Alone at Japan ski resort during COVID lockdown

[boltonoutlaw]

I planned a 90-day working vacation at a ski resort in Japan but the global pandemic turned this tour into a 30-month residency featuring international and domestic travel bans over all three lockdown-impacted winters that I was there: W20, W21, W22.

This past week I discovered video footage never posted. On the day the light is flat and the riding unremarkable. Then followed weeks of blower or sunshine so the clip was forgotten. Because of the circumstance I could always get first chairs and untracked lines. I knew which way the wind blew, where the snow was good or where the sun had burned it. I was used to riding alone, and getting inbounds footage in fresh snow without other people apparent, so used to it that I didn't notice the chairs in this clip:

[MarsB]

Reminds of me the days of riding Powder Mt. mid-week (pre-COVID)

That must have been quite the experience. Amazed they kept the chairs turning with no people there.

[Mike Pow]

Madness

[ASmileyFace]

I've had dreams of the exact scenario in your video.

[boltonoutlaw]

Because of the circumstance I could always get first chairs and untracked lines.

I offer the video below as supporting evidence.
Lived like this for three winters, two of them with the international travel ban. Lair on the 5th floor, dining hall on the 3rd, office and onsen on the 2cd, locker room on the 1st.
This was 06 February 2022, deep in the pandemic explaining why no one is at that lift. Locals would have saddled up at the gondola or Quad#1.

[boltonoutlaw]

If not in the trees (most of the time I am) then pretty close.

It's evolution from all my inbounds years. At Bolton Valley I learned that trail edges acted like snow fences. Reading the wind direction I knew which side was holding deeper goods, and where there was a fall-line seam to splash around in. At Okemo I learned that trailsides acted like fences and knew that nobody was encroaching on 50% of my turns.

Anyway, with first tracks option on a powder day, and on an ungroomed trail no less, I prefer dancing with the devil. You'll always find me there

[boltonoutlaw]

This was one of the all-time days

[Mike Pow]

Noice

Great trees