The Ghost Ski Resorts – Japan – Chapter Three

deserted infrastructures, cables frozen in the shadow of joy and tons of light Pacific powder.

Third part of our series on ghost resorts with Japan as the exploration ground for crows Celeste Pomerantz and Daisuke Fukasawa.

Fresh snow, just in from the Pacific Ocean. No one around. An atmosphere flirting with the great masters of Japanese photography. It could be black and white. Small trees spaced just right to be bypassed. The cry of a crow. Deep in the mountains of the Kansai region, on the main island of Honshu, Celeste and Daisuke explore places frozen in the 1990s. Alone on slopes deserted by skiers, they take advantage of exceptional snow where, just a few years earlier, a whole life was organized around ski lifts now in disrepair.

Japan is a great skiing country. Its powder is considered one of the lightest and most abundant in the world. After some strange years that witnessed a multitude of bankruptcies – obviously the subject of this third chapter – Japanese skiing has regained its former glory and can now look back on the past with the confidence of a country rooted in a centenarian ski culture. Interviews with three protagonists of the Nippon ski scene shed light on the latest developments. The frenzy of archive images contrasts with the delicacy of the mountains’ new-found silence.

romantic nostalgia sets in. Mystery rises. Tea shall wait.

CREDITS

Production Company

Interviews:
– Hiroaki Kono
– Fumikazu Hagiwara
– Mikio Katagiri

Cast

Interviews:
– Hiroaki Kono
– Fumikazu Hagiwara
– Mikio Katagiri

Skiers
– Celeste Pomerantz @celeste.pomerantz
– Daisuke Fukasawa @dicek.83
– Akifumi Kitamura

Crew

Production Company:
– Sweetgrass Productions @sweetgrassp

Directed:
– Zeppelin Zeerip @zeppelinzeerip
– Michael J Brown @mikaljamesbrown

Executive Producers:
– Camille Jaccoux @camillejaccoux
– Daria Strelnikova
– Nick Waggoner @sweetgrassp

Japan Producer:
– Maximilian Mackee

Produced:
– Michael J Brown @mikaljamesbrown
– Zac Ramras @snackyz
– Camille Jaccoux @camillejaccoux

Director of Photography
– Zachary Moxley @downtofilm

Translation / Fixers:
– Sammi Lee
– Yuki Miyazaki

Editor:
– John Rodosky @rodophoto
– Michael J Brown @mikaljamesbrown

Assistant Editor:
– Paul Osborne @chinatownpaul

Color:
– Brian Durkee

Sound:
– Avery Sandack

Experience Partner for Japan
– Kammui.com

Ghost resorts series base on an idea by Julien Regnier & Camille Jaccoux

Thanks to :
– Fumikazu Hagiwara
– Takayuki Arai
– Chikara Terakura
– Hiroshi Owada
– Ryotaro Yao
– Abandoned Kansai.com
– and Maximilian Mackee!

& everyone else who offered their support in Japan.

LOCATIONS

Minakami, Gunma Prefecture
Nozawa Onsen, Nagano Prefecture
Niigata Prefecture

#blackcrows #GhostResort
#skiing #freeski #japan
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blackcrows is an independent french freeski brand from Chamonix. Founded in 2006 by pro freeskiers Camille Jaccoux and Bruno Compagnet, blackcrows was born out of a desire to collide beauty and efficiency into skis.

We create obsessively design-driven objects that are uncompromising in performance and identity for contemporary skiing.

We aim for the pleasure of the senses through freedom and adventure.
We believe that ski culture is a window to the world.

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