Experience the "Circle of the Earth" in Hokkaido's dry powder. Backcountry guide Shohei Sasaki - CIRCLE GAME

While the great appeal of backcountry skiing in the great outdoors lies in the many dangers lurking in the snowy mountains, backcountry guides are experts who ensure safety in the snowy mountains while providing an indescribable skiing experience based on their extensive knowledge and experience. We take a closer look at the personalities and guiding of up-and-coming guides who have chosen to be professional guides as their profession and are slowly and steadily delving deeper into this world, step by step

Skiing for athletics

"I don't remember the first time I put on skis. It must have been shortly after I started elementary school. My father was a ski school teacher on weekends at Niyama Kogen Ski Resort, the same slopes where Olympian Akira Sasaki used to ski as a child. But my father never taught me how to ski; I started skiing when I was dropped off at a school run by my grandfather. So, until I was old enough to understand, I don't remember skiing being particularly fun."

"I did track and field for 13 years, from the third grade of elementary school until my third year of university. I was a sprinter in elementary and middle school, and in high school I focused on the 800m. I also skied to prepare for track and field (my best time was 1 minute 58 seconds). My winter track and field practice consisted of running around the school building or gymnasium. After that, I would carry my skis by myself almost every day and take the JR train to the ski resort. When I was in the fifth grade of elementary school, the ski school was abolished, so my father started skiing with me, and from then on I started to enjoy skiing. I also often skied with Yamanoi Zen, who now competes in technical competitions, and skiing with such good skiers made it more and more fun."

His skiing life, which included frequent visits with a season pass, took a sudden turn when he didn't put on skis even once during high school.
"I was busy with track and field and studying, so I never even thought about doing it," he

The fresh snow taught me the joy of skiing

　I put on skis again in the winter when I entered university. And not voluntarily, but as part of a class that I was forced to do.
"I wanted to become a physical education teacher, so I enrolled in the Health and Physical Education department at Hokkaido University of Education (Asahikawa campus). In my first year of university, there was a ski practical lesson, so I borrowed my father's skis and skied in class. It doesn't snow much in my hometown in southern Hokkaido. I had always skied on hard, icy slopes, but when I skied on the soft snow at Nayoro Piyashiri Ski Resort, I had so much fun.

The following year, I skied off-piste at Kamui Ski Links with friends using my father's groomed skis. I was rolling around all the time (laughs). That's when I got hooked on powder. I made friends to ski with, and I got more and more hooked on backcountry skiing."

For a student living in an apartment far from his parents' home, backcountry skiing equipment was out of reach

"I bought a pair of Volkl ONE skis with a full rocker and a 116mm center on Yahoo Auctions. But I couldn't afford touring bindings or climbing skins. So I bought a pair of used MSR snowshoes and carried my skis on my back while climbing. I didn't feel any inconvenience, and I thought this was normal, so it was just fun. I have plenty of stamina, after all (laughs)."
　
The 800m middle-distance race is said to be a sport that develops cardiopulmonary function, muscle strength, and endurance in a balanced way. People who have done middle-distance running are strong at mountain climbing. For Sasaki, who had seriously done middle-distance running until university, the mountains were a field where he could release all his energy to his heart's content, and the only place where he could get completely exhausted. The first snow-covered mountain he climbed was Asahidake, the highest peak in Hokkaido.

"We didn't have enough money to take the Asahidake Ropeway, so we climbed up the side of the course on snowshoes and skied down. Looking back, the difference in elevation was about 50m and it was a slope where you couldn't even make 10 turns, but it was a lot of fun. The University of Education has accommodation in the hot spring town, and if you write down your purpose as training, you can stay there for just a few hundred yen. My friends and I stayed there and started skiing in the morning. As young kids who didn't even know what a beacon was, all we had in our backpacks was a fleece and some Pocari Sweat. At first, I couldn't even read a topographical map, so I started thinking, ``Maybe I can ski here?'' and little by little I expanded my range of activities. That process was fun."

Quit teaching and become a guide!

Until the spring of my third year of university, I thought I would become a middle school teacher and spend my life teaching physical education to children until I retired at 60. However, a five-week teaching internship forced me to change my career path.

"After finishing my teaching internship, I realized that I couldn't continue this job until I was 60. There was a teacher in middle school that I didn't particularly like, but something he said stuck in my head. He said, 'Only about 10% of adults working in society are doing what they love.' I didn't think much of it at the time, but I've always remembered it. And then he said, 'Of that 10%, I think only about 20 or 30 percent of them actually enjoy their work.' He added, 'By the way, I'm a teacher, even though I don't enjoy it.' I thought, 'What's wrong with this guy?' I thought that if I was going to live my life, I might as well do what I love, so I decided to become a backcountry guide." It was around

this time that I was inspired by watching the DVD "The Ultimate Ski Descent on Rishiri in the Deep Winter" by Daisuke Sasaki, an international mountain guide in Hokkaido. After deciding to become a guide, I quit my club activities in my third year of university and started working multiple part-time jobs to save money.

"I did all sorts of part-time jobs, like working at GAP, delivering pizzas, and tutoring. BC skiing equipment is expensive, but the certification exams are also incredibly difficult. First, I got my Avalanche Operations Level 1 certification and then took a first aid course."

Warrior training at Mount Tanigawa in Honshu

The troubled university student couldn't sit still any longer and took a bold step. Before the winter of his third year of university began, he contacted Kenichi Minegishi, a guide based in Gunma and Niigata prefectures.

"Nobody knows how to become a backcountry guide, and nobody teaches you. So I decided to go and meet someone. I wanted to go somewhere other than Hokkaido. I thought Hakuba or Tanigawa would be cool, so I was searching online and Minegishi-san's 'KinTouN' came up near the top. I was also a little drawn to the fact that he seemed like a guide specializing in skiing, with an emphasis on skiing."

"I emailed Mr. Minegishi, and he said that if I had time, we should meet up, and he took me on a guided tour of Tanigawa. Going there solidified my resolve, and when I asked him, 'I don't need any money, just let me learn,' he said, 'Okay.' The following year, in February of my senior year of university, I flew to Tanigawa about two days after my graduation thesis presentation. That's why I didn't attend the graduation ceremony,"

Kenichi Minegishi recalls fondly of the time when Sasaki first arrived.
"I thought he was a quiet, laid-back kid (laughs). But he had a clear goal of becoming a guide, so it was very smooth to proceed with his training after accepting him. He's a very good skier and skis beautifully. He's laid-back, but when I saw his willingness to take risks and actively go down the slopes he wanted to ski, I felt that he was burning with passion inside."

And so, in the winter of his 22nd year, he began working under Mr. Minegishi as a guide trainee.
"That year there wasn't much snow, so we were doing tours at either Tanigawa or Kagura. In March there was a tour to Alaska, and I was taken along on that too, and I completely ran out of money I'd saved up during university. When I looked at my bank account, there was only about 30,000 yen left (laughs). Then, from April it was Tateyama season. The 'KinTouN' tour was held every weekend, and in between, I would pitch my tent at Raichodaira and ski by myself."

It was also my first time camping in a tent, so I borrowed Minegishi's sleeping bag and pitched the Montbell Stellaridge Tent 2 for three weeks straight. I only stayed at Raicho-so on weekends when I was on tour, and ate a lot of food there, and even got leftover snacks from guests coming down the mountain (laughs). Minegishi would come back up on weekends and buy me food. If I went to the mountain lodge, I could eat udon or beef bowls, but I didn't even have enough money for that."

Nevertheless, without thinking about the consequences, he clung to Tateyama, climbing and skiing day after day. While his strong desire to become a guide certainly pushed him, he says it was the nature of Tateyama that compelled him.

"I was deeply moved by that white mountain mass of Tateyama. I carefully skied down every single run on the visible side. I was still too scared to go to the back side. Jun Nagai of 'JUNRINA' said to me, 'If you don't have any money, you can't go home, can you?'" He introduced me to a job at the Tateyama Center, which has a police station for the Toyama Prefectural Police's mountain rescue team, and I worked there until around mid-June. The work involved various tasks such as preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and removing and re-inserting bamboo poles for trail markers. I could always ski in either the morning or afternoon, I got three meals a day, and I could sleep in a warm futon, so it was great. After that, I stayed at the Tateyama Center for three more seasons. I lived in Tateyama for a little less than two months, from late April to mid-June.

That year, I was told to stay until summer, but given my personality, I couldn't stay in the same place, so I went back to Hokkaido. That year, through a senior's introduction, I started working for "Alpine Guide Nomad." Summer mountain guides in Hokkaido carry tens of kilograms of luggage in 100-liter backpacks, including tents, food, and fuel, and I was one of the porters. The following year, while I was up in Tateyama, I studied to become a guide, took the exam in Tokyo, and returned to Hokkaido. That year, I finally started working as a guide."

My life-changing encounter with Mount Rishiri

During one winter of his nomadic training, he encountered Mount Rishiri, where he would be trained as a guide.

"There was a backcountry tour on Mount Rishiri, and although I didn't need it, I said I wanted to go and tagged along. And it turned out to be an incredible mountain. I knew about it from watching Daisuke's video of his long run down Rishiri, but it exceeded my expectations. First of all, I was surprised by the elevation difference. You can drop 350 to 400 meters in one go. The mountains in Hokkaido that you can go to on guided tours don't allow you to ski for very long, maybe 150 meters at most, but I could ski twice as long. And there are countless slopes like that. I thought I wanted to study here. I went home that time, but after the season ended, I contacted Toshiya Watanabe of 'Rishiri Nature Guide Service'."

And so, from December 2017, he began going to Toshiya Watanabe's place. This season marks his eighth year of going to Rishiri.
"Even now that I'm independent, I still work as a guide for Toshiya for about three weeks in February and March. To be honest, I definitely earn more if I run my own tours. But I really love Rishiri, and guiding tours around Rishiri with Toshiya is fun and my favorite thing to do. Plus, it's a way of repaying Toshiya for raising me."

Sasaki asserts that there is no better place for guide training than Mount Rishiri.
"The snowfall is heavy, and the wind is strong every day. You hardly ever use ski crampons in the dead of winter, right? But on Rishiri, you use them all the time. And the snow is excellent for skiing. You have to make every action meaningful—where you rest, the lines you walk, every single thing you do. You're always acting in a way that you can immediately answer if someone asks, 'Why did you do that?' If you miss even one of those things, things won't go well on Rishiri, so I think it's the perfect mountain for guide training."

While gaining such valuable experience, he frequently traveled to Honshu and obtained his Ski Guide Stage I certification in April 2018. In 2022, after obtaining his Ski Guide Stage II certification, he established his own guiding company, "CIRCLE GAME."

"70% of my guiding is based on Toshiya Watanabe. I'm not very good at saying interesting things, so our styles are the complete opposite (laughs). As a guide apprentice, you usually study under one master, but I feel fortunate that I was able to watch many different people's guiding. I don't think there's any other guide who has seen as many different people's guiding as I have."

That's because Toshiya's "Rishiri Nature Guide Service" is run by two guides who have Ski Guide Stage II certification. When I was training, I had the opportunity to go into the mountains with various guides besides Toshiya, such as Kosuke Kanemura, Kyoichi Kano, and Makoto Takeishi. Being able to see various styles of guiding up close has been a great asset to me as a guide."

Now that you're independent, is your ideal future to ski Mount Rishiri on a "CIRCLE GAME" tour?　

"I want to stick with Toshiya's "Rishiri Nature Guide Service" for Rishiri. Rishiri is special, so I can't leave it out. On the other hand, I want to do the "CIRCLE GAME" work at a moderate pace, without overdoing it and taking breaks. It's not just about physical stamina, but it requires a lot more mental effort than in the summer, and there's a lot of stress too. I think this is just about right."

There is no end to improving your guide skills

So, in January and February and March, when I don't go to Rishiri, I work as a guide in search of good snow as the representative of 'CIRCLE GAME'.
"I don't like crowds, so I try to choose places with as few people as possible. Even on popular mountains, I go to minor routes where I only see people at the entrance and exit. Going to places where there's no one is inherently risky, and not everyone can do it, but one of my goals is to let people ski in places with few people and where no one has skied before. The areas I cover are roughly half and half, around Sapporo where I'm based and half around Asahikawa where I used to ski a lot."

Sasaki's contrarian nature, his aversion to doing the same things as everyone else, was reflected in his clothing choices. He has been buying his favorite Swedish brand, Klättermusen, on Yahoo! Auctions since his student days, and he personally requested support from the distributor. A guide who wears what he likes and makes a living doing what he loves, he also wants to cherish his own snow-covered mountains.

"When I was a university student and in my first year or two as a guide, I simply loved to ski. I loved skiing powder and how good it felt. But gradually, my desire to ski in good snow and powder skiing faded, and recently I've come to enjoy going to mountain areas I've never been to before, just by looking at a topographic map. Ideally, these private mountain trips would become reconnaissance and development, leading to work,"

Sasaki laughs, saying that he feels he has reached the ideal image he envisioned when he aspired to become a ski guide in his third year of university. However, just like when he desperately ventured into the Tanigawa mountain range in his early twenties, Sasaki was still feeling restless.

"I've qualified as a Stage II ski guide, I have customers, and many manufacturers who support me. My dream or goal when I decided to become a guide has come true. However, there is no end to improving your skills as a guide, so I'm worried about what to do next

I also want to get a mountaineering qualification in the future. I want to use crampons a lot and expand the range of places I can take customers. But now that my family is growing, I feel like I can't put my all into that. It's difficult. I'm quite frustrated."

Sasaki turned 32 this year. The intense experiences he accumulates every day have awakened his extraordinary physical strength, and he is inspired by his peers. His ambition to push himself to even greater heights is a natural progression. His youth allows him to fret over this. His potential for growth is as vast as the broad foothills of Rishiri

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