Niseko for first-timers: what a season teaching there taught me

I taught at Niseko Village ski school for the 2019/20 season.

Most of what follows is about how people ski, how they get cold, and where their money goes, and none of that changes. Some of it is about how the place ran six years ago. I've marked those bits, because Niseko has built a lot since then, and I'd rather tell you what I actually know than guess at what's true now.

The thing nobody warns you about is the standing still

Almost everyone underdresses for their first lesson.

It makes sense. You picture skiing, and skiing is moving, and moving is warm. What you don't picture is how much of a beginner lesson you spend standing completely still. Waiting your turn. Listening. Watching the person in front of you have a go, then the next one, then the next one.

I watched this happen week after week. People turned up dressed for exercise and then stood in the snow for two hours getting quietly miserable, and by the end they'd decided they didn't like skiing. They liked skiing fine. They were just cold.

So dress for standing around, not for skiing. If you're slightly too warm walking to the lesson, you've got it about right.

Which is also the argument for a private lesson

Here's the bit I'd tell anyone booking lessons for the first time, and it's the same problem wearing a different hat.

In a group lesson with ten people, you get roughly a tenth of the instructor's time. The other nine tenths, you're standing in the snow. So the group lesson isn't just less instruction, it's more cold, and the two feed each other. You learn less and you enjoy it less, for reasons that have nothing to do with your ability.

A private lesson costs more per hour and gives you more skiing per hour. If you're only doing one or two lessons on the trip, make them private ones. Take them at the start of the trip too, not the end, so you've got the rest of the week to use what you learned.

Learn to fall over

This is the thing I said most often, and I'd still say it.

Beginners are frightened of falling, and that fear is what stops them progressing. They lean back, they stiffen up, they refuse to commit to a turn, and all of that makes them fall more, not less.

The truth is that falling on snow mostly doesn't hurt. If you're going fast and you land badly, sure. But at the speeds you'll be doing in your first few days, falling over is soft, undignified and completely fine. It's part of learning, everyone doing it well fell over a thousand times first, and once you stop being scared of it you get better fast.

Snow is fun. Fall over in it.

What to bring and what to hire

Hire your skis. Definitely hire your skis. Don't buy gear for a first trip and don't lug your own across the world.

What to bring is the clothing:

• Thermals. Proper base layers, top and bottom.
• A mid layer. This is the one people skip and it's the one that keeps you warm while you're standing around.
• Salopettes and a ski jacket. Waterproof, not just warm.
• A backpack. Genuinely a game changer. You can carry food and drinks up the mountain instead of paying mountain prices, and you've got somewhere to put a layer when you take it off.

The general rule is overpack and overdress. You can always take a layer off. You can't put one on if it's sitting in your room at the bottom of the hill.

Where the money goes

The on-mountain food and the souvenir shops. That's where it leaks, every time.

It's understandable. You're cold, you're hungry, you're already up there, and it's the only option in front of you. But it adds up fast over a week.

When you've finished skiing for the day, get the bus down into town instead. Kutchan or Hirafu. The food is better and it costs a fraction of what you'll pay on the mountain, and you get to see somewhere that isn't a lift queue.

Evenings, and having a way home

This one is from 2019/20 specifically and Niseko has developed a lot since. Check before you rely on it.

Niseko Village itself was quiet at night when I was there. Dark, mostly closed, a bit of night skiing on some days. The nightlife is in Hirafu and Kutchan, which is where you'll end up if you're going out.

Which brings me to the practical part: work out how you're getting home before you go out.

I missed the last bus more than once. I ended up either getting a lift from someone I half knew or crashing with people from one of the other ski schools. That was fine for me, because I lived there and knew people. On a week's holiday in a place you don't know, in a Hokkaido January, it's a genuinely bad situation to be in.

Know the last bus time. Write it down.

Lifts and first tracks

Also from 2019/20. Times and lift order will have changed.

Lifts opened somewhere around 8:30 to 9, and the ones from the top of the mountain ran first.

The general pattern is worth knowing even if the specifics have moved: the higher lifts open first and the best snow goes early. If you want fresh snow rather than something twenty people have already been down, being there at opening is most of the battle.

What I'd do with four days

If you've never skied before:

1. Book a private lesson for day one. Dress like you're going to be standing still, because you are.
2. Use day two to ski what you learned, on your own or with the group.
3. Another lesson on day three if it's clicking, because that's when it actually sticks.
4. Day four, just ski. Eat lunch out of your bag. Get the bus into town afterwards.

And fall over a lot. It's fine.

I taught at Niseko Village ski school during the 2019/20 season. The advice on lessons, clothing and learning is from teaching there. The notes on opening times, evening options and transport are what was true that season and are marked as such, because I'd rather date something than pretend it's current.