Ryuta

Ryuta was extremely knowledgeable and professional, we had a great time.

I am a 50 year old good skier. I enjoy challenging terrain but not a ton of backcountry experience I ski with my very good 15/18 year old daughters who ski just about anything they can find. We all rented a guide together for the three of us. Our guide picked us up at our hotel, and we arranged in advance to rent backpack, snow shovel and avalanche beacon through this guide service for an extra fee. He drove us to norikura where there are far fewer crowds than Happo one or cortina. We used lifts to access perimeter terrain that was otherwise out of bounds without a guide. It was extremely helpful to have a guide because there is no way we would have found the lines he took us to without him. We spent time on both norikura and cortina which are connected and skied the most incredibly light / deep powder I’ve ever seen in my life. Some runs were open glades and other runs were through beautiful forested areas. Snow was routinely waste deep and often chest deep with face shots. It was so dry that despite being virtually submerged in powder, I was only wet from my own sweat! We skied in early January and we were told that the snow was better than normal for the time of year. We laughed when our guide said some of the snow was “moist” as our home mountain in the Pacific Northwest is often very wet and heavy snow. There was no comparison- the Hakuba snow was remarkable. Our guide did a lot of photography and videos for us and shared them at the end of the day. Plenty of pictures worth framing. If anyone is traveling to Japan for a powder day, this guide service was worth every penny.

Ryuta was a great guide. We did some side-country freeride. He chose a good spot and we had some great lines together. He doesn’t really speak English, but we managed to communicate anyway. I’d recommend him.

I think Ryuta is a great guide. The tour was quite nice. I loved the lines we did. It would've been 5 stars if his English was better but his assistant guide was of great help especially in communication. Otherwise, I felt quite safe with him and his abilities

Without a doubt, Ryuta-san exceeded all of my expectations. His level of professionalism, planning, client care and willingness to go the extra mile are on par with the best in the business. He is also the first dedicated splitboard guide I've toured with, so this was an added plus!