Rishiri Japan

This trip objective started out as a group of friends, looking for an extraordinary adventure trip. It only took one picture of Rishiri 'the floating mountain', standing alone in the Sea of Japan, to galvanize the objective. It's a rare thing for working pro's to be able to make time for their own adventure. As mountain guides, March is prime time for work trips. So for this group, taking that window to do a trip like this, was extra special.

The video does a great job of capturing the objective of summiting and riding Rishiri itself. However, the richest part of the trip was the culture that's wrapped around the base of the island mountain; Being able to descend the mountain and ride right to the door of the Onsen... The little shrines and temples that elegantly dot the landscape... The insane Udon noodle shop with waves crashing into the seawall out the window... And the OG locals that have been surfing/riding this remote outpost for decades. The photo gallery below captures the magic of this remote place, and gives context beyond the mountain objective itself. 

The timing of this trip ended up running right into the global Covid lockdown of March 2020. Little did we know immediately after this trip, we would all be collectively grounded, for years. We were super lucky to summit Rishiri with our short window. And flying home on March 16th, we were very very lucky to pull this trip off at all, AND still make it home at the last minute.