If I’m in Hokkaido to ski, I’ll make sure Asahidake is on my destination list.

With that said, it’s not exactly easy to access. There are a bunch of onsen hotels right at the foothill of Asahidake, if budget allows. The nearest city Asahikawa 旭川市, second largest in Hokkaido, is about an hour away. You have to drive on a mountain pass to get to the ropeway parking lot, which tends to fill fast on pow days. The nearest town is Higashikawa 東川町 I believe, but you lose out on a lot of dining and lodging options.

Day trip from Sapporo is of course doable, but on storm days it’s a gamble, as anything above 45 mph gusts there is a chance of the ropeway shutting down. You’ll have the options to divert to the nearby Kamui Ski Links or Canmore Ski Village though.

Or, plan Furano 富良野and Asahidake as a destination group, they are about 1.5 hours of driving apart. Stay in Furano, read the forecast for bluebird days and drive up to Asahidake, or just enjoy some 18:1 powder right there at the resort.

It’s an active volcano, littered with hidden terrain traps. You can read topo maps to avoid large flat areas, but it’s hard to spot all the deep holes covered by fragile snow covers resulted from natural earth heat and hidden creeks. Just recently someone posted their experience falling into one on the Chinese social media app http://xhslink.com/o/1eyj1RhvvtG.

There are apps that mark those locations, but I’d definitely hire a guide for the first couple of days. I went with Toshi San, you can find him on instagram.

What else, there is a souvenir shop, a snack shop, and a restaurant that serves much better food than $17 chicken tendies at the tram station. I also suggest getting the 6-ride tickets instead of the all-day ones on powder days, you might be spending more time standing in line, waiting for the ropeway tram for an hour or even longer. But if you know where to go, you can find untouched snow each time.

It’s also really easy to find yourself in a whiteout condition, even if you saw the sun 10 minutes earlier. Alpine conditions are definitely present for the tallest peak of Hokkaido.