“They are a snow tribe, like snowboarder. Both tribes are waiting for fresh snow,” explains Japanese photographer Tsutomu Endo. He’s just laid his new photo book, MIAGGOORTOQ, in front of me while his wife, Yuki, clears the dinner table.

The book covers the daily life of the 30 or so people who inhabit Siorapaluk, the northernmost village in Greenland, where snow and hunting are life. Endo lived with and documented this tribe of arctic hunters over a five-year period, his last trip taking place in 2022.

Japan in January is as good a dice roll as any snowboarder can make when betting on fresh snow. Home was not providing. Smartwool athlete Mary Rand and I had been talking about Hakuba. I am always trying to figure out how to go ride Hakuba and see my friend Endo. Mary’d never been and would like to make a story of her first time there but had already spoken with the Content Director of this title, Colin Wiseman, who yogied her that we needed a deeper story. Hakuba spines alone wouldn’t cut it.

Those perfectly pitched, infinitely interpretable spines, 30 minutes to a few hours hike off the top lifts. Of course you have seen them, reader. Fish in a barrel. But I have a new Hakuba story. Reader – Wiseman! There is a peak out there that Endo has had sights on for some time. This is a big one. It will feed many souls. Local sherpas will be necessary for the approach. There will be ropes. A test of the human experience. A hunt! With page space approved, we packed ice axes, crampons and harnesses.

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