89 replies to this topic

[Toque]

Fattwins and I went into the Tateyama area to get some backcountry skiing and our first turns of the season. We were lucky and got to ski some really light powder. The weather wasn't very good for us though and we wern't able to make the summit like we wanted but we had a great time. Another fellow named Chris who is from Nagano also joined us and we introduced him the backcountry skiing.


Digging camp while the snow falls


Had to cross this little creek to get to the runs on Raicho.



I broke trail all the way up to our first run so I'm pretty stoked for first tracks on our first run of the season. No pictures from that run though.



Fattwins digging a quick pit to make sure it was safe. Turns out that the new snow slid and sluffed on the hard layer that he found. But it was just some deep sluff.


Fattwins skinning up a really steep skin track for our first run Sunday morning.


Fattwins skiing down the run we just skinned up.

[Toque]

Chris skiing down



Looking back up our 1st run Sunday morning. Great turns.


Back up for another run just a bit further along the slope. We skied all the way to the valley bottom.


Fattwins won Janken for 1st tracks down this untouched face


Looking back up our 2nd run. Our skin track on the left. Really nice and fast turns.

[Sanno]

You weren't they only one's on the mountain it seems although the skiing pix don't show anyone else. Or were those people in the background your support team?

Too bad about the weather although the snow looks great for a season start!

There should be a snowjapan moblog. Then you can keep us up to date during these weekend expeditions with pictures from your keitai.

[Toque]

Farming turns across the valley




It cleared up for about 30 minutes. Would have been really great to up there. All the tracks on this face were skied while it was white out so they wern't so lucky as it looks.



And that was it. We were faced with about a 45 minute uphill skin back to the bus station with our very heavy overnight bags.

[Sanno]

in winter it's better to travel warm than travel light

[Toque]

Yes it is
And all the things that I brought the only extra piece of clothing I didn't use was a very light down vest

There were lots of people there and if you look close on the sunny Tateyama picture you can see tracks on almost all the slopes.
In the morning there was about 50 people skinning and snowshoeing up the Raicho face. They all ski down the same skied out route.

You don't see people in my pictures because I kind of plan it that way and we try to avoid the more travelled places.

I don't know if there was a thousand people up there skiing and snowboarding but most every bit of skiable snow was skied out by the time we left Sunday afternoon.

[Fattwins]

The cabins and onsens were still open so they were bust I think. Ill post more later thanks for a good trip. Toque its kinda sad that it was our last early start together.

Im so tired I cant even think sorry about that

[Toque]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Fattwins:
its kinda sad that it was are last early start together.

What?

[sava]

FT: It's a good thing you're not teaching grammar!

[Toque]

 Quote:

Originally posted by montoya:
nice one. how deep was the snow up there?

There was about 100-150 cms I'd guess
We easily dug down to the ground at camp to make a good shelter to cook in.

[SKI]

Nice pics toque.

What was on the menu?

[puretele]

Nice work. Must have been a great early season stoke.

[Toque]

Dinner


Dessert

[janus77]

I think I'm going to cry

[kurisu]

Tateyama on sunday was gold. visibility on saturday was no good but we still got one run in, complete with fattwins popping out of his bindings and then hopping across the rocks in the creek to get back to camp...

it was a perfect first weekend of backcountry for me... much thanks to toque and fattwins for lending me trekkers and a beacon, and for the tips along the way.

-Another fellow named Chris

[janus77]

More whiskey, I'm not sure this forum's rated for the rest of the photos dude.. hehe.

[Creek Boy]

I bet that bottle of whisky was the cheapest one Fattwins could find
Thats at least the way he chooses beer

[Toque]

I think it was
It was horrible

Our neighbors had the good stuff and they had no problem letting us help them finish the bottle. We drank a hella lot of it just to help them out.

[janus77]

Looks like such a great time, I'm supremely jelous.

[Fattwins]

Sorry about the are-our mix up im just so tired right now. I drank a litre of coffee on the way home so I couldnt get to sleep untill 12ish. Im bagged, Had a good time that is for sure.

The freerides rule I cant wait to play with them more.

kurisu if you want to see the real good stuff this season you are gonna have to invest a bit.

One bad thing about my trip was my skins, the glue pretty much came off. I will now use toques tips to re-glue my skins.