There’s an odd silence when you go from the creaking of compressing snow on your heel edge at the top of the run and point the nose downhill into a ghostly white void of boot-deep powder and dime-flake blizzard sky. Silhouettes of trees pass by, appearing and disappearing in and out of the ether. At speed comes the wind noise, but it is barely audible through the helmet earflaps and headgear. There is the dull thump of your front leg knee punching through deep pockets, and the low rhythm of the board surfing through the turns and rolling over the hidden bottom contours like waves. Turning into the wind brings the chatter of snowflakes against the goggle lens. Continue reading ‘Silence’
Archive for the 'Snow' Category
Being sent up to Seattle for the opening of Genki Sushi this comming Mon and Tues. The thought of hitting some of the snow there popped up, but then I looked into it and the late winter was delaying all the resorts. Only one area, Mission Ridge, was open with manmade snow. So it was a wait and see deal. When I decided to stay a couple extra days anyway, it was kind of a pain dealing with the travel arrangements. Trying to change the flight was simply not worth it, would have cost something like $700. So ended up forking out for a new one way ticket, not cheap, but not $700! The Washington ski resorts breathed a sigh of relief when a storm system they were eyeing blew in Friday and hapily stayed on a good track and deposited enough snow for Crystal Moutain and Mount Baker to open this weekend, just in time for my trip! Now I’m going to have to frantically pack and tune the board today before my departure on Sunday. It’s going to be a bit of a haul getting to Baker, 3+ hours from Seattle, but it is the resort that first allowed snowboarding, and all their lifts are going to be running so hopefully it’ll be worth it. Stay tuned for reports on how it is!
Arrived in Japan on Sunday and rushed to Immigration in order to pass through quickly and get my bags and get to the kokunai connection in the hour I’d been given. Even though I was the only foreign passport holder on my flight other than the Captain, there was a line at the single open “Foreign Passports” section from a different flight. For some reason, nobody had told these Chinese nationals about customs and immigration forms beforehand, because they hadn’t filled them out, or hadn’t filled them out completely, so the line moved gratingly slowly. When I finally got to the counter, I was in and out swiftly, and off to the baggage carousel in no time. My bags came out reasonably quickly - usually it’s “first in, last out”. Customs was fast and simple. The dude was impressed at my bringing a snowboard for some reason. Continue reading ‘Feet Dry - CTS’
Got back from Vancouver this past Sunday, and tomorrow (Saturday) I’m off to Sapporo! Had enough time to do the laundry and put everything back in the suitcase. Snow conditions aren’t really that good, but I’m taking the powder board up since the jib board came back from Whistler-Blackcomb a little worse for wear from all the rocks and krap - the edges feel like TV infomercial serrated knives, and there is a new core-shot amongst the field of new scratches and scrapes, not to mention the marred topsheet from when mister big dummy anglo ran me over from behind. Yesterday, Sapporo Kokusai looked as bad as Whistler, with dirt showing through the thin snowbase. There was a good dump last night, so there looks to be a new 10-15cm on the ground, with more to come over the next two days. With any luck, I’ll be out there poaching it on Monday morning!
Hopefully I’ll be able to keep you updated as my trip progresses, and I look forward to what Root and Fabio will put up here and on the gallery from the Vancouver trip.
The skinned finger healed up in time for the Whistler Thanksgiving trip, so all was good…
That is up until Saturday, when we were out-of-bounds on Blackcomb poaching some unridden fluff. We found a nice log jib, and hung around to session it. I rode it first and cleaned it (with a slightly off-center sortie, but that’s another story). After my run, the snow on top of the log had been scraped away, revealing a prong of death branch sticking out the top. I kicked at it and busted most of it off, but there was still a nubbin of death that bugged me. I got out my Swisstool and sawed it off. While I was shaking the wet sawdust out of the saw blade, the tool slipped out of my hand and disappeared into the snow. Without thinking, I plunged my hand into the snow and found the sawteeth with my fingertip! Blood fountained forth, drenching the tool, dripping all over the log, and splattering the snow like a crime scene! Continue reading ‘BFOD V2.0′
It’s been a slow start to winter with warm temperatures lingering until last month in both Hokkaido and British Columbia, but the snows have finally arrived. There has been the “snow, rain, melt” cycle going on for a couple of weeks, but the temperatures are stabilizing and dropping, so the snow levels are generally on the increase. The crew is already booked in for Thanksgiving in Whistler, and I’m off to Sapporo the second week of December, so time is getting short until snowboarding time! Continue reading ‘Winter’s Here – Time to Wax!’
With the demise of the snowboard division at Island Snow, I had to resort to online ordering this season. My old blue Sessions Jamie Lynn pants are still somewhat functional, but my OD green Burton Ronin pants are torn at the vent and blown-up at the ass seams. My “Captain America” Sessions jacket is falling apart at the seams and the membrane has delaminated and is gone in most areas. Although still decent looking, my newest grey Sessions jacket is losing its Entrant membrane like dandruff from the stretch panels. All my outerwear was going bad two seasons ago, but I patched and stitched them back together and made it through last season. Not wanting to be “homeless boarder” again, I ordered a set of this year’s Volcom Omega Gore-Tex outerwear. The price was high, but having experienced the durability of Gore 3L ECWCS clothing, I figured this stuff would last the longest, and anything cheaper would be an investment in “false economy”. I managed to get sale pricing at Backcountry.com, so it didn’t hurt as much as I expected it to. Continue reading ‘New Volcom Omega Gore-Tex’
Okay, to start, this isn’t an FTP thread…
Got back in to Sapporo last evening - just barely.
Friday was clear in Sapporo, but cold. We caught the highway bus to Niseko Annupuri Resort (2180 yen PP) via Otaru (not the Nakayama-touge route). The weather in Niseko was overcast with the portent of snowfall. After checking in to the Northern Resort Annupuri and attempting to find somewhere for lunch, we walked down to the ski center for lunch at the cafeteria. I had a Hamburger with pilaf for 1100 yen. The meat slab was good and big (A-), but the “pilaf” (C-) was just rice with a hint of butter and frozen mixed vegetables mixed in (peas, carrots, corn). Back at the hotel, we were picked up by Minami-san of Niseko Adventure Center for a snowshoe tour. He drove us over to the gondola in a Toyota Hiace and out came the poles and Atlas snowshoes. The poles were mystery ski poles, so were of a fixed length which I thought were too long, even if the session was to be all downhill. We caught the gondola up to the top station, where it was snowing nicely. Continue reading ‘White Hell’
Caught the bus out to Sapporo Kokusai yesterday. It was clear and sunny as was the day before. I still managed to find some untracked riding in the center bowl and in the secret trees, but it was settled, old powder - fun, but not wonderful. The sunny-side faces were windpacked and had a melt-crust, but the sheltered sides were fine. I took a break and had a “pizza-nan” and coffee set (750 yen) at the little snack shop at the top of the gondola (they used to be down midway by the slow old pair lifts, but moved to a more accessible location). I had a little incident with the paper tube of sugar for my coffee. While shaking it gently from the end to clear some air space to tear it, the paper disintegrated - sending granulated sugar everywhere. Darned those foreigners! Don’t they know how to open a paper tube of sugar? Lucily nobody saw me do this, and I managed to clean it all up. Food was more snack-sized. Probably a bit pricy for what I got. (B) The clear sky had turned a little hazy by the time I got done with lunch. A hint of snow began to fall. On the bus ride home, the haze in the sky was becoming more pronounced - snow was on the way. Dinner was sausage, kraut, some kind of gratin thing, and sauerbraten at a German restaurant. Had a good hefe-weisen too… can’t recall the name right now… Georg Someone & Sohn… All the food was really good (A, except the sauerbraten which was an A-). Around 7000 yen for everything including beer, dessert and coffee. Continue reading ‘Feast or Famine’
Got back in from Vancouver on Sunday night. Washed all my gear last night after work. I managed to get one set of outerwear last the 7 riding days. It was almost always below freezing except for a few times at the bottom of 7th Heaven, so the clothes didn’t get too funky.
My legs are fine - no muscle pain or burn. My rear-leg knee is a little sore though. It got a bit bad on about day 5, but tapered after that. I have a couple of bruised or cracked ribs on my back. They hurt when I cough of sneeze.
Just a couple of weeks until I’m off to hit the snow in Japan!