SnowJapanForums - SnowTalk

fear not! (24th and 25th)

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:25:52 +0000

Snow is forecast tomorrow and saturday morning It might actually not be a complete blow out this weekend after all... so... whats your plans?

Im in tokyo not snowboarding since my mates mum forgot to mail out his stuff so hes now binder free... though i have the back up plan of going to the ride shop at the base of kagura and letting him play on the berzerker and me play on one of teh ride decks for the day Maybe they also have a girly deck there or two as well so we can rope the missus in. Anyone used their services before? Might just grab a machete if they have one just so i can **** around on it

Oze Iwakura White World Feb 18th

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:52:08 +0000

Last Saturday I took advantage of winning the Oze White World Comp on Snow Japan and headed up to Gunma for the day. Gunma from where I live in Kanagawa, is only about 3 and a half to 4hrs MAX away, so I was confident of getting there for first lifts. The weather report was favourable after the warm and rain event that the snow zone had had earlier in the week, with a small but decent amount of snow forecast to fall. Knowing how bad Tokyo traffic could be, even at silly o'clock in the morning, we left Shonan at the pre-dawn time of 4.30am. Although I have been up to Gunma and Yuzawa many times before by car, as I'm not the driver, I don't really pay attention too much to the correct turn-offs etc, as a result we relied on my mates Navi to guide us safely..........first schoolboy error of the day!! It routed us around the eastern part of Tokyo.....firstly through the Yokohama seafront, up past Haneda and then onto the Kan-etsu.........added about 40-50 mins to the journey but "no worries" I thought, we've left in plenty time and as soon as we clear Tokyo we can make up a large chunk of that time on the expressway. What a misnomer..........EXPRESSWAY.......whoever called the Kan-Etsu and Expressway must be 1 sick individual!! I had forgotten how much I hate this road!! For some reason, when I take a road trip up to Gunma, this stretch or tarmac likes to keep me hanging around. Hit our first traffic jam not long into the KanEtsu......another 50mins waiting while they cleaned up a smash, get going again and then run right into another jam.....this time for no apparent reason!! There was no accident, nothing reasonable to stop traffic.....its was just this damn road playing silly buggers!!

As soon as we turn off the Kan-Etsu at Numata IC, the snow starts. There was already more snow than I've usually seen on the side of the road and its this point my mate tells me that he hopes its not any worse as he doesn't have snow tires or chains!!! This should be interesting! There is a lot of snow (not Yuzawa amounts but more than I've seen on this road) but the car is doing ok. Eventually arrive at the resort about 10am and we're directed to the top car park..........schoolboy error #2. The car can't make it up the slope despite plenty pushing from this Beaver and the other passenger in the car. Reverses to the bottom and parks there. FINALLY at the resort and ready to rip.

Happy to see that the snow is in great condition, soft and squeaky. Its also falling from the sky at a steady rate and there is no wind so visibility isn't that bad. I'd actually forgotten how big this place is. After you skip the long "group" line for the gondola and use the 1 person line, you get out at the top and you can go 1 of 3 ways........Skyline course, which is nice n long and lots of fun switchbacking the berms at the side for a cruisy descent, down the ungroomed area which seems to be called the something Mens course or down the something-womens course (west mountain). You can also choose the far red run, which actually was my favourite.....there was a little untouched at the side here to get a couple of fresh face shots. The good thing about this resort is that the 2 areas eventually come out to the same spot, so if you are with different levels, you can still be riding similar places.

I actually didn't get to do as much riding here as I'd liked, as due to the weather and us not having snow tires/chains, it was decided to leave about 3-3.30pm before sundown so that if the worst did happen and we got stuck, it wouldn't be in darkness......safety first. Also my mate's young lad was with us for only his 2nd day on the snow (we had him up last season to Marunuma) and we spent the first hour or so giving him some pointers.....its great to see him not be afraid, just strap in and start going. If he fell, he just got back up and started agin, no dramatics, no moaning......great. He's at the stage now where he needs to learn to turn, but with 3 adults shouting at him to do this and do that, I reckon he should take a proper lesson!!

We had an uneventful drive back to Kanagawa, thanks to SnowJapan and their fantastic giveaways and thank you to the Snow gods for allowing us to not get stuck, and to the Kan-Etsu.....you can bite me, you piece of s##t!!

Any shop selling Alpine Boots in Hakuba ?

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:34:40 +0000

Any shop selling Alpine Ski Boots in Hakuba ?

My thoughts on Hakuba

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:42:42 +0000

So I made it to Hakuba on one of those stunning blue sky days.

Here's a bit of words and all the photos from my two days there this week:

Hakuba Goryu & Hakuba 47
http://www.snowjapan...-february-2012/

Happo-one
http://www.snowjapan...-february-2012/

I though I would write down my thoughts on Hakuba in general, and inevitably I will be comparing things to the region where I live - Minamiuonuma in Niigata-ken.

I was happy to arrive in Hakuba and see those blue skies.
And as always, that first view of those mountains is always exciting.
The mountain backdrop that Hakuba enjoys is truly stunning, breathtaking.... it's just on a whole bigger scale than where I live.
These are big, impressive mountains.
Minamiuonuma is certainly very beautiful, but there is a really different feel to it - more compact and on a smaller scale, but also in a way more variation I suppose.
Hakuba has that backdrop, but as totally stunning and huge as it is.... that's kind of it.
But how can anyone not be blown away by this?

I was almost giddy with excitement taking literally hundreds of shots on Monday.
On a day like Monday, you'd be hard pushed to take poor photos given the beauty nature has provided and the weather conditions.
I was in Hakuba for Tuesday as well but spend most of that actually skiing.

So Monday morning early on I was at Goryu and I enjoyed that most. It was quiet early on, and I got in some skiing while I waited for the few clouds to move on from the mountain peaks.
The snow was best up there as well.
Down on the lower slopes of 47 it was.... hard-packed icy and noisily crusty.
As a ski-jo as well I think (the top area of) Goryu and 47 is my favorite and probably the one I would go back to before others.

In the afternoon I went to Happo.
Simply stunning surroundings going up on the lifts there (I went up on the left hand side of the mountain, whatever that is called... Nakiyama?)
I almost wanted the top few quad lifts to go slower as I was just taking in the beauty of it all.
I can't say I'm that keen on Happo as a skijo though. There's just too many bumps.
And honestly, the snow wasn't all that much good either really.
The mountain is big, but I'm not sure that big is altogether better.
I think I actually prefer more compact places - though obviously not tiny places - a good medium sized kind of place is probably best.

A few general observations:

We seem to get much more snow in Minamiuonuma than Hakuba (town levels), more on that here:
http://www.snowjapan...achi-to-hakuba/

Snow conditions are comparable. I was skiing on Sunday in Minamiuonuma and the snow was certainly no better in Hakuba than at home. In fact, the four times that I have been to Hakuba, I have never come home feeling envious of snow conditions.
Minamiuonuma and Yuzawa provide the goods just as good I reckon.

Tons more foreigners in Hakuba than in Minamiuonuma. Loads. You can ski in some resorts in Minamiuonuma for a day and not see another gaijin and even at the more famous places the numbers are way less. I'm cool with that and not sure I want a big marketing machine to come here and make us the same (though I would be happy for the skijo getting guests of course). I felt like I was hearing English as much as Japanese and there's definitely a more 'I'm in Japan' feel to Minamiuonuma. Some people will like that, some won't. Let's taking your choicing!

I was initially sad to see the reindeer have gone. But on hearing that they were getting stressed out and it wasn't good for them, definitely the right thing to do and glad they are apparently now in a more appropriate place.

What else? Hmmm. I think that's it.

Hakuba certainly has that big mountain feel and is definitely a different flavour from where I am in Niigata. For stunning scenery, it's right up there - one of my faves alongside Tenjindaira and Zao.
Most definitely worth a visit and experiencing.
I want to go once a year, but I really think once is enough for me.

Possible hometown bias aside, I'm more than happy being based where I am.
I think there's more variation here, we get great snow and we also get more mad amounts of snow, which is also fun.

And.... it's my home.

Happo-one (Hakuba, Nagano) - 20th February 2012

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:21:33 +0000

First part of this trip report from Hakuba Goryu & Hakuba 47 here:

http://www.snowjapan...-february-2012/

For the afternoon, I moved over to Happo-one.

Words will just spoil it, so here's photos I took there. Look out for really tiny people in some of them.

I'll post some general thoughts tomorrow.

Album: Hakuba Happo-one - 20th February 2012

59 images

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Hakuba Goryu & Hakuba 47 (Hakuba, Nagano) - 20th February 2012

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:41:28 +0000

Recently I have been working on days I normally wouldn’t work, just so that I can be sure to be in a position to make the most of clear and sunny days and go skiing then. Monday 20^th was looking like it would be an almost guaranteed fine clear day over in Hakuba – with clear skies forecast for the night before and after - so I asked my boss (me) and luckily he said it was ok. So Hakuba it was. Dreams were about to come true!

It takes just under three hours to get there from where I live (curiously, more like two and a half coming back – probably because when I got it is very early morning, icy and busier) and the journey takes me over to Tokamachi, goes past Tsunan, Sakae, Nozawa Onsen and a bit of expressway past Nagano city. Then up on over to Hakuba. Starting out at about 5:30am, I was in Hakuba just before 8:30am.

I was very happy to see those lovely blue skies over Hakuba. There was some cloud on the tops of the mountains, but they were to disappear for a good few hours in the middle of the day, enough for me to get in my photos.

I parked in the Goryu car park and started off there, straight up to ‘the top bit’ as I call it. The snow was pretty decent up there, but I would say comparable with the snow quality in Minamiuonuma. What is different from Minamiuonuma of course is the scale of the mountains over there. The backdrop mountain scenery is truly stunning and there’s a real ‘big mountain’ feel. Feels very different to my home valley.

I spent the morning in Hakuba Goryu and Hakuba 47. It wasn’t that busy – I didn’t wait for any lifts at all, though it was busier than a weekday resort in my town. And there were certainly many more foreigners, that was very noticable.

In the afternoon I made my way over to Happo to make the most of the good weather and get my shots in over there. More on Happo in a different post.

Here’s some photos from Hakuba Goryu & Hakuba 47.

Album: Hakuba Goryu & Hakuba 47 - 20th February 2012

36 images

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I clicked on a wrong key somewhere but it looks cool!

SnowJapan Giveaways - the final one!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:35:39 +0000

Thanks to all of the resorts who co-operated with our Giveaways this season.
We also hope that the many people who received the vouchers have, or soon will, visit those resorts. And perhaps post a report, resort review and photos on the site.

We have a limited number of vouchers that have been unclaimed and would like to distribute them.

Conditions:

Anyone can enter. You do not need to be a member of the Forums.
But please only enter if:

1) You are as close to 100% as possible that you would be able to use the voucher if you win
AND
2) You promise to write a decent Resort Review on SnowJapan after you have visited (in this section: http://www.snowjapan...oice/review.php)

How to enter if you agree to the above:

A
Send email to editor@snowjapan.com
B
Subject line: SnowJapan Giveaways
C
Content of email: Tell us which resort you are interested in (from the list below). You can choose a few if you are sure you would be able to visit if you won (although any one person won't win more than one)
D
Content of email: Your name, your email address, your postal address in Japan (hotel is fine if you are visiting Japan)
E
Content of email: Any other comments

Disclaimers:
We will not keep any record of your name, email or postal address - this information will only be used if you win and we need to send you a lift ticket voucher.
Your information will also not be passed on to any other party.
We will choose the winners.
Our decision is final.
I think that's all the disclaimers we need.

We will run this until the end of the coming weekend.

Thank you and good luck.

----------

Resorts to choose from

Nagano:
Hakuba Goryu
Hakuba Alpen (Happo / Tsugaike / Iwatake)
Ryuoo Ski Park
Madarao Kogen
Sugadaira

Niigata:
Yuzawa Town
Myoko City
Hakkai-san

Iwate:
Appi Kogen

Gifu:
Dynaland

Yamagata:
Zao Onsen

HopShopGo

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:57:48 +0000

I recently saw a Salomon Powder Snake for sale from the States for $280 and as thats around 22,000￥ I just couldn't pass it up....but Salomon don't ship internationally so I had to find one of those forwarding companies.....after hearing from Gareth (I think) about this mob I figured they were reputable......anyone else used them? I'm not really sure how everything works to be honest, I signed up and stuff and have recevied confirmation back so I guess its just waiting game now

Snowboarding video February 18th

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:19:34 +0000

I did a quick edit of the footage I took last weekend. I don't really have time to do it probably these days but wanted to get it out there while I still had the vibe from an awesome day.

Warning: gratuitous face shots.

Silly amounts of snow during the journey from Muikamachi to Hakuba

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:23:58 +0000

I got up early this morning, setting out for Hakuba at about 5:30am, arriving before 8:30am.
It was very interesting cutting across from our part of Niigata into Hakuba and seeing how much snow different areas have.

Muikamachi > Ishiuchi --- huge amounts of snow;
Ishiuchi > Nakasato --- silly amounts of snow (silly = more than huge amounts of snow);
Nakasato > Tsunan --- ridiculously silly amounts of snow;
Tsunan > Sakae --- even sillier than that;
Sakae > Nozawa --- probably the silliest. Nothing has ever been sillier. Seriously, the walls were getting on for 5+m in some places!
Nozawa > Iiyama --- silly amounts of snow;
Iiyama > Nagano --- getting much less very quickly as approach Nagano city;
Around Nagano --- almost no snow in places;
Nagano > near Hakuba --- not much at all really;
Hakuba --- quite a lot, but I would say generally 1/3 of what there is around Tsunan/Nozawa area and probably about half what we have in Muikamachi.

Still in Hakuba.
I am happy with my timing - got amazing blue skies this morning, I was very excited.
What a truly stunning backdrop Hakuba has.