I love Hokkaido’s winter. When I strap on my Tubbs Wilderness snowshoes I feel a true sense of relief, like their 180 degree rotation bindings should be part of my natural gait. In fact, when I am not wearing them I feel downright naked, and slightly depressed. So I try to hit the snowshoeing trail as much as my schedule provides.

I had done well earlier in the week, taking advantage of two early release days from my work prison. I managed to squeeze in some rapid up and downs on Asahiyama before the sunset around 4:00 PM.

But this Friday, after a long work week I found myself needing the stress relief that only snowshoeing can provide. But alas, I wasn’t home until around 4:30. What’s a snowshoe crazed gaijin to do?

Strap on my Petzl TIKKA headlamp and hike to the trail head just like it’s midday! As it turns out, snowshoeing at night is the perfect situation for me. Whereas a day romp in the powder might have me encounter an occasional human, a night snowshoe took away any chance of such a terrible beast crossing my path. I could just turn on my podcast of choice (in this case “The Retro Hour”), zone out, and enjoy the trail. Plus, pure white snow acts almost like a self illuminator, so the headlamp wasn’t even needed all that much.

Looking forward to using both day and night to my advantage the rest of this snowshoeing season!