Advanced skiers and riders that are confident on all inbounds terrain and have extensive off piste experience. You don’t necessarily have to have the best form or style but do need to be capable of efficiently making your way down most slopes. Guests at this level are a good fit for most of our trips. Included below are some critical skills that you should have mastered before booking a trip with BDT.

For skiers, the biggest challenge typically comes with skiing through deep snow and through trees. Most of Hokkaido’s best skiable terrain occurs below treeline so its important that you are able to consistently turn where the terrain dictates. Managing this in deep snow is of particular importance. A great tool to help improve your ability is a good set of fat skis and we highly recommend upgrading with a rental ski for your trip with us if conditions are deep and you aren’t skiing a fat ski.

For snowboarders, critical skills are the ability to hold a strong edge allowing for good high traverses without losing too much elevation (particularly important to make the most of the back bowls trip) and the ability to read terrain effectively – you have to be just a bit smarter than the average skier (hopefully the skiers aren’t reading this 🙂 to avoid the pitfalls of deep pow and flat spots. Also many runs will end with winding, bumpy trails through the forest that you will need to be able to navigate.

Please note that this level is the minimum required level to join any of our group trips (powderhunter, backcountry or multi-day trips). If you are uncertain we highly recommend private trips that we can tailor to your ability level.