How this Japanese ski town became the powder capital of Asia – and maybe even the world

Niseko, Japan CNN —

I am somewhere in the trees. Thigh-deep in powder. Stomping through the snow. Not riding my board as I should be but carrying it.

Muttering to myself about taking the wrong line and getting stuck, I breathe heavily as I start the deep, long march back. It is a problem most skiers and snowboarders would pay to have.

And they do in their droves.

About 20 feet below me, Chris Laurent, from Paris, has a different problem.

“I can’t find my ski,” he says, swearing and laughing at the same time as he digs into a growing mound of fresh powder.

“I know it is in here somewhere. But where?”

Niseko, located on the island of Hokkaido, is famous for its consistent dry powder.

Snowflakes the size of silver dollar coins continue to rain down on both of us.

These are Niseko problems. The powder capital of Asia, and some say the world.

Japan, long revered as a powder Mecca, has faced a chilling reality in recent years: warming winters, diminished snowfall, plummeting numbers of local skiers and snowboarders and the shuttering of once-booming resorts.

However, this season, industry insiders were salivating as the La Niña weather pattern — a cyclical period of cooler weather — pointed to a return to the massive snow dumps that made the island of Hokkaido, where Niseko is located, legendary. The last La Niña-driven season in Japan was 2021–2022, topping record snowfall numbers at many resorts.

Early on, the results were impressive: Niseko started the season by breaking a 68-year-old record for snowfall in the first month of December.

Once called the 'Vail of the East,' Niseko has become a destination in its own right.

Since then, there was a lull when the powder machine was turned off before cranking up again