For holiday casual skiers or snowboarders, winter season happens only around January to February. Those in the know, pack their gear and head to the snowy mountains, starting from December to early July. And then there are those who live a full year of winter, moving to countries in the south to continue their winter season as it begins from the end of June to September. I have a few friends who live this kind of lifestyle, and it always made me wonder what was driving them to live in a year-long winter. 

As someone who grew up in a tropical country, my idea of snow is the frostings that you see in your refrigerator. Yes, my home country had year-long summers instead. Living life, dealing with weather, was something local people learned how to live with in their own way. When I moved to Japan, there were now four different seasons, I had to adjust with the temperature change, bundling up with twice more layers than the average person. My first winter was harsh, and I didn’t know how to deal with the cold weather. This wasn’t even in the snowy mountains yet, and I had my heater on to max and wrapped myself in electric blankets. I think at that time I didn’t know how to acclimate yet and I had to struggle for years. 

Having made friends with the biggest ski bum I’ve ever met, I casually shared my unspoken desire to learn properly how to ride on snow. It triggered this avalanche of events where I was roped (figuratively of course!) and dragged to minus degree (C) weather. I snapped on a pair of skis to my feet, preparing for my first ever ski lesson at the age of 30. My friend had been skiing since the wee age of 3 years old so he was bred differently from me. He had this cultic obsession over snow, and this fueled his drive to ski in different places in and out of Japan. I was literally being dragged on this unexpected pilgrimage to tour the different winter mountains all while learning how-to walk in a pair of skis. But I didn’t hate it.  

Learning the differences in snow quality made me discover the famous powder snow. The Japanese powder snow, coined as Japow, is this light fluffy snow that a lot of avid skiers or snowboarders are raving about. I struggled so much to ski through deep Japow and crashed several times more than I could count. For me, it felt like bouncing on water with a lot less resistance and where my balance fails to embrace me. It takes the fight or flight a whole different meaning and the struggle makes it so addicting.  

As I dive more into the world of skiing, I find that its quite the zoo. Its not just simply putting on one kind of skis and go downhill. There’s the groomed slopes, ungroomed slopes, moguls, ski mountaineering, the backcountry, cross-country, and all sort of things that I have yet to try.