Tenmaku-yama Ski Touring (Hokkaido, Japan)

Tenmaku-yama (天幕山, 1052m) is a low-lying but prominent peak in the Kitami mountains, known for its easily accessed, sublime powder snow. With lappable slopes to the west and south of the summit, keen skiers with a day to kill will love a nice-weather day out on Tenmaku-yama. This route, accessing the southern ridge via a steep climb up the ridge's eastern flanks, tries to make the most of the downhill slopes available. In the middle is a gorgeous wander through old-growth trees on a flat ridge.

There appears to be ‘many ways to skin the cat’ on this route, when it comes to ascending up the mountain. It appears (on Yamareco.com) that one of the more popular options is to walk slightly down National Highway 274 to join with the southeastern ridge at its terminus near the train tracks. Don’t do this. Crossing train tracks in Japan anywhere other than a level crossing is 100% illegal. The only feasible option for getting across the train tracks on this route is to cross at the level crossing on the snowed in forestry road. This leaves two options for routes. One is to follow the forestry road for just under 1.5km before climbing up to the upper ridge. This appears to be a relatively popular route. The route we took involves less trudging along the forestry road, and rather climbs up the well-anchored but steep eastern flanks of the southeastern ridge, after about 500m on the forestry road, under the high-tension power lines. This allows for a steep tree-run on the way back, and still treats skiers to the gorgeous, mostly flat-land ridge-line walk through the forest along the southeastern ridge. Either way, the important thing to note is to only cross the train tracks at the level crossing.

Crossing railway level crossings in winter:Never ski across level crossings in winter in Hokkaido. This is not only because of the obvious trip hazards involved. If metal ski edges happen to touch both rails at the same time, this can, under certain circumstances, cause barrier arms to descend. Always walk across with skis removed, after checking both ways.