For a few years I had heard rumors of a popular derelict ski area northeast of Sapporo. It hadn’t been high on my list of places to visit, however, as trudging up a slope devoid of interesting trees and landscape didn’t really appeal to me. After doing some research, however, the small peak (Mt. Goryo-yama) to the east of the top of the ski runs looked interesting, and the weather forecast for this weekend looked fairly bleak in most places in Hokkaido. An easily navigated derelict ski area and an easily attainable peak in less-than-good weather conditions sounded like a nice bad-weather weekend option.

So a few of us made the 2 hour trek out of Sapporo City early on a Saturday morning, hoping to get some fresh tracks.

Despite leaving Sapporo at around 6:30am, however, by the time we got to the Panke Onsen carpark, there were already about 10 cars. This is clearly a popular spot to get some backcountry skiing in.