Be sure and check out this 3 minute look into what powder skiing and travelling through Hokkaido is all about.
We’ll be retuning each January. Check out out our Japow page for details.
Thanks to Black Diamond, Blue Ice, Smith and Dakine for the support!
This would not be possible without the endless stoke and talent of Pat Clifford, PCEDITS.com
Red River was amazing from start to finish. This was my first backcountry experience and the team was super helpful and answered all my questions as I planned the trip. The gear, instruction, and guiding were all top notch and I would absolutely recommend this company for any of your adventures, especially backcountry skiing. I couldn’t imagine a more knowledgable, helpful, patient, and fun guide - Victoria. She is a true professional and speaks very highly of the company. I definitely lucked out stumbling across their Facebook ad. They take safety very seriously but it doesn’t impede the fun at all. Thank you again for a great trip!
AIARE 1 with Brian and Vic exceeded my expectations, this was a refresher course for me, and I learned much more than I did the first time around. They did an amazing job instructing and guiding, were very knowledgeable and honest. Gave me everything I could ask for, 10/10 would recommend.
My 14-year old son and I had a great day of backcountry skiing with Victoria. Some gnarly weather came in, but we managed to ski some great snow, and my son learned a lot about backcountry travel. I hope to get the chance to be a return customer!
Epic day with John. Learned a lot and had a great time. Highly recommend!
Great outfit to work with and Nate was a fab guide for some great ice climbing. Will definitely use again when I’m in the area. Overall couldn’t ask for better!!
Brian and Victoria did an excellent job leading my AIARE 1 course. They created a great atmosphere for learning from their experience/knowledge and from each other. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
My daughter and I joined Red River Adventures on a mid-February Hokkaido Japan ski trip. We had unforgettable access to world class Hokkaido pow! Carl and his team were awesome. RRA checked all the boxes: Dialed-in Logistics (from airport to hotel to ski venues to dining), Quality lodging, Unique ski venues (away from the crowds), In-country connection with local guides, And most importantly, friendly and professional guides who were knowledgable with the ski terrain and also provided helpful general tips for more efficient touring and personal instruction- allowing us to really dial-in our powder skiing technique. We thoroughly enjoyed the company of our travel group and left Japan with big smiles and lasting memories.
I took the AIARE 1 course with Red River Adventure. Brian and Vic were getting guides and teachers! Very knowledgeable. The course delivered above and beyond!
Reviewing Japow trip to Hokkaido in winter of 2025. In a word, fantastic. Go if you can. I enjoyed just about every aspect of the trip. Before we started our trip Carl gave us a packing list, and a link to a Japan website that sped up our navigating through Japanese customs. I appreciated the ease by which we were able to coordinate getting picked up at the airport by our group guide due to a multi-hour delay in a connecting city. I thought the hotels were great (though small by Western standards, but that is simply how space is used in Japan, efficiently--read, small). The locations and terrain were awesome. I always felt like the Red River team maintained the group dynamics really well, we simply had a great group and I enjoyed getting to know folks on the trail, in the van or at the dinners spots we hit. We lucked out and had fresh snow every day but I feel that even if we didn't Carl and his team would have known where to go for fresh turns. Really hope I can do this again.
Professional and approachable guides drilled the avalanche material into us over three days. Thanks!
My friend and I went on a full day backcountry ski tour with Timmy in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was all we had hoped for in a day in the woods together but far more enjoyable than expected. The terrain Timmy took us on was to our experience level. He pushed us a bit, encouraged us, taught us some things and he had a great attitude and sense of humor. Thanks, Timmy!
Best AARIE 1 course out there! 10/10 Vic and Brian were absolutely awesome!! They went above and beyond to make sure we were all learning everything we could relevant to our situation! Some seriously knowledgeable people and really wonderful teachers! The resources and information they managed to provide over a 3 say course was absolutely phenomenal. I could not give a better review it was an absolute pleasure to spend time in the mountains with these guys!
Guides were amazing, very professional, very knowledgeable, created a great atmosphere for fun and for learning
My wife and I spent 6 days skiing JAPOW with the Red River crew and it was amazing! Incredible food, deep snow, and Onsen was the daily routine and it was absolutely perfect. Great line choices as well!
Best group out there. Extremely knowledgeable people and super fun to be around. 100% would recommend for guided tours!
Victoria was an incredible leader for the Womens Avy 1 clinic. She was so knowledgable, accomadating, and created a supportive environment for our course. I learned so much and feel so happy to have had this opportunity to participate in her class.
I took the AIARE 1 Course and was lucky to get Sam and Brian as instructors, plus Robbie who is almost certified. Not only did we learn a ton about planning a safe route in the backcountry, we had lots of hands on practice with rescue, general safety while in the field, and gear management. 12/10 recommend
Victoria was fabulous — I couldn’t have asked for a better instructor for my Aiare 1 course.
Nate was a fantastic guide. Ice climbing is something I wanted to try for quite awhile. Red River Adventures gave me the chance to experience this. Really fantastic adventure!
We just returned from a fabulous JAPOW trip that ranks as Best in Class! Carl and his team clearly put in an incredible amount of thought and preparation to make this a fantastic experience from every aspect. Besides their professionalism, their safety focus, and their almost unreal ability to find untracked powder, they are just fun companions with whom to spend the week. Highly recommend.
My friend and I (indoor rock climbers/minimal to no ice climbing experience) went on a trip to Midway, UT for XC skiing and the crater, and decided to add on ice climbing. We got rescheduled because of a relative heat wave that melted most of the ice. The owners were extremely accommodating in moving us and offered a refund. We opted to wait a couple of days and ultimately we went out in Provo Canyon two days later (our first choice location due to its proximity to Midway) and had a great, full-day experience adjusted to our level! Shoutouts to Tanya (owner/owner’s wife) for staying in regular communication with us, and Brian, our guide, for a wonderful day!
We had an incredible trip with Red Rivers Adventures in Hokkaido, Japan! Carl, John and Ayu were amazing guides. We highly recommend this lifetime experience.
Brian and Sam rule!!! They were very friendly and helpful. Judgement free zone! 10/10 would recommend
Knowledgeable and patient avalanche guides. Couldn’t ask for more
Very fun and helpful course for AIARE 1. Learned a lot and had a great time with my instructors and other class mates
Fantastic course led by awesome, professional folks. Would highly recommend to anyone. Thank you guys, I learned a ton.
Great 1st ice climbing experience! Brian was a great guide.
Learned so much from John during our AIARE II course this weekend! Even got to ski a bunch of powder :)
John took me and my fiancé out for our first splitboarding experience and it was a fantastic time. He was an incredible guide and tailored the experience to our skill levels. He was friendly and non-judgmental while going out of his way to help us have a successful trip. He is widely known as a legend in this field. I would highly recommend this company and will plan to use their services in the future.
Brian was a great instructor! I appreciate his help and guidance.
Ben was an excellent instructor for the Avalanche Rescue course!
Had an awesome day!
This is an excellent 2 day avi course (plus a bit extra pre course prep). A ton of great information which makes a solid introduction to planning and executing safe backcountry ski and split boarding trips. John and Jeremy were excellent teachers and guides. Highly recommend it.
I took the all women’s class with Vic and it was incredible. I felt very supported through the entire class with a bunch of other incredible women! Would highly recommend doing a course with Vic if you’re feeling nervous at all. She is incredibly patient and knowledgeable about all things backcountry!
Awesome experience. Garth and Ben were great guides and we learned so much!
I had such a great day ice climbing with Red River, couldn’t recommend this company enough. Booking and scheduling were simple and easy, and there were plenty of locations to climb near where we were staying. The price for two people + gear was completely reasonable. Our guide, Nate, was absolutely fantastic and totally made the whole experience for us. He let us choose how much and how difficult climbing we wanted to do, while being kind, interesting, and easy to talk to. He gave us great advice for how to climb more effectively and celebrated with us when we did something well. Nate even surprised me with a cupcake (it was my birthday). I had such a fantastic experience and wouldn’t hesitate whatsoever to book with this company again.
Excellent guiding, climbing, and ice. Overall a great experience!
We went touring with John and it was awesome. Great experience, tips and tricks and great knowledge of the area which was much appreciated. Thank you
I had an excellent experience taking a low ratio AIARE level 1 with Red River. Our guides Garth and Ben were experienced, knowledgeable, and provoked good discussion among my group. Plus they were also pretty nice folks! I wish that the classroom portion was a bit more organized and built upon content we learned in the pre-course instead of rehashing it, but the field portion more than made up for it. I would recommend this outfit to anyone trying to learn about the essentials of safely navigating avalanche terrain.
Great experience. Easy process. Good gear. Great communication. Super safe!
Great information and hands on experience learning how to use life saving tools and skills. Thank you red river!
Great day backcountry with Carl!
Always such a dope time with these guys. I’ve toured the past two years with Landon. Super knowledgeable both in safety and where the good spots are while teaching you a bit about the sport. Gonna do some mountain biking with him and his summer!! So stoked 11/10 guide book asap
Awesome day and Carl was fantastic as a guide. Super helpful tips when needed and fun to chat and ski with.
Avy 1 course was very well run. Instructors were professional and knowledgeable. I would definitely recommend.
We wanted to try Splitboarding in the backcountry on our last trip to Park City, UT. We found Red River through a simple Google search and we couldn’t have been happier with the entire experience. Our guide, John, was kind, patient, congenial and super safety focused - which we really appreciated. We went from knowing zero to having a challenging and fulfilling couple of days in an absolutely gorgeous part of the country (Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons). We also super appreciated that all the gear was provided in the Intro lesson price. These people know their stuff. If you’re thinking you want to try backcountry riding, the time is now and these are your peeps.
I took an AIRE 2 course with Red River Adventures. Instructors were professional, safe, and fun.
Awesome experience!! My tour guide Landon was amazing and hand vast avalanche knowledge! Can’t wait to book with red river again!!!
It was a great class. Ben had a good knowledge base and made everyone feel comfortable. I loved the amount of repetition given to take out and put back the equipment- this got me so much more comfortable with all my equipment.
Super profesional and expirienced guides!