Resort Skiing – Hakuba - Tsugaike Ski Hill
31st March 2006
March 31 - Resort SkiingWe had been waiting since Wednesday in anticipation of this day. It had been snowing heavily on and off since then and had accumulated in places very deeply. We got to the resort early hoping to get first tracks on the runs. We were dissapointed however to find that the resort was having an off day and took a while to get going. They claimed it was wind however I think that with the huge late season snow and weekday staff the resort was vastly unprepaired. The gondola didn't even open up until 11. We were left looking and waiting for chairs to open up. We skied a few short lines in the trees and found deep deep snow. The trees however were tight and we had to be on our feet or take a header into a log.With the runs all tracked out and us wanting to get into an area that we knew but was still not open we went into the lodge to wait. Free drinks until 10:30. Nice.We set a deadline of 12 and if the double wasn't going by then we'd pull the trigger and run to Cortina. But at 12 the liftees said just a few more minutes so we did another lap on some south faces and then finally got onto the chair we had been waiting for all morning.At the top we quickly found that the high ridge trail was closed. We would have to put in a traverse. No problem. I vollunteered to start it out and so with a quick rope duck we were on the slope. I only had to get over a slight roll next to a cornice before I'd be on the north faces propper. I sidestepped onto the slope and then went a metre more and then everything bad that could happen did happen. The entire slope ripped out with me on it. Immediatly my mind and body went into survival mode. I was standing on a large slab and it was beginning to move fast. I rolled off the uphill side of it and hit the rain crust of March 18. The slope is quite steep in this area. Probably 40-45 degrees and treed. I reached out for the first tree I saw and just brushed past it. Somewhere in this slide my left ski and left pole vanished. My DIN is set on 11 so the forces on the binding must have been high. I don't remember losing the ski. I do remember seeing my pole next to me on the slope though. After trying to grab the tree I slid into the middle of the slope and self-arrested on my uphill ski.At this time I realized that Nick had also been in the slide with me however he had only fallen in and didn't really slide anywhere. Once the initial shock was over I looked at Nick and said we have to regroup and decide what to do. The 2nd thing I said was that we wern't going backcountry skiing the next day on Karamatsu. With Nick and I being ok and Sean above us back inside the resorts ropes just a phone call away Nick and I decided that the safest option would be to descend the slide path. It looked at the time like everything that would have slid had indeed slid. The only problem with descending though was that I was only on 1 ski. My pole had been picked up by Nick just a few metres from where I had stopped sliding. We cut back and forth looking in obvious places for my ski but in the back of my mind I feared that it might be gone. About half-way down the slope I could finally see the bottom of the run and I saw something very straight sitting on top of the debris. It looked like a ski but we didn't want to get down there and find a straight stick. So we continued searching and when we were close enough to see that it was my ski Nick quickly went down to grab it and then get to a safe zone. I finally got down to my ski and saw that the slide hadn't stopped at the end of the run. When it had gotten to the point where my ski was the slide had turned the corner and continued on for quite a ways. Very scary.I finally got over to Nick in the safe area and gladdly took my ski from him. It looked to be undamaged. After a few minutes to catch my breath (skiing on 1 ski is exausting) we started the ski out. We went 1 at a time next to the debris and found amazingly deeeeeeeeeeep snow. I went straight to the car to clean out my pants and Nick found Sean and they quickly joined me.So the slide:Crown - 100-150cm deepCrown - 20-30 metres longSlid for 500 metres distanceSlid for 350 metres verticalWe broke a big rule in Avalanche safety. And that is the rule of 30. Don't go into the backcountry when there is 30 cms of new snow in the last 30 hours sitting on a slope of 30 degrees or greater.The snow slid on the March 18 rain crust. Snow had been loading on the north faces over the past 2 weeks since then and it was just waiting for something to trigger it. We were lucky to escape unharmed the way we did.A good lesson learned in the mountains.April 1 - Last day of my vacation - Happo-OneNick had to work in the morning at Evergreen and Sean was on his way home so I headed to Happo-One on my own to try and find some of the snow that we missed out on the day before due to the avy. I got a late start and wasn't on the hill until after 9 and by then all the snow on the main mountain had turned to mush with the incoming very warm weather. I skied a couple runs trying to find some powder however my mind just wasn't in it. For some reason I just don't like skiing Happo-One. The resort just doesn't have astetic lines that interest me. Unless of course you drop off the North side of the resort where there are good looking runs. So I waited around for Nick to finish his work and then we drove off to find some powder where we were caught the day before in the avy.We strapped back into our skis at 1 and by looking hard were able to find some very deep buttery powder. It wasn't as dry as the day before but it wasn't the heavy crud of Happo. The snow looked like it had completly consolidated and I even ducked the rope where my slide was to see if I could get a picture of the crown. The wind however had blown in enough snow to almost hide the crown line completly.One sad thing to note was that most of the lines that we normally ski all day were all tracked out by Japanese people. Seems like I'm leaving Japan at the right time as tree skiing seems to be getting very popular. Also to note was that the people we saw in the trees were not skiing/riding responsibly. No safe zones or one at a time riding. I hope that nothing happens in the next couple years because the patrol will really crack down if a couple people get caught in slides outside the resort boundery.And with that my spring vacation was over. Back to work with only weekend and golden week skiing to look forward to. But I did get 11 days of skiing in which isn't that bad.Also have to say that that was probably my last day of resort skiing in Japan as I ship out in July for Canada. Happy and sad about that.
Resort Skiing – Tsugaike Ski Hill
4th March 2006
It's March and my foot has almost healed after 7 weeks of taking it easy. I decided to try out the downhill gear for this weekend as there was a bit of new snow. So the downhill boots went on and the bigtix came out.I've said it before but it is amazing how stiff these boots are after getting used to my Scarpas. They are also so much easier to ski in when I click them into the bigger skis.Nick, Dave, Jer and I went for north facing right away and dropped into my favorite run with all the cliffs. Nick cut the slope as we knew there was an icy layer 30cms down from a rain event earlier in the week. The slope slid like we predicted but instead of a little sluff it picked up both speed and more sluff sliding right to the bottom. The sluff had gained a bit of speed by the time it got there. Definitly something to be wary of.But we all skied it and had a good time. The slick layer wasn't exactly rock hard but instead was kind of slushy hard and very carvable. At the bottom for the ski out I had such a good time getting little airs on anything I could. It was so great to be back on real downhill equipment without the pains I have been experiencing. I don't think the smile ever left my face all day and considering the fact that the snow although fun wasn't the Hakuba deep that we know I had a great time lapping up the North faces.It was really strange though because after our lengthy and very fun lunch we were getting to the top of the resort and found that many people had made very nice turns down the alpine face of Norikura. Nothing was moving up high while everything was sliding down low. I guess it didn't rain up high earlier in the week.It was a great day and I loved getting back onto my downhill gear but I really fealt sad seeing all those turns on the big alpine face of Norikura. It was worth it though to find out that my foot is pretty much fixed.
Resort Skiing – Tsugaike Ski Hill
26th February 2006
After our amazing trip and weather the day before we awoke to very wet and heavy snow falling. Hakuba and the North Alps have needed this bit of snow for a while as it looks like April out there.We slowly made our way to Tsugaike Resort where we planned on doing the minimum amount of skiing possible to make it count as a day. The people out in this weather were Chris, Bruno, Dan, Risa and I. We were already getting wet just waiting in the Gondola line. Skiing didn't look like fun already. But as we were at the mountain we may as well enjoy a little time on the sticks.From the top of the resort we dropped into the Double Black Diamond area and found 15cm's of heavy snow overtop of an icy layer. The day before I had not been able to ski however I was able make some fun turns in this snow. So it wasn't all bad. At the bottom we all agreed that more runs were needed and so went up for another.At the top we descided to get a little more vert so skied with big turns left little turns right. This way we could join up with the cat-tracks below. The runs are low angle and don't live up to the double black diamond name but we managed to have some fun. At the bottom of the second cat-track the 4 of us were waiting for Risa to make her way down. She is just learning how to ride in the trees so was taking her time. But she didn't take her time at all for the last little bit and instead of stopping before the cat-track descided to launch off of a 3 metre rock with some speed and land right on the road. While in the air she also turned to face forwards and so when she landed dug her board right into the snow stopping her dead. I think this made the impact a little worse. The compression of her fall was very dramatic. We all knew something was wrong and quickly ran over to her. She was laying face down on the road. We slowly took her board off and got her to roll over. After about 10 minutes we got her standing up with a little walking and a little later decided to walk down the trail a bit to where it joined with another. 100 metres down the trail though Risa had had enough and wanted the patrol.Bruno and I skied down to the Gondola midstation to get some help. They told us patrol was on the way so we returned to the scene. But while on the chair back up we saw that the patrol still hadn't made gotten there yet.We eventually found somebody and directed them to Risa. A while later a snowmobile took her to the clinic in the village below.The clinic gave her X-Rays and found nothing wrong so we all thought it is probably just muscle damage.The following afternoon I got a call from Dan telling me that after Risa went to the hospital in Osaka they found out that she had broken her back. She was going to be transfered to Takayama Hospital where she would undergo immediate surgery. She will have to spend a month in the hospital followed by a long bit of rehabilitation.A very sad turn of events for her and I hope she makes a quick and full recovery.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Tsugaike Ski Hill
8th January 2006
After driving all over Hida trying to find a gas station open early in the morning Minako and I finally left Takayama a bit before 7 getting to Hakuba by 10.We dropped off Nick's new Spats and then went out to meet Jer, Dan and Risa. The hills were really busy but the runs that we skied were still untouched.I had to ski in my Scarpa's because United Airlines didn't bother loading my backpack onto the plane in San Francisco and I definitely found them to be really soft. I also didn't like that I always found myself in the backseat. But at least I was out skiing and not fuming at the airline like I would have been had they not loaded my big ski bag.Right away we jumped into the steepest of the lines getting very nice fast snow. It wasn't very deep but I still got some face shots. It was a little cloudy on the way back up the gondola so we saw our chance to get some south facing runs and they didn't disappoint. They were really good. After another North Face run we got an urgent radio call from Tats saying that the patrol was out looking for us so we layed low with him and his crew for a few minutes at the KFC before going out again as a big group of 7. We lapped up the low angle trees a few times and then for the last run decided to get my dream run. I have wanted this line since first seeing it last year on the Gondola with Nick. It's a beautifully steep line and wide open. The only problem is that it is fully exposed to the gondola. But it was our last run and we were really stoked to ski it. We had lost a few people in our group so we were down to just 4 people. Dan, Jer, Tats and I. We jankened at the top to see who would get first tracks and I was lucky enough to score big. The run was really good with a straight-line down the steepest part followed by a big sweeping turn left with another big one to the right. Very good. I realized after skiing this line that this run was the only run of the day that got the adrenaline flowing for me whereas over at W/B most every run had me pumped up. Kind of strange but just shows that it's not only powder that makes the day. Terrain for me is what makes my day.I don't think I could have ended the day any better.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Tsugaike Ski Hill
18th December 2005
After getting the goods the day before in some tight trees my lower back was feeling it pretty good. I needed some more open trees to let the Bigstix run and maybe a few cliffs thrown in to make things interesting. We woke up to 40cm's of fresh snow wondering if it will ever stop snowing here and headed out getting on the lift at the late time of 9:30. Sean stayed at the lodge to do some work and relax so we were down to 4. As we were heading into knarlier terrain Vern went his own way and by the time we stepped into the trees we were a small perfectly sized group of 3. Nick, Jer and I.The freak December storm came in like promised and the temperatures dropped rapidly to their lowest of the season. It would be a warm clothing day and one of the first days that I was able to wear my balaclava and wool sweater without sweating too much.First run we bushwacked into the usual chute. I've never cut the slope before so volunteered right away and cut away. Nothing moved except for a little bit of sluff. Surprising since there has been snow much snow this month and the night before a fair bit of wind. Nick went first ripping it up even getting a rare over the handle bars tumble in right off the first drop. Jer was using Nick's deep powder skis and ripped it and then it was my turn. The snow was so dry and cold. It was amazing. We all clinked at the bottom and were phsyched for some more turns.But we would have to break trail to get out first. Nick went ahead and just out of sight yelled back that he had fallen in the creek. We made our way over there and found him up to his chest in a nice hole. A small creek just behind and below him. I flatened out a platform for him to put back his skis on and after much work he freed himself. I thought that as he was now safe I better get on with the trail breaking and so skied away. Not 2 metres further and all of a sudden the snow collapsed under me. I dropped into a big hole about 2 metres across. The tips of my skis supported on one side of the hole with the tales resting on the edge of a waterfall. That wasn't good. As I learned in the Tateyama the last thing you want to get on your bases is water. I clicked out and with some fancy footwork on the edge of the waterfall got my skis and poles out of the hole. But the hole was too deep and wide to just climb out so I brought my skis back in and used them as stairs to climb out. That was the easy part. The hardest and sweatiest thing to do was climbing up to the new track that Jer was putting in well above the creek.We were soon in control and putting in our track and after about 45 minutes had a good line in.Couldn't let it go to waste so it was back up for some more. As the top run isn't yet open Nick layed in a really sweet track traversing near the top of the run so that we could get further along the ridge. We lapped another run in some tighter glades before I voted run number 3 be my favorite. The cliffy run.As usual I go left and Nick goes right. I kind of pussed out on my air though and speed checked off of the mushroom. Only about 3 metres. Definitly nothing to write home about. As I was below I spotted Nick into his line and he got a really cool 2 stage cliff. But Jer being new to the group had to up us and launched off a natural lip in the centre getting a good 5 metre drop which looked like it really surprised him. We all ripped to the bottom each of us getting some more drops and had to do the clinky again because we were so excited.We only had 1 top to bottom run left in us after that so lapped a quick run in some low angle trees before heading into the steepest terrain on the mountain. It was so good but I fudged on both of my drops. I didn't want to jump them blind or with too much speed so I would speed check just before them. But the snow was so dry that I would quickly become enveloped in a cloud of snow and be blinded. Not wanting to hit a tree I'd have to pull the brake taking all the fun out of any drop that I found. But as I always found myself right on top of the drops I was able to direct Nick and Jer into a nice one lower down on the run. At the bottom we had had it. All that was left was the leg burning high speed traverse out and by the time we were back at the car we were spent.Even though we only did 5 runs they were really really good ones. Lapping quick runs like we did the day before is fun but I'd much rather have quality over quantity and this day was a definite quality day.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Happo-One
17th December 2005
The snow never really stopped all last week and by the time the weekend came around I was ready to get some more deep powder out in Hakuba. Well over a metre of snow fell through the week and wih the already deep base the weekend before we expected this weekend to be pretty dam good.We got into the Gondola at 8:30 and once at the top of the mountain our group of 5 were ready to rip. With me was Nick, Jeremy, Sean and Vernon. We pretty much ripped the mountain from top to bottom first run. That seperated the ladies from the boys for sure as when we got to the bottom Nick and I were hardly breathing while the other the guys were ready for a break. But no rest for the wicked and we went up for some more laps on Sake. It was really good. The entire mountain didn't disappoint at all. I had good challenges skiing the trees of Happo-one which are a lot tighter than I'm used to. Really have to stay on your game to get down unscathed. And from the nice bruise on my right hip I was off on one turn after airing over a shrub to pretty much land in the next one getting all tangled up.While the others went in to warm up their female fingers Nick, Jer and I decided to stay out and try to get into the correct area that we fudged up in last weekend. Shouting to Jer on the chair ahead to try and get him to stay out we told him it could either be the best run of your life or the worst. That was enough of a mystery for him and he stayed out for 1 more run. And it was a good one. Way better than the week before because we could actually see and were on the right face. Going back up to Virgin to collect Sean and Vern we found them munching french fries with Aki and so left them to their thing. Jer was developing boobs himself so also stayed in while Nick and I went out for another couple runs. We got deep deep snow in some shrubs before a snap decision to hit our new line again. This time going a bit further into it and again getting a sweet run of deep powder with a ton of face shots.We collected our lady friends and from the top elected to do another top to bottom run. At the bottom of Skyline Sean and Vern had had enough. First day out rubber legs had claimed them. I can't say I blame them though because we wern't exactly having a lazy day. A couple more laps and the tight turns soon started to take their toll on Jer and I and with Nick having to get back to his lodge for the plumber we all called it a day after getting a ton of runs.A really good day and Happo-One is slowly starting to grow on me. I said slowly.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Tsugaike Ski Hill
11th December 2005
The snow kept falling and by Sunday morning there was another 30cm's of snow outside giving us over a metre of new snow since Thurday night. Could the timing for the weekend skier like myself be any better????Dan, Tats, Morikawa-san and I headed out wanting something steeper and more challenging than the day before at Happo. We didn't have trouble finding it. First run up started out as a great bushwack and I have to thank Tats for getting us into the chute. I thought I knew were it was but I guess not. It didn't dissapoint. Tats went first and cut the slope. Nothing moved at all. Barely any sluff went. So he ripped it to the bottom radioing Dan to go next and then Morikawa-san. I brought up the rear and it was amazing. The snow was so dry and there were lots of little drops. It was incredible. But with the run over we were now faced with a long section of trail breaking in the deep snow. It probably took us close to an hour to put the trail in as our skis were sinking in about 30cm's on each step. Hard work for the person in front. When we got to easier ground we set up a system of slingshots getting the last person to get as much speed as they could to break a little further. With the track in we couldn't it go to waste so went up for another go.Next run would be my favorite. The steep treed chute with lots of cliffs to jump off. I went first and stopped above the the cliffs. I radioed the rest down and then with them below me had a great run to the bottom. Dan took some pictures of the first drop and I think it must have been about 4-5 metres. The landing was so soft. I got another cliff further down of the same height and then a few more small 1-2 metre drops and I was at the bottom. It was amazing. Up again we wanted to try another run on a different aspect as the weather had moved in and was perfect for a covert run. I ended up bushwacking a lot of this run as I couldn't find a good line but everybody else seemed to enjoy themselves.We went back over to the other side of the mountain for the next and after a lot of traversing and thick bushes found some open glades that went to the bottom. Very fun. We got a bit seperated after that so it was only Tats, Dan and I for the last run of the day which again was really good and open on both aspects. I didn't know that we could join them up like that. I'll have to do that again.It was an amazing deep powder day and so much better than the day before. Sorry Nick. It just was. Deep and steep with the right amount of drops to make it interesting. Just what I love.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Happo-One
10th December 2005
It started snowing on Thursday night and by Saturday morning had dropped about 80cm's of snow on Happo-One without any sign of stopping. Dan, Tats, Morikawa-san and I got up real early hoping to get the first gondola that we thought would leave at 7:30We were lucky and there wasn't many people out and we did score the first gondola but it didn't leave until 8. Up at the top we found so much snow. We stood in line for another 20 minutes and got the second chair up to the Virgin Restaurant. Tats and I jumped off the chair right away and found very very very deep snow. So much snow in fact that you could almost not even turn. I got first tracks down the main run and waited for Tats at the bottom. He had foolishly brought his Pocket Rockets instead of his Gotamas. It was great having got first tracks watching the many people run from the gondola over to the quad chair. We jumped on the chair again and on the way up saw Dan struggling in the new snow. It was his first time on super fats and his first time in such deep snow. But as Dan excels in pretty much everything he does it didn't take him long to figure it all out. We did another lap on the quad and then moved over to the Skyline after getting 2 runs of first tracks near and around the quad. Tats and Dan were having goggle trouble so spent a couple minutes in the Virgin Restaurant. Nobody had yet skied into the big bowl and a couple of Japanese skiers on fat skis were waiting on the cat track just below me for some reason. Finally Tats and Dan were ready and we skied to the cat track and sidled up to the other skiers. They were waiting for something and so I jumped in first again getting first tracks. The angle was a little steeper here and I was able to get some great turns before having to point it straight along the flats to the cafeteria. Looking back I saw that the other skiers were just waiting for somebody to go ahead to break trail for them. It wasn't even that difficult getting across to the top of the Skyline lift. Waiting there for the others the Japanese skiers on fat skis again went over to the top of the run and waited. We were ready to go and I again sidled up to them and found them waiting for somebody to go so I booked it and got first tracks down skyline. Skyline is a good run but with this much snow you really have to plan things right as in some places it's not steep at all. But I was able to get some really nice turns in and at the bottom was so happy after getting 4 runs of first tracks in. We did a couple more laps on skyline before having to go in for a nice long lunch.After lunch we wanted to find some steeper runs so headed lower on the mountain into the Sake area. These runs were closed but it's not for lack of snow. It was just about as deep down low as it was up top. We scored some amazing runs. Nick finished his lessons over at Tsugaike and joined us for the afternoon and led us on a couple short bushwacks which turned into nice open runs. We were getting face shots everywhere. On one run I turned into some bushes and ended up having to thrash my way out. I found Nick below on the catrack and he immediatly skied off. When I caught him I was going to tell him that we should probably wait for Dan as he is just learning to ski powder. As we came around the corner there was Dan waiting for us. He catchs on so quick. Tats wanted some big and open so persuaded us all to go back up the mountain and try the big face in the middle of the mountain. Dan wasn't so into it but Nick told him it could either be the best run of your life or the worst. Turned out to be somewhere in the middle when we got offroute and ended up having to cut a trail and then bootpack to get out. By the time we got back onto the main runs we were all spent and called it a day. But we still had the ski out which turned into an epic last run. After lots of fast straightline traversing we found ourselves at the top of a nearly untracked run. A quick rest to wait for everybody to catch up and catch their breath and we started a race to the bottom. I took the ridgline right down as I knew it would get good and steep at the bottom. It was a great run and all that was left was poling back to the car at the Momonoki. An amazing day and it was just going to get better.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba - Goryu
3rd December 2005
It started snowing heavily in the Hakuba area on Thursday and Goryu decided to open a run up on the top of the mountain. I thought it was the main run with the 2 double chairs going up it so got really excited. I was going to be in Hakuba anyways helping Nick out for one last weekend before he opens his lodge the following weekend.Friday night Dan, Dave, Jer and I left for Hakuba. We all met in Hirayu where there was a nice 15cms of fresh snow. Loaded up Dan's new Legacy and got on our way. It started snowing heavily again once we got into Hakuba and Jer and I got really excited about what we would ski the next day.Saturday - Jer and I were up early and made it to the resort early enough that we had to wait in a short line for them to open the gondola. Going up the gondola we passed the double that I thought we would be riding. It was turning. Nice. When we got to the top though we found that we wouldn't be riding the run I thought but were instead going to be on the top most run which is pretty flat. We lapped it up trying to carry as much speed as we could so that when we went flying off the side of the run into the deep snow we wouldn't stop dead right away. Instead we would move for 5 or 6 metres before stopping dead. It got boring pretty quick. But the other chair kept on turning and after about an hour on the boring flat run we saw that the patrol was pulling up the signs. They had opened the steeper run. We bee-lined for it with everybody else and found very deep powder. Very nice. It had a steeper angle for most of the run so that I could actually turn without coming to a dead stop. Going back up the chair after that first run was really funny as pretty much everybody had stopped dead in the deep snow. They were almost all hiking out to the groomed run because they couldn't handle the deep snow. Jer and I quickly found the steepest part of the run and lapped that up even getting some nice little turns in some shrubs with a few small drops. 11:30 came and we had to get back to the lodge to help Nick and the rest of the party with the renovations. I was freezing anyways and we had tracked out all the snow.This was a great first day on the lifts.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba - Goryu
13th March 2005
It was still snowing when we went to bed so we made plans for getting an early start the next morning. We awoke with 30-40cm's of fresh powder which was really nice. I had 2 free passes to 47/Goryu so I hooked Nick up for always scoring me freebies. Skiing for free rules!Dave was our guide for the day and right away we jumped into the trees. It was really deep. We got a few untracked runs on Goryu and then headed over to 47 where it seemed we were just a little late and all the obvious trees had been skied out. We met up with Stewart and then headed back to Goryu and scored a sweet top to bottom line which ended in the middle of a race. The race people must have thought it both annoying and funny to see 6 gaijin with backpacks emerge from the trees into the middle of a race course. Oops. Up high the snow was deep and fluffy and down low it was soft and squishy. The squishy snow was like nothing I have skied before and was kind of fun. We decided to duck out of the resort proper and headed up to the top. We had 2 options here. Either hike for 2 minutes out of the resort or just duck a rope to get out of the resort. We chose the lazy option and ducked the rope. The snow was epic out here. It was so deep and everything was silent. It was really amazing. At the bottom Nick and I traversed way up high along a narrow ridge to a steep line. Nick went first and caught his tip taking all the snow with him as he slid down. I chose a different line and it went alright however I went over a roller halfway down and it threw me forward pushing my face into the snow but as I was still carrying some momentum I was pushed blindly down the hill where I dropped over a small cliff and skied out over the rough and frozen avy debris. An interesting run. As the snow was so amazing we went up for another lap. Again we took the lazy approach to getting into the BC. Nick and I split off from the group and went far left into a huge open face. We skied a ridgeline all the way to the bottom and it was my best run of the weekend. The snow was perfect and the run was pretty steep. It was epic. Not wanting to let the run go to waste we went up for lap number 3. When we got on the chair though a patroller was shadowing us. Being lazy with the rope ducking kicked us in the ass. We hiked the 2 minute hike to the backcountry gate and then legally skied the run. We all went into the face this time. As there was 6 of though we safely skied it one at a time. It was just as good as the last time. At the bottom of the traverse out though just as you re-enter the resort there where 2 patrollers waiting. One of then was really cute. They were not upset however and new that we had left the resort at a backcountry gate and re-entered at the correct place. They were concerned however that we had skied an open face in full view of the resort and were worried that somebody might follow us and get into trouble. Nothing wrong with that. But we had 2 really good runs before getting into a bit of trouble. Lap 4 we stuck to the trees in the same area and had another great run. Wasn't as good as the last 2 and was kind of anticlimatic but fun none the less. And that was our day.A good winterish weekend skiing with some cool new people. Dean, Dave, Ben, Stewart and Nick. Thanks guys. See you around.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Happo-One
12th March 2005
I headed up to Hakuba friday night with the hopes of arriving just as the the rain turned to snow for the weekend. Driving through Matsumoto in the early evening hours though I was sad to see a temperature of plus 8. Getting closer to Hakuba the clear weather turned to heavy rain. The weekend at this moment was not looking good. After a quick onsen at the Momonoki I was sleeping to the sounds of rain at the Happy Lodge.Nick, Sean, Dave and Dean arrived at 1:30am and told me it was trying to snow outside. The cold front seemed to be just a little bit late.Saturday - We woke up early to heavy snow which was nice. But we took a lazy approach to the day hoping the afternoon would be the ticket. We lazed the morning and watched Starsky and Hutch which was really funny and then geared up to get out for the afternoon. We kept it cheap though and got free morning tickets from the bottom of the gondola. Just wanted to check it out and the hour these tickets gave us was good enough. Surprisingly the snow was pretty good up high. We skied in the trees and found enough powder to make the afternoon worthwhile. But as our tickets were only good for an hour we had to get down to the bottom to find some more. We easily scored some more. Dean and I both got a point card with enough runs on them and then for 1000 yen an afternoon ticket. Pretty good deal. We met up with Ben and his wife and hit the big open face in the middle of the mountain. It was sick skiing with the occasional face shot. The wind was howling though and up top it was really really cold. This was the coldest I have experienced this winter and it made it difficult to stay motivated. But we skied most of the afternoon and had a great time. We finished up the day at Tracks where there was a lamb bbq. It was my first time over there and I had a good time. A good bar atmosphere with Moosehead beer. Not sure why nobody imports Molson Canadian. In Japan I have only ever had Blue and Moosehead. While at Tracks I got an email from Yuka my OL friend. It was funny as all it said was "Where is now". That kind of became the slogan for the weekend.
Resort Skiing – Nagano – Nozawa Ski Hill
6th March 2005
After an a really good dinner the night before we were all tired and fell asleep early which much to the other people in the rooms disaproval meant an early morning for me.Up at 6:30 I made sure Robin, Jenny and Chris were awake as well. It's their fault for falling asleep so early. We got out onto the hill under blue skies and it was really good. Chris wanted to try out the trees and as Sven didn't have gear I couldn't really say no to Chris either so we all went into the trees and had a good time. The snow was still good from the day before and the blue sky made it that much better. We even got Bill into the trees for the last run. It was a great day out.Good weekend
Resort Skiing – Nagano – Nozawa Ski Hill
5th March 2005
I have never gone on a trip with all of my local friends at the same time so when Bill and Chris planned a ski trip to Nozawa Onsen I made a plan of going. It was a really good time and was the first and last time we will all be together on a trip out of the prefecture. So friday night Bill, Jenny, Robin, Helen, Chris and I piled into the cars for the journey to Nozawa. It started dumping around Nagano City and dropped about 15 cm's at the Nozawa base with a ton more up high.SaturdayI met Sven Saturday morning and we jumped into the trees. As he didn't have safety gear we really practiced safe skiing and I think we did a good job. I didn't know it at the time but after our first run he told me that this was only his second day of skiing powder with his first being the day before. He did pretty good. I never really had to wait for him and he ripped it up. We skied some great steep lines and the snow was so deep. As we were skiing the lines one at a time it was easier and much more practical to take pictures and video so Sven got a few shots of me skiing and I got some of him. I don't usually like stopping to take pictures but it worked out really well. It was a really good day.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Happo-One
27th February 2005
Sunday afternoon:Nick drove us over to Happo-one where he was able to score us some free tickets from his work. Thanks Evergreen Outdoor Centre. We just had to have them back by 2:00pm which wasn't a problem as we wanted to leave early anyways.I havn't skied the trees at Happo and havn't even been to this hill mid season. What a difference 2-3 metres of snow makes. So many places were totally clean. We ducked into the summer roads and not surprisingly found good snow. These runs are really nice and open. You can really let the skis run and we left some nice big marks on the faces. Nick showed me the Shite Gap and I have to say that it is freakin huge. It would take a metre of snow and an intense soul search to hit that thing. I was pretty impressed with the Happo runs. Our time was running out so our final run was down a nice big completly bare of tracks and trees powder south face right smack in the middle of the resort. The run was sick. Nick took the centre of a gully running down while I made some huge turns on the wide ridge. I havn't been able to make turns like that in a while. It was incredible. Getting back to Evergreen at the bottom we looked up onto the mountain and saw 2 beautiful lone tracks coming down the centre of the face. An amazing way to end an amazing weekend.Thanks to everybody that made this weekend happen. Nick, Aki, Reiko, Bill&Jenny for the car, Evergreen Outdoor Centre for the passes and letting me hang out at dinner and the Happy Lodge for a good after dinner party. Such a good weekend
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Tsukaike Ski Hill
27th February 2005
Sunday moring:We got up early to go ski Tsugaike. We had had such a good time yesturday however that we were kind of feeling lazy as we knew that it couldn't be topped. We jumped into the north faces right away skiing a nice steep line near the sinlge chair. The snow was still really good. The gondola line was really long so we made the silly mistake of taking the 4 chairs to the top. For some reason they were running slower than normal chairs and it took forever but we finally made it up. We wanted to hit the pillow chute as there were was still a ton of fresh tracks to lap up. The run didn't let us down and both Nick and I both got a few nice airs. Skiing out along the south face we came around the corner at the end to find a ski patroller on a snowmobile. BUSTED. She gave a stern warning about the usual. The thing about Tsugaike though is that without the trees there isn't really anything to keep a person entertained. Actually I havn't skied a hill in Japan that would keep me entertained if I couldn't ski in the trees. So we decided to call it a day for this hill. I sold my ticket for 3000 yen. So my 2 runs cost me 2500 yen. Kind of expensive.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Tsugaike Ski Hill
26th February 2005
Borrowed Bill's car and headed out to Hakuba early saturday morning. It was dumping going across the Alps and the road was really icy. But I made it without any trouble. Nick had 2 girls staying with him Aki and Reiko and we all went to Tsugaike. First off say that it was a sick day. We jumped into the Double Black area just to check it out right away. It was really nice deep powder. Probably about 40-50 cm's. Most of it had blown in so the reported 30cm's of fresh was much deeper in the trees. The snow was very light and deep. After a lap in the double black area we headed off to the north face runs. They were even better. So deep and in the chutes near bottomless. As it wasn't warming up we decided to hit the open south faces under the gondola. I have wanted to ski these lines for a long time however they usually warm up quick wrecking the snow. But we were able to get 3 runs in throughout the day. Some of the best runs I have ever had. Super fast hero turns. The wide open south faces were so nice to us we wanted to ski the main north chute. Dropping off the backside we quickly realized how unstable the snow was. It was fracturing big time. We got to the top of it and I dropped down a few metres and stopped very close to a tree so I could hold on to it. Nick was about 10 metres above me and slowly came down but as he got close a large fracture about 20-30 metres long released and slid. Nick was right in the middle of it. I yelled for him to grab a tree and he grabbed the closest one after going on a short ride. His ski came off however it didn't go far. The slide however went far enough that we couldn't see if it stopped before hitting the main part of the chute where it might have gotten even bigger. The crown line was about 50 cm's deep and the snow was running on a hard layer however it wasn't the rain layer from the week before. We remained calm through the whole event and discussed our options. Going down didn't seem too wise so we decided to traverse to an area we had already skied and new was relativly safe. We traversed safely across 1 at a time always stopping in safe zones. A few times I had to grab onto a tree as all the snow around me started to slide. We made it over to a safe run and ripped it to the bottom where we high fived it for the great run, that we were alive and not hurt.It was a great day. We met up with the ladies and headed off for an onsen and dinner. We were eating at the Mexican place with the Evergreen Outdoor Centre staff so there was 16 of us. The food and beer would have been a great way to end the night however the party made its way back to the Happy Lodge where we drank till late. An amazing day and evening
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Tsugaike Ski Hill
12th February 2005
We woke up much earlier this morning however as there were many more people we were unable to get out onto the hill till 10:00Once on the hill though we realized that it was indeed a long weekend and all of Japan was in Hakuba. I have never seen crowds like this on a ski hill before. We didn't want to take the gondola as the line was way to long so ended up taking 4 different chairs just to get to the top. Add in lift lines and it was nearly 12 by the time we got our first run. We ducked into the north facing trees and found nice powder. Wasn't as deep as the day before but it was untracked and that's all that matters. It was quite a surprise as we didn't expect to find good snow at all at this hill as it hadn't snowed in Hakuba village a few km's away for a few days. After taking the 4 chairs to the top a few times we got tired of that and decided to just cut the gondola line. As Beavis and Butthead would say "Breaking the Law, Breaking the Law". Saved a ton of time doing this and it was much nicer taking the gondola up rather than the many chairlifts. But other than the huge crowds on the runs the day was good and I had a fun time. We skied some great lines till last chair.As I was only staying 1 night I had to get on my way and go home. It took forever to get out of Hakuba village so I was worried it might be bad traffic all the way home. So where I would normally turn right I took the road less travelled and turned left. It was a great drive and I ended up in Niigata where I turned west for Toyama. I travelled the local roads along the coast which in the daytime would have been really cool. But I made it back to Takayama in just over 4 hours of fast driving having past through Nagano, Niigata, Toyama and Gifu prefectures. The other way through Matsumoto would probably have been the same but instead of fast driving would have been really annoying slow driving.Another fun weekend out with friends. Thanks to Nick for showing us around as usual. It fealt good to show you that 1 cliff line at Tsugaike and for once I could be the guide. And thanks to Dave for loaning me the car. I wonder if he realized how many km's I put on it.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba - Cortina
11th February 2005
I woke up really really early (3am) and got on the road for Hakuba. It was great driving until I hit the expressway when it just slowed right down. It took me more than 4 hours to get to Hakuba. I picked fellow Canadian Sandy up at the bus station and then we went to Nick's place. They weren't too keen to get out so we spent a long time waiting for them. But when we heard that Cortina had recieved 40-50 cm's of fresh snow they livened up a bit.Nick as usual was our guide and even had coupons that for 3400 yen we got a day lift pass, 1000 yen lunch coupon and free onsen after. Pretty good deal. We were on the slopes late but it was cool to be there with good friendly people. In the group was Nick, Sean, Sandy, Chris, Hiro and I. The hotel below is really crazy looking. Very gothic and huge. I guess it looks like the hotel from the Shining but I havn't seen that movie. Once on the runs we found the snow to be plentiful and very deep. I hit the rain crust a few times but it wasn't so bad. Nick showed us some great steep trees. On our 3rd or 4th run we were all skiing when out of nowhere a patroller appeared. I took off and went to hide below some trees but Sean couldn't get away and was nabbed. They took him down to the patrol shack where they gave him a lecture and a warning. We went in for some food to give the patrol a break before coming out and ripping up the powder again. 2nd run after lunch there was a patroller hiding in trees. I was coming down first so he missed me but he nabbed almost everybody except for Sean. Nick got them off with only a warning and we were out into the trees again. Time was quickly running out so we took a few obvious lines that had been staring us down all day. They were nice high speed deep dry hero turns coming under the top chair where you had to avoid hitting the chairlift as the snow was so deep. The snow was so light that I was putting up big rooster tails while turning. What a good day.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Tsurugi Ski Hill
23rd January 2005
As I got to bed so early the night before I was able to get up early and was on the hill at a good time. I met up with Tatsuya, Yamashiro, Kenichi and another Japanese guy that was in his 50's. Nick had again let me use his pass so I was skiing for free. Thanks again Nick!!The snow had settled a little bit from the day before but it was still plentiful. We skied the big chute again and Tatsuya not wanting to be upped straightlined the entire thing like I did the day before.With the older guy as our guide we sidestepped for like an hour way out across the south slopes over to another ridge for some more untracked north facing powder. We ended up on a nice face with what looked like it would be a good run. For some reason however after about 100 metres vertical we started traversing all the way back to the hill again. We crossed so many nice treed faces and sketchy steep death gullies finally ending up at the bottom of the hill. The adventure of getting out there and back was fun but the run was really pointless and not worth the effort. On the traverse out the older guy was up front. I would catch up to him every so often and he would always be giggling to himself or me and saying adeventure, adventure. While we were traversing out along the south face though we saw a great untracked line starting just past the patrol shack. You would either have to air into it or somehow billygoat a route. So after our 2 hour adventure run we went on 1 last run. Standing at the top of the run I side slipped down onto the top of a giant mushroom. The drop was probably 6 metres. I wasn't feeling it though. I had to kickturn to get off it though which was a little scary. I hate kickturning with a little exposure beneath my feet. So I sat on the snow and turned over to face the other direction. I was able to get about a 3-4 metre drop and landed in beautiful snow. I skied most of the way down the chute before stopping as it was so nice. Tatsuya sideslipped onto the mushroom after and was also not up to it. Somehow he got into a narrow chute. The exit was only about a metre wide. He lined it out. Looked pretty good. Tatsuya and I traversed way across the north face back towards the cliff band. We sideslipped into a sketchy looking place. The landing looked very difficult. Tatsuya seemed pretty psyched about it though. He kepped sideslipping down into it until his only exit was to point'em down. He aired it really nice and skied away. It looked pretty cool. I didn't like the look of it though so sidestepped up and billy goated down onto a big mushroom. I aired straight off it getting a solid 4 metre drop with a little backslap and then skiing away. Fealt really good. We were both pumped up pretty good after that and our hearts were racing. A great way to end the day.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Tsugaike Ski Hill
22nd January 2005
Headed out to Nagano for the annual JET party weekend. Only 5 Hida Jets decided to go this year so Bill, Jenny, Erik, Adrian and I were representing. Jenny and Bill came with me and it was nice having company in the car as the last roadtrip I was mostly diving by myself. After dropping them off at their Pension I headed down the road to Nick's place. I was surprised when I got there as it has been cleaned up a bit more and I wasn't scared to use the bathroom. I was quickly in bed as there wasn't anything else to do.Saturday - I had planned to ski with Nick however friday night he got called into work at Happo-one so I called up Tatsuya and met him at Tsugaike. I was skiing with Tatsuya, Yamashiro and Kenichi. Nick was nice enough to let me use his season pass. Thanks Nicks!!After a warm up run in the top bowls we ducked into the trees. To get into the run you had to drop a small cliff. Maybe 2 metres at it's smallest. Yamashiro was last and fell losing a ski. The snow was so deep he was having trouble climbing back up to get it so we ditched him and skied to the bottom to do the run again and help him when we got back up again. The snow was very light and very deep. Our second lap we found Yamashiro had only moved about a metre so Tats jumped in and found his ski. I bushwacked off to the side and dropped a big 4 metre cliff. I was a little to far forward however and went over the handlebars. I lost a ski but Tatsuya picked it up for me saving me a swim in the powder. Kenichi was having trouble in the deep powder on his skinny skis so around lunchtime he rented some bigstix 10.6's and once on the fat skis really ripped it up. We skied some amazing lines. Went back to the chute where Nick had his accident last weekend and did some filming. Kenichi went in first to film Tatsuya and I. We both jumped off the top rock getting about a 3 metre drop. Tats did some nice turns down to the camera. My turn was up so after landing the cliff I straightlined the chute. It was so much fun and I was going really fast. I almost lost it near the bottom on a little roller however was able to hang on. We finished up the day hitting the cliff band at the bottom of the northfaces. The cliffs ranged from about 2-10 metres. We all went for the smaller ones. I had to billy goat into mine which was fun. It turned out to be about 3-4 metres. The landing was great. Kenichi went the biggest I think getting a solid 4 metre drop. An amazing day out.The Party: Stewart invited Nick over for dinner so I tagged along. Thanks Stew. It was great. After a few beer with the Hida Jets at their Pension we went down to the party. I wasn't really into partying so just sat in the corner people watching, guarding our stuff and talking to a few people I knew. I was back and in bed by 12:30.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Tsugaike Ski Hill
16th January 2005
I had one of the best nights sleep in the car this night. The angle of the road was perfect where I had parked and my head and feet were at the same height. Things are so great when you get them right.We had a lazy morning getting onto the hill and didn't get skiing until 10:00. But the rain we experienced in the village was snow up high which amounted to about 30 cm. We met up with Tatsuya and company again in the car park started with a steep chute right off. Sean and Nick's wife went for a warm up. Things were going really slow so Nick and I left Tatsuya and his group and skied down the chute. It was pretty nice and the snow seemed to be really deep. We met up with Sean and Hiro and went up to the double black area and skied the low anlge trees there for a few hours hitting the nice pillows. We were able to see a few Kamoshika here and there and I skied right up to one and was so close I could have touched it. Sean and Hiro went into KFC for something to eat so Nick and I headed up to the top to hit a chute Nick had been talking about. The ski in was really bushy but we were soon in the top of it. We heard bushes cracking here and there only to find Tatsuya and his friend just above us going for the same chute. Nick dropped in cutting across to get any sluff out of the way and went to a safe area. I dropped in after and cut the slope as well joining up in the safe area. A little bit of sluff ripped to the bottom. We thought it was okay so Nick dropped in. I could see more sluff was being released but it seemed that Nick was staying ahead of it. When he was most of the way down I dropped in and skied most of the way down until I heard Nick yelling loudly Avalanche!!!! I quickly went to the side of the chute for safety. Tats and I were both confused about where the slide was coming from but we waited until Nick got himself clear. I finished up the run getting the leftovers on the side. When I got to the bottom I found a huge mound of sluff debris. I guess Nick had triggered a lot more sluff than he could handle and while he was cutting back across the run it had overtaken him. Poor sluff managment on his part. He had tried to grab onto a tree but had to let go when the force became to powerful. He lost a pole in the process and was partially buried. He had yelled avalanche because he was worried we would send more snow down on him while he was trying to get himself out of the snow. But a live a learn thing. We were all skiing with safety gear including beacon, probe and shovel incase something major happened.We finished up the day skiing some steeps in the single chair area. I got a great final run down a 45-50 degree face with nice pillows which turned into 3-4 metre high double jumps. It was pretty cool. A great way to end the day and and even better way to end a great weekend.
Resort Skiing – Nagano – Nozawa Ski Hill
15th January 2005
Nozawa Onsen Fire Festival and Ski TripI left Takayama friday after school and after the quick dinner in Matsumoto arrived in Nozawa just after 9 pm. After a few wrong turns I found the free parking area and got ready for bed. It wasn't that cold out but I still used my big sleeping bag and a warm blanket. It was nice being by myself in the car although it seemed that I was still crammed in with so much gear. Nick, his wife and Sean pulled into the parking lot around 4:30 that morning after driving for 6 hours from Kyoto. A really long journey. They were really tired but said to meet them after 8. They went to get some much needed sleep with Noriko at her hotel.The SkiingI met up with Nick at 8:30 (The others were far to tired to get up right away) and we quickly went out for a run. We ducked right into the trees and had a great steep powder run. I was a little surprised to find that the huge amount of snow that fell earlier in the week had pretty much settled and we were only sinking in to about boot top deep powder at most. Our second run we met up with Nick's Japanese friend Tatsuya, his wife and 2 other Japanese friends. We skied a fun run down a power line and then met up with Sean. Now that we had a huge group of people we went to the very top and after many many chairlift rides were able to duck into the trees to ski a really nice steep untouched chute that descended pretty much back down to the bottom of the valley. In some places it seemed to be about 50 degrees. Really nice. It was an amazing day and we were able to ski untracked lines all day long. We didn't even stop for lunch and instead munched on different types of bread that Noriko had brought for us. Thanks Noriko. Nick and I finished up the day with a nice untracked chute that ended in a pine forest. It was great skiing through the big green trees. Kind of like home. Adds a little colour to the run.This is an amazing ski hill. I can't wait to come back to it.The Fire FestivalAfter skiing all day we got ready for the fire festival. We had time to waste so walked around town looking for an onsen and restaurant. We found an old public onsen but the water was so hot we could only sit in it for brief moments before having to jump out. We also sampled the famous Nozawa Onsen boiled eggs which NOT surprisingly tasted exactly the same as normal hard boiled eggs. After a good dinner we walked down to the festival. We arrived just on time.This is an amazing festival. The townsfolk had built a small temple that reached into the sky. First of all the villagers are very drunk. Many of them begin drinking at lunchtime to get ready for the festivites. Men from the town aged 42 were drinking and yelling while sitting on top of the temple while men aged 25 were tied by one hand to the front of the temple. It is believed that the ages 25 and 42 are bad luck. Men aged 41 and 43 protect spectaters and men of all ages try to burn the temple down.In front of the temple there is a huge fire that keeps getting closer to the temple. The 42 year old men standing on top of the temple throw bundles of wood down to the villagers who run to the fire to light them. When enough of them get there torches lit they violently run to the temple to try and burn it down. It is the 25 year olds job to protect the temple. Fists are thrown and people are beaten. It is very violent. Many times you can see the men with embers all over their bodies. After about an hour of battling it out the men on top of the temple come down and the men at the front of the temple get untied. The big bonfire by now is right up against the temple and they burn it down. Sean, Noriko and I were able to get right up front to where the bundles of wood were being tossed down. The crowd was really stuffed into the small area but it was fun being in the exitment. I was even able to catch a bundle of wood but just threw it in the direction of the 25 year olds. I did hit a drunk camera man in the head.So far this festival is the most amazing I have seen. I thought the log riding festival was crazy but this one passes it by a long shot.After the festival we went back to our cars for the drive to Hakuba. It was snowing heavily most of the way but by the time we reached Hakuba just before 1:00 am mother nature was having a hard time deciding if she wanted it to snow or rain because it kept switching back and forth.I must have been tired because I fell asleep after only finishing 1 page of Crime and Punishment instead of the usual 2 it takes to knock me out.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Happo-One
1st January 2005
Happy New Year!!!We woke up to dumping snow. We planned to catch the 7:30 gondola at Happo-one with Nick (Fattwins). We made the right call the night before by getting rest. It was so deep up high. We got first tracks for quite a while. Nick knew where to take us for the all the next chair openings. We later met up with Shawn (Yamakashi) and his friend. It was great skiing the mountain with a group of good skiers. There were lots of really good Japanese riders on the mountain lapping up the same powder so we had to go really fast to get it. An amazing Telemarker who must have had knees of steel would come flying down the hills doing huge turns only to loose an edge or catch a tip. He would have these amazing yardsales every run. Really great to watch and see him get up after every fall with a huge smile on his face. What an amazing day.Nick invited us to sleep at his place that night. It was tight but we were able to cram 4 people into his small 6 tatami room. The place he was staying is quite hotel. The room was great however the hotel had been neglected for quite a while and was very dirty. Not somewhere I would bring my parents but just fine for a ski bum. We were all asleep by 9. January 2 - We got up hoping for more powder however is was a crystal clear cold day. Packed up the car and headed back to Gifu to ski the powder that Hakuba had got.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Hakuba 47
31st December 2004
Happy Birthday Dad!!!!!!!!!!!After a few days rest at home we again packed up the car for a New Years trip into Nagano. We awoke really really early at the hour of 3:30am on the 31st and reached Hakuba at 7:30. The resort was pretty dry so we decided to just ski the groomers at 47. I originally went up with my Shuksans however after skiing the boring runs for a few hours we found a nice closed run above the 47 gondola station with soft packed powder. I exchanged the touring skis for the bigstix so I would be able to ski it faster. It was a good idea as well. Lots of fun. We even found a short little run in the trees with some untracked powder. Still not enough snow though to get into any really good areas. The snow really started to fall in the afternoon. After skiing we went to my friend Clem's place. He is helping to run a small pension. We had decided to stay there the night instead of the car as it was New Years. The plan was to go out partying however the snow kept falling and Matt and I were left alone while everybody else at the Pension went out to a club. Not serious powder riders I guess. We didn't miss much though as I heard as soon as they came into the parking lot they saw a load of American Navy guys in g-strings frolicking in the snow. Something that I do not want to see.
Resort Skiing - Niigata
26th December 2004
The Christmas Party never appeared and Matt and I ended up with a pitcher of beer alone in a bar. Nobody was around. The myth about parties at Naeba is just that. A myth. Well that's the story I'm sticking to at least. Back in the car we got everything ready and crawled into bed. We were starting to get good at it. Around 11:00 there was a knock on the window. Opening the door I saw what had been a nearly full parking lot deserted and a stern looking Japanese parking attendent wanting me to move the car. I said alright, closed the door and went back to sleep. An hour later I heard the guy walk back and put a note on the window. Early in the morning the snow started to dump and didn't stop till the afternoon. We knew there wouldn't be any powder right yet so settled in for a loungy morning. Driving over to the Kagura parking lot which would be our home for the next few days we got ready for an afternoon of skiing.After seeing the modern lifts and facilities of Arai we were surprised to find a retro resort straight from the 70's with slow old double lifts and cool retro music. It was pretty cool. We had parked on the much flatter left side of the mountain and had to deal with almost an hour of traversing and flat chairlift rides to get to the middle of the resort. As we were just exploring the resort for the powder frenzy the next day we just went from the left side of the resort over to the right side and then back again. That pretty much took the entire afternoon. We did find some nice powder under the lifts. Near the end of the day we were watching this line under the final chair next to the gondola. It was untracked. There was a great open run beside this though so each chair ride we would contemplate skiing it only to say next run. Saving it for later. Going up the chair after about an hour of contemplation we saw a pretty good Japanese snowboarder ripping down the run. Gloves were off after that and we lapped it up catching airs on the rollers. It was so deep. We skied every possible line under that chair and even went down this 1-2 metre wide sasa filled cut. It was fun bashing through the many branches. What East Coast American skiing is I guess. The next day I straight lined the thing as it had been skied right out by the 2 of us going down it once. It was in the Tatami room of the onsen after skiing that we heard about the huge earthquake and the tsunami events that ripped through SE Asia. What an amazing event. So many people were effected. Both Matt and I were worried for Hida Jets Jenny, Helen and Chris who were vacationing in the affected areas. We later found out that they had left only an hour before the tsunami hit their island and were staying on the first floor of the hotel which was flooded right out. They were pretty lucky.But we had powder to ski so it was back to the car after relaxing for hours at the onsen facility. One of the drawbacks to car camping is finding places to relax and things to do in the evening hours. Could go out drinking but the reason for car camping is to go budget and if we could afford big nights out then we could probably afford a place to stay. But hanging out in the onsen tatami rooms in a nice place to relax. Cheep beer in the vending machines and warm rooms to read or talk.December 27 found us on the first gondola up to Kagura. There was an nice amount of fresh snow. We were greatly annoyed however to find out how disorganized the resort was. They seemed to open the resort in waves and as we were on the first gondola we were stuck skiing a flat prairie like run for a bit while they got their act together to open the next lifts over. We finally got over to the middle of the mountain where it gets steep and ripped up the fresh snow. We found really deep powder under most of the lifts. We couldn't get into the trees as there still wasn't enough snow. But it was pretty cool. December 28 we woke up to even more powder and again got the first gondola but instead of doing runs on the flat hill decided to just wait out the patrol at the top gates. When they finally opened the appropriate chairs we got first tracks down some steep runs and then bombed into the powder under the lifts. It was mid winter deep powder. We were getting faceshots under the chair while many people were carving up the chopped up crud on the runs. What an amazing feeling. With all the skiing we did under the lifts nobody said anything negative to us. Matt and I were even complemented by a group of older Japanese skiers who had seen us skiing the deep snow under the lifts. A pretty cool laid back resort.But that was the last day for our roadtrip. We slept for 5 nights in the car and racked up 4 pretty good days of skiing. The matresses in the back were getting wet and hanging out in the onsen was taking it's toll on our brains. Also Niigata was going to be having a day or two of clear weather. So we headed back to Gifu to dry stuff out and relax for a few days. A great trip and I really want to check out Kagura when it gets really good mid-winter.
Resort Skiing - Niigata
25th December 2004
Matt and I filled up the car with a mountain of gear and left Takayama saturday morning. We stopped at the free internet place to look at the snow reports and were really surprised to see that Arai had recieved a huge amount of snow and was sceduled to open Christmas Day. The drive was amazing up the coast and it rained/snowed most of the way along the Sea of Japan. When we pulled into Arai however the sky cleared. This was good however as it was our first night in the car and we had to get some bugs worked out. Talking to the resort girls we found that there would be opening 2 runs at the top and that there would be no powder. Absolutly no powder. After an onsen we pulled into the parking area only to find the huge flood lights still on. We parked right in the shadow of a huge van much to the annoyance of it's inhabitants. When they turned the lights out half an hour later we sheepishly moved the car to let them have there privacy. We found that by putting the skis in the front seat and then stuffing gear we could both comfortably sleep in the back. December 25 we were up early to under a blue sky. We would have had the first gondola but Matt ordered Soup for his breakfast and I think they had to drive to go the supermarket to buy the vegies. But we were in the first cycle of chairs at the top. I think that we missed some powder that had been left at the top of one run however we were able to find some on the sides. Curse Matt and his Minestrone Soup! We both felt pretty stupid for asking the resort girls the day before if we would be able to get powder when we saw the vast forest of inpenatrable bush. I guess they open most of it in Febuary when they get a good base. Would be cool to ski it then.We only got half day tickets and so packed up the car at noon and headed off to Yuzawa. As it was Christmas Day we were hoping on finding a party at Naeba and then skiing at Kagura boxing day.All in all a good start to our road trip.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Tsugaike
January 31, 2004
So we woke up early and were on the road by 7:00 on our way to Hakuba. Nice drive arriving in Hakuba with enough time for Matt to buy new Tele bindings and get them mounted and have a good wholesome McDonalds lunch. We decided to ski Tsugaike as some friends were skiing there as well. Met up with Dan (Danz), Damian(db), Nick (Fattwins) and Rodger(OUSkiFree). As Erik and Matt were Teleing I wanted to ski some fast powder so I ditched them and headed off with the SnowJapan ski crew. It was good as they really rip so we had fun. Nick showed me some great lines and nice dry powder. Only problem was that I was feeling pretty lazy and wasn't really putting to much effort in to skiing. Wasn't even prepaired for good snow. But the skiing was pretty nice. Open glades with about 15cm of nice dry snow. Even saw one of those goats running away. Pretty cool. But on our third run I went down this really steep short face. Probably 50 degrees. I slipped backwards and somehow fell onto the only bare spot with my head. Something pointy managed to get under my helmet and stabbed my in the back of the skull. Very much hurting me. I still ripped it up to the bottom but about 10 minutes later a severe headache had settled in and I was in pain. Not a nice end to the day. And then to top it off the patrol who had been chasing the rest of the crew all day and finally caught up with us and were staked out somewhere on the outrun. I decided to be the sacrifial lamb as it was my last run. I didn't get caught so phoned Dan saying it was all right. They all came out but I guess Nick got caught in the end. Badluck since he was the one showing us around.So I headed back to the car and met Erik and Matt and we headed off to our hotel. Very nice place. After a good hot bath I made the wise decision to sooth my throbbing skull with much beer. We headed to the JET party and there I started hitting the Rye and cokes. Or I should say Lots of rye little coke. Another great decision. The party was pretty cool. Good music and lots of people. Met up with the rest of the hida crew there and we danced the night away. Around 2:00am I started to pass out and took that to be my ticket to leave. Only problem was that I had no idea how to get back to the hotel. So I just started walking and an hour later finally found it. Passed out quickly and woke up around 9 feeling great. No really I was. We had to check out by 10 so instead of just waiting till 12:00 to get a halfday ticket decided to head home. Matt let me drive the whole way home. It was nice going 120 km/h on the expressway. Just like home. Also just out of Matsumoto we were driving along the highway and we saw a whole troop of monkeys. So as this was the first time Erik and I had seen monkeys we had to stop and turn around and be tourist for a few minutes. They were so cool. There was about 15 of them and they were climbing all over the place. They weren't as big as I had thought they would be. About the size of a large cat. Maybe Boots or Rossignol size. Or maybe a bit bigger. Really cool though. But anyways finally got home and fell asleep watching ski movies.Now I'm at school and still have a good headache and more of my joints are hurting. Feezing rain outside. Going to be a nice week I can tell already.But all in all it was a good weekend except for the head thing. Nice to get out and party once in a while.
Resort Skiing – Hakuba – Happo-One
December 15, 2003
Woke up bright and early at the unhealthy hour of 4:30. After a nice breakfast where I was frozen and my toes nearly fell off (must get heater) Matt picked me up and we were off to Nagano. The road over the pass through the North Alps to Matsumoto was frozen solid. We had to go pretty slow most of the way. But as soon as we got close to the city the snow vanished and it was easy driving all the way north to Hakuba. This is where the Olympics were held. Interesting little town but Takayama is quite a bit nicer. The mountains were very impressive though. They were really big and looked like they belonged in Europe which I guess is why they are called the Japanese Alps. Once they fill in a bit I bet they would have some pretty crazy runs down some of the chutes. If only a lift went to the top.We were on the gondola by 9:00 and skiing shortly after. They had about 8 or 9 runs open. Each run had about 2 or 3 chairs going up it. So the lineups were nonexistent. What is interesting though is that your lift ticket is a microchip you wear on your sleeve and then every time you get on the lift it tells you how much more time you have on your ticket. The runs were pretty nice and wide and not to busy. Couldn't go off them as there is still not very much snow. But I did get quite a few runs in some really nice snow off to the sides. Matt and I even hiked up below the top chair (not open yet) and got some powder turns down a nice steep face. We did that twice and then called it. It had all been skied out. We skied to 1 and then McD's and onsen. Nice day and home by 7 and right into bed. Less than a week till Hokkaido. I am so exited. Snow is forcasted for wednesday and then rest of the week. So should have a good time. First week will be a little sketchy but as soon as the snow adds up it will be amazing.
December 13, 2003
Woke up after the party. Stayed the night and on my ride home it was snowig heavily in town. Kind of a cold ride home. When I finally got back to my flat my toque was covered in snow. It probably snowed for 3 or 4 hours. Everything was covered in a nice few CM's.Finished off the day waxing skis at Matt B's house. Good time. And then off to another Christmas Party. I didn't have any drinks at this one as I had to get home early so I could get up very early for a day out skiing. Fealt great to get back hime early. Although I did get a drunken call from friends at 1:30 am. (Bill, Robin and Helen)All I could hear was yelling and shouting. Sounded like a good party. Wish they hadn't called me though.
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