood. There is also an onsen there. Unfortunately we were there at a time when there was no new snow however this was compensated for with the magnificent views we had if Rishiri mountain and surrounding islands.

Hello there, I didn't go on a guided tour and it wasn't intended to go there on the 14th February. I still had been chating with the guide Wataru, about the dates and arrangements. At 14th February it was never intended to go on a tour. Sorry, maybe my fault, but this did go wrong. Actually I have no access the chating-protocol with Waturu anymore to proof that we were still trying to find a date. Due to an infect I'm not going to be able to go on a tour with Waturu before I leave. Would you please be so kind to consider a refund of my payment, as to the above mentioned reasons. Kind regards Sascha

We had a great trip to Rishiri! The snow gods were not on our side but Rishiri is a mountain of many slopes and aspects and thanks to a great guiding team we always managed to find good snow! Toshi ran a great operation with 3 other guides which meant we were split into two groups with a max of 9 per group and two guides. This allowed the group to be split even further on the day... Special thanks to Shohei and Kosukei - very professional guides!! Arigatou-gozaimashita!!

Toshi and his staff are great! Very knowledgeable of the local terrain. Definitely recommend bringing a group of people with similar abilities and objectives. If you end up in a mixed group they do their best, but they have to slow the pace to the least experienced people in the group. The accommodations at the pension were very comfortable and the staff was excellent as well. Food was fantastic, including several unique and authentic Japanese dishes.

Amazing experience. Took 5hrs to summit. Cloudy and little wind made it easier. Skies opened up 100M from the top. We summited and then we skied fresh powder into the crater. Well worth it.

I had a great time with Wataru, very nice and experienced guide. He brought us not so far away in a quiet and beautiful area of Shirebitsu with tons of magical snow. If I could, I would go back tomorrow! Thanks again to your platform.

Toshi and his crew gave us a truly remarkable experience! From the food to the accommodations to the epic skiing: this trip was out of this world!

I recently did the Freeride Camp with Sherpas Ride and it was amazing. First of all the staff is not only very competent but also highly motivated to provide a great experience on and off the mountain every single day. The provided equipment (Skis, Poles & avalanche equipment) was new and worked well. Breakfast was freshly made every day and the guys did a good job creating a relaxed and fun atmosphere throughout the trip. I'll definitely try to come back for another trip!

Definitely provided one of the best sports experiences I've ever had. Organization and support was great, staff very competent and ambitious. Skis and boards provided, guides were able to find the best powder lines on the mountains. Big thumbs up!

What an experience! Vojta, Tomas, Cyril and Kuba run a great camp with good balance of ski touring and lift access to get to the best lines of the day. I liked the idea of not having daily program set in stone but rather wait for morning weather report to decide on the best option for the day. I highly recommend Sherpas ride for Japow experience.

Booked the Hokkaido Roadtrip - this can be described in one word: Fantastic! I would book this trip again immediately! Super organized camp with excellent powderlines. Guides are also trying very hard to put together an alternative program (ski tours) if it happens that there is no fresh snow for a few days. Really absolutely recommendable Trip to Japan with all-round care.

I participated in the Sherpas Ride Trip Dec/Jan 2018/19 and I loved the experience of freeriding in Japan as well as the guiding and organization of Tomas and Vojta from Sherpas Ride. The trip was booked directly with Vojta and he advised me carefully on fitness level and equipment required for the trip. I felt well prepared and any question or organizational detail was delivered in a timely manner. At arrival the pickup went smoothly and Vojta is great in making you feel welcome and at home from the first minute. The housing, where our group of 12 people, was accommodated was conveniently equipped and close to restaurants and supermarkets. The facilities like bathroom and kitchen are shared and the group was super lovely and easy to deal with. The equipment (ski, poles, backpack with avalanche rescue equipment, and skins) was all comparatively new and well maintained. Tomas and Vojta were always helpful if there was any need or problem with it. The organization of breakfast, driving to the best spot and during the freeriding or touring day went well because the guys mange everything in a nice and relaxed way. I asked for and appreciated that they gave me advise on how to improve my freeriding skills and that they had a good speed and thus, I was also challenged to become better. I felt well informed on where to go and how to behave and there was always room for discussing snow conditions and how to best spot a line and estimate risks. I definitely learned something there and the two guides made things fun, yet clear when limits are reached. The scenery of the volcanos, trees, and the masses of snow is simply faboulous. There is nothing comparable to enjoying the ride in the deep snow spraying all over you. I would definitely do it again! Thanks for the time, Sherpas Ride, and my great group Dec/Jan 2018/19 - you will always enjoy a special place in my memories.

Toshi is world class from pick-up to drop-off. Very friendly, very professional and he knows Rishiri inside out. His guest house is outstanding and the food they serve like nowhere else. Will be back very soon!

Yasuko was very knowledgable about the area. She tailored our outings based on our requests, and we had great fun in the mountains near Rusutsu and Yotei.

our experience with Daisuke was outstanding. He knows very well the island and he managed to take us every day in places with fresh snow without tracks :-).

We had a wonderful day with Yasuko. He was very informative and spoke English very well. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone looking for a great time ski touring or split boarding Mt. Yotei

We went for a 1-day guided freeriding with Jun's colleages Tim and Anna! They were amazing and showed us the best spots for backcountry skiing in Niseko. We were also very lucky to get a lot of snow, which made it the best day on the mountain for us. Thanks a lot!

We spent 2 exceptional days in Hokkaido with Daisuke-san. He is very experienced and knowledgeable about the local conditions, about the mountains and about places to go in general. Even after our trip with him had ended, Daisuke-san came to our rescue when we had technical troubles. We feel privileged to have shared his company for two days, and we will never forget our time in Hokkaido with him.

Explore-share managed to find me a very good ski guide, but would have been nice to get in touch with the guide earlier after the transaction was done

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i did cancel my oversease trip due to coronavirus concerns and it being a bad season in japan. will come back in january next year to try.

We had an excellent trip, however, Expolre share said we would have Jun as our local guide - this was switched last minute from Jun to Tim - Tim was excellent (the guide rating of 5 is for Tim, not for Jun), but we had no information about Tim's background or credentials to assess before the trip. In the future, explore share should let us know in advance if there is a guide change and provide background and credentials.

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We had a great trip with Wataru! Communication and arrangements were easy. Every day was a new adventure! Loved the trip and would book with explore-share again.

We had a fantastic and unforgettable trip to the top of Mt. Yotei with Jun-san. He was very friendly, helpful and also flexible. Hope to do another trip with him soon!

If it were possibke to award 100 Stars I would !

Jun is an outstanding guide, a true expert in his field. He was attentive to our needs and desires and very ably provided us with a fantastic experience skiing in the Asahikawa area backcountry. I will book other trips with him and highly recommend him to others!