Resort Skiing: Hokkaido - Dec 2003 - Jan 2004

Resort Skiing – Hokkaido – Little did I know what was in store for me in the future of central Japan

January 12, 2004

Well I am home now in Takayama. And happy to be here. The skiing was amazing and I am so glad to have experienced it. I got 21 days in so thats pretty cool so it brings my total for this year to 23. But it is nice getting home again. I can only take so much of the Chalet lifestyle. I just need privacy sometimes. But here are few things to sum up my trip.Deep untracked snow all day longGood friendsDrinking at Fatty's and Jam BarAussy's - Maybe a few to many. Just not a Japanese experience. But they are nice people.Smelly clothesI will be back again next year for sure!!

January 7, 2004

Well I had the best run of my life today. The sky was crystal clear. The temp was cold and there was lots of new dry snow. The top of the mountain had been closed the day before so the bottom was tracked out. As it was Matt and Dan's last day we decided to hit the peak first run. We had to break trail to the top but it was very worth it. Our eyelashes were frozen white and my beard was packed with windblown snow by the time we got the top. We clicked in quickly and dropped into the bowl. Totally untracked dry snow. It was so beautiful. For the first bit I just did high speed hero turns until we hit tree line. Amazing on my fat skis. A few turns in the trees and then popped out on the road below. We were all very happy. 1000 metres vertical of perfect untracked snow. That will be a once in a lifetime situation. This is what Niseko is all about. I love it!

December 31, 2003

Well after 5 days of groomers which got steadily worse, Christmas night it started dumping and now being New Years Eve I have skiied 5 out of 6 deep untracked Powder days. Most of them being at least 30 cm's of new snow. My Fat skis have been so nice throughout it all. They are so good. When such deep snow I cam launch off of he mushrooms and pillows and the landings were oh so soft. A few times I even had some pretty large drops. Feels so good. Such a huge platform to land on. I have been getting up really early trying to get the first chair which has been great as the snow on the groomers gets tracked up within minutes. Matt Erik and I have then been going into the trees where we have been finding some really deep snow. I am having so much fun. Its nice here because even at the end of the day during the busiest part of the year you can still find untracked powder at the end of the day.Today there wasn't any new snow so I am taking it easy doing laundry as my ski socks were standing on there own (gross). But it just started snowing pretty heavy outside so New Years may be an early night for first tracks tomorrow. Will have to see how much accumulates.

December 21, 2003

Finally made it to the resort only to find that there is almost no smow. Very sad. We met up with Matt and did couple runs. But to top it off on our second run Erik blew his boot completly apart. The entire sole ripped off exposing his liner. Lucky for him though he brought his tele gear but now he has a new set of skis he can't use. Sad. Very Sad. So now I have been here for to days and even this morning I woke up to sleet. So sad. Hopefully snow will come soon. What makes it even worse is that the big storm back in Tak dumped 70cm's. The report for Hakuba even said that there was to much snow if that could ever be true. So now Matt i thinking of just going home. But we won't because as soon as we left the snow will come. But sucks to be missing a great storm. So thats that. Skiied for about 5 hours today. My 1080 are going to become rock skis pretty soon. I have ben having fun though. There are some nice turns through the bamboo. You pretty much just blast through it not even worryin about it. And the wind is pretty strong all time so even without snow the snow gets pushed around a bit. So hopefully the next post will bring better news.