Rusutsu Resort is a ski resort in Hokkaido that consists of three mountains: West, East, and Isola. With 37 courses laid out on the slopes of each mountain, Rusutsu offers a wide variety of slopes, natural terrain, and slope direction, making it popular with many skiers
Rusutsu is also known for being a popular destination for filmmakers, as its location and scale inspire creative minds
Let's take an example of the video
So, for this shoot, we asked 20-year-old Sapporo resident Ken'ya Yamagishi to ski at Rusutsu for three days and create a movie clip. He is a professional skier who has recently been focusing on video production
Since his junior high school days, he had been aiming to become a successful freestyle skier both in Japan and overseas, but repeated injuries forced him to retire from the competitive scene.It was at this time that he began filming videos, which not only showed exceptionally high quality, but also allowed him to express skiing through video and photography, which led to him being chosen for the job
(Left) Hirofumi Ishikawa,
born in 1981. He approaches the mountains at his own pace, and continues to aim for big lines with unwavering determination. Head of the BUMPS Mountaineering Club. Sponsors: K2 SKI, BCA, STRAFE Outer Wear, HESTRA, revolt. Instagram:@hiro___ishikawa
(Right) Tatsuya Yamagishi,
born in 2004. Active in the freestyle competition scene until 2021. Currently, he is working hard every day to perform at a high level as a professional rider and in video production. Sponsor/LINE Instagram@tatsu_yamagishi
Yamagishi is currently a professional rider for LINE SKI. He has two perspectives: a rider's perspective of what can be done in each location, and a producer's perspective of how to express that. What kind of video will he create?
This time, Yamagishi was joined by the experienced Hirofumi Ishikawa. They were able to spend three consecutive days creating a video that would bring out the best of Rusutsu. While much of the weather and conditions were left to chance, let's take a look at what happened
[Day 1] Location scouting is powder hunting
February 20, 2023, the first day of filming. According to information from the ski resort, about 10cm of fresh snow had accumulated since the previous day, and there was wind, so a wind reset was expected in some places. The crew gathered to meet in time for the gondola to start. As they talked, it turned out that neither Yamagishi nor Ishikawa were particularly familiar with Rusutsu
"You won't know what kind of mountain it is until you ski it. Let's make today a location scouting day."
"Yes," Yamagishi said with a smile. Beside him, Ishikawa nodded, his eyes fixed on the summit. The pair seemed to be looking ahead at the fresh snow-covered slopes, beckoning them. They immediately set out on a powder hunt, a.k.a. location scouting
First, let's get an overview of the ski resort
Rusutsu, which is made up of three mountains, has a total run of about 42km, so it is not something that can be skied in one day. The ski resort has the following characteristics:
West Mt. is located in the far right of the map, with Mt. Yotei in the background. It's located in front of the hotel and is easily accessible. The lower part is popular with families and beginners as it has a gentle slope, but there are also some areas where you can enjoy steep single runs and tree runs. The resort is also open at night, so you can enjoy powder snow at night
East Mt., which leads to Mt. Isola at the far left of the map, is accessible by gondola and offers long skiing distances. Starting from the gondola summit station, there are courses along the ridge with great views, courses with medium slopes that are easy to ski, and the steepest slope in the resort at 40 degrees
Mt. Isola is located at the very back of the ski resort. Starting with a 3,500m long run, it offers a wide variety of slopes, including ridge runs and streams that weave through them
Furthermore, all areas outside the ski resort boundaries (dotted yellow lines) are open to the public as a self-responsibility area. The terrain varies, including slope direction, gradient, density of trees, streams, chutes, mash, logs, and more
As expected of Hokkaido, the snow is great
After getting off East Gondola Line 2, we first slide down into the bowl-shaped terrain on the right hand side. Thanks to the snowfall and wind, the slope has a beautiful surface, and the rounded terrain looks really interesting
First, Ishikawa descended, tracing the terrain, and then Yamagishi seemed to find a place to jump out, as he mixed in jumps and slid down to the meeting point
Looking at the fluffy snow that continues to float, it seems there is a sufficient amount of light snow. Snow falls in Rusutsu when cold air from the northwest passes through to the Pacific Ocean. Niseko, which is in the foreground, is close to the sea, so it drops snow that is rich in moisture, but Rusutsu, beyond Mount Yotei, is more about quality than quantity
Whenever cold air moves in from a slightly western direction, the amount of snowfall increases. In addition, the area around Rusutsu is also affected by the weather on the Pacific side, and where cold air from the north collides, snow falls regularly even though the area is not at a very high altitude
Powder and Terrain Hunting
After confirming the quality of the snow, the pair began their session, traveling through the mountains of East and Isola in search of unique terrain
The two checked out the mountain's topography, the snow piled up on the trees, and the way the light was coming in while skiing, and stayed on the slopes until the lifts closed
Yamagishi took out his camera at key points and tested it while gauging the distance between himself and Ishikawa, preparing for filming the next day
Yamagishi has a satisfied look on his face and it seems he has already visualized the image
[Day 2] Ski as much as you can at the places you picked out on the first day
On the second day, the weather was clear and cloudless from early morning. Since there was no snowfall, we were able to focus on the course to our heart's content
Many of the courses at Rusutsu are not flat, and many of them show off the terrain. People tend to focus on the tree area, which is open to the public as a "personal responsibility" area, but the large number of courses where you can ski long distances nonstop is a major attraction
In particular, the exhilarating feeling of skiing down courses exceeding 2km in length without stopping, such as the East Tignes course, Isola Long Run, Steamboat B course, and Heavenly View course, all located on ridges with great views, is irresistible. If
you aim for times when there are fewer people, you can pick up speed and draw turns with complete freedom to create your own lines.
Other interesting courses include Isola C and D, where you can enjoy making turns that suit the undulating terrain, and the Heavenly Canyon Course, which is dotted with ungroomed terrain for fun.From a terrain perspective, you can't miss the Furikozawa Course, which has an average gradient of just 7° and is located between East Mt. and Mt. Isola
The course, nestled in a ravine flanked by steep slopes on both sides, features wall-like terrain on either side, which you slide down by connecting them.
Some sections have artificially added kicks for jumps, while others have banked shapes that make turns and dribbling easier. Even gentle slopes, which tend to be slow and just glide along, become much more fun when you use these features to add speed and incorporate tricks.
If you constantly look around the course to see if there is anything interesting, you will notice features that cannot be seen on the course map
The two, both team members of Sapporo freeski shop BUMPS, had no age difference, and Ishikawa understood Yamagishi's intentions and skied in line with the images he wanted. This was practically their first one-on-one session, and it was hard to believe they were making a video together, as they worked so perfectly together
The second day was blessed with perfect weather, and we were able to steadily accumulate materials that were typical of Rusutsu
[Day 3] When the timing is right, people gather in Rusutsu
The third day started with cloudy skies, but it seemed that a little fresh snow had fallen in the middle of the night, and the slopes were reset once again
On the final day, I decided to patrol the course to see if there were any materials or interesting items that were missing from the footage. Over the past two days, I had been skiing on the slopes looking for items, but there was one area that I hadn't visited much
This is the deepest area of Isola. Both Heavenly Canyon and Heavenly Spirit are ungroomed areas, with some slopes reaching as high as 29 degrees, making them advanced runs. The trees are sparsely spaced, making it easy to ski, and the zone is filled with features that make it easy to perform actions, such as mash, logs, and cliffs
As I was skiing around the Heavenly Area, I discovered that the snow piled up on the steep slopes, covered with mounds of mash and logs, made it easy for the snow to fly
The area where he imagines the landing is also wide, so Yamagishi thinks he can make a big jump, and so he creates an approach. While checking the safety of his surroundings, Yamagishi ruminates on the image of success
As you count 3, 2, 1, move slowly from the approach to the kicker, paying attention to the snow quality and your body position
He took off and then did a slow backflip. The distance was about 20m. He landed smoothly and rode the jump. The jump was so clean that the film crew, including Ishikawa, could only laugh
After successfully completing the jump, the film crew decided to explore the area a little further when they saw a familiar face from the lift
The group consisted of Endo Junpei and Sasaki Yu, who had returned to Japan temporarily from Canada
Apparently they had heard about the fresh snowfall and had come to try their hand at tree runs and skiing on the terrain. Taking advantage of the opportunity, they decided to have a light session in the Isola area. When the timing is right, Rusutsu is always packed with people
The video is complete, check out the results of the three days
We asked the two of them to reflect on the photo shoot session.
First up is photographer and rider, Ken'ya Yamagishi.
"We were blessed with good weather this time, and it was an exciting three days. There are so many good things about Rusutsu that it's hard to narrow it all down... haha. Hmm, I wonder. What was great was that we could enter the forest right away and there were lots of terrains without lines. Also, the scenery was beautiful
It was my first time skiing properly with Hiro, and he was so cool. Seeing him do what he did made me want to work harder at skiing. Up until now I'd been focusing on the park, but I wanted to be able to make turns like Hiro."
On the other hand, Ishikawa Hirofumi seems to be impressed by his partner's potential
"Everything was great this time, but the groomed slopes were especially fun. You see, with the powder, there's a sense of tension because it's a video and you can't afford to make any mistakes
Rusutsu's packed snow slopes are wide and well groomed. I'd heard that they'd prepared the slopes to resemble banks, following the terrain, so I really felt the love and consideration that goes into the skiers
Also, although there are certainly a lot of people, it's nice to spread out because of the size of the place. There were times when only the crew was there during filming, so it was nice to find a place and time like that
"Kenya? That's a shocking word. I've never really watched him ski before, but I never thought he'd be this good. There's an age difference between us, but the great thing about skiing is that we can just enjoy a session without feeling that way."
This is the finished video
The theme of this video is to capture the charm of Rusutsu from the perspective of skier and cameraman, Yamagishi Kenya
Not to mention the excellent quality of the snow, the footage is packed with the beauty of nature, the beautiful scenery, the abundant natural terrain, and the charm of the packed snow slopes
However, the three areas spread across two mountains cannot all be covered in just three days. The fact that West Mountain is not included makes it feel like something is missing. It's clear that it would be difficult to ski all over the vast Rusutsu area in just three days
Ski resort conditions change depending on the amount of snow and weather. No matter what the conditions are this winter, Rusutsu is sure to offer slopes that can only be enjoyed at that time
Information
Rusutsu Resort
13 Izumikawa, Rusutsu Village, Abuta District, Hokkaido 048-1711
Official website:https://rusutsu.com/
Official social media:Instagram|Facebook|X (Twitter)|YouTube