We hit Whistler on Monday and Tuesday. There was a good amount of snowfall on both days, supposedly around 15cm settled times two days, but the high freezing level made for some sticky, packing snow on Monday. It was pretty much snow flurries at the top of green chair, and rain halfway down. It was gruelling and miserable. The snow was soft, but very heavy and difficult to ride on. Tuesday had a higher freezing level and more new snow, so we returned to Whistler to crank some stashes of untracked, deep powder. The alpine areas were still undergoing avalanche control, so were not open. It was still raining down at the green chair base, but it wasn’t too bad. At least the snow was soft. Today, they opened Seventh Heaven up again, so we returned to Blackcomb. Two days worth of deep snow made for lots of fun in the gladed areas. The open bowls were pretty windswept, and there was not much new development over what was there on Sunday. Hopefully the Whistler alpine areas will be open tomorrow so we will have some new powder to cut up. Rain will probably return to the area tomorrow afternoon, but hopefully the freezing level will remain low. I’m not really optomistic. Continue reading ‘Rain, Snow, and Freezing Level’
Archive for the 'Travel' Category
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It was drizzling in town as forecast, so we headed up to Seventh Heaven on Blackcomb to stay above the freezing level. Snow was soft in places, but not “powder”. Sticky and slow. There was a fairly good windchill up top, with a serious headwind heading down the first pitch that combined with the sticky snow to prevent forward motion. Most areas were pretty ridden out, but there were a few stashes here and there. We rode down throught the terrain garden on our last run down, then caught the lift back up to the top and rode PTP over to Whistler then downloaded on the gondola – no point in burning out our legs and wasting time on krappy conditions on the rideout! Are we “snow snobs”? Supposedly there’s more rain overnight and tomorrow with the same 1800 meter freezing level, possibly some high winds, maybe subsiding tomorrow. Whee. Doesn’t look good for tomorrow… To sprinkle powdered sugar on our already dubious day, when we went by Sushi-ya for dinner, the space was dark, and there was what looked like a “this space available” sign in the window. Fabio went upstairs and there was no “we’ve moved to…” sign on the door. Guess our favorite sushi place in Whistler is no more. Boo. Sachi Sushi was our fall-back. Sushi was good except for maybe the BBQ smoked salmon roll, which was a little on the dry side. The beef tataki was ma-ma. Chocolate ice cream at Cows made everything all better. Continue reading ‘First Snowboarding Day of 2010′
Okay, we’re here now. Check-in was as slow as usual in HNL, but security was quick and professional, so we got through in time to go to KBC for some wings, pizzas and beer. The two pizzas were $20 USD each (ouch!), but were excellent. All told, we ended up dropping $31 USD each for everything including a good tip for the cool server dude. We met Kevin and Naomi at the gate, and we were shortly boarded. The center overhead bins in the 767-300-2 (four-door/no overwing exits) were a little small for the Kifaru X-Ray with side pockets, so I had to pull the laptop power supply and ultrapod out and put them inside the pack for the bin to close. On takeoff, a bad baby immediately set to screeching and wailing inconsolably, but after bevvie service, the turbulence set in and I was rocked to sleep. Continue reading ‘In Whistler’
Hope last year went well for everyone out there, and that this year goes even better!
I’ve been working on the 2010 SNM wallpaper image, but I don’t have it finished yet. Hopefully I can get it done before I fly up to Vancouver next week, but I still have some snowboard repairs, waxing, packing and some household plumbing tasks to perform, so keep your fingers crossed! It’s quite wonderful, and distinct from last year’s one.
In the meantime, ride safe, and I’ll see you out there in the snow and on the trails!
On the domestic flight from Sapporo to Nagoya, the JDM flight attendants were offering drinks and mints up until the wheels came down. On the overseas flight from Nagoya to Honolulu, the “Asian” attendants passed by once with coffee/English tea/green tea, at which point most people still had their during-meal drink, so didn’t need the post meal coffee yet. They even brought out the pre-landing snack just after collecting the dinner trays, and at the appointed snack time, the juice came out, but no effing coffee/English tea/green tea. WTF?! Oh yeah, and where the F was my pre-meal drink that I usually get? I got it on the outbound flight last week. This crew sucked.
(0)Just got back from Japan. JO 084 from Nagoya had a good tailwind, so came in about half-an-hour early. There was a fair amount of turbulence though, but not as much as would have been expected from the doom notices given by the flight crew before takeoff. I could immediately see why I couldn’t get my customary “C” seat, since the majority of the flight was taken up by a school trip. Nothing quite like being surrounded by shrieking schoolgirls! Too bad I was instead seated next to all the freak “normal” passengers, like the girl next to me with her overdone fingernails who stirred her food but didn’t eat any of it, and goofy ADD hip-hop sideways hat nervous energy dude whose mere presence made me want to just clobber him.
(0)Don’t worry. I’ll upload pictures to the posts and get some stuff up on the gallery when I get back. The blog interface doesn’t quite work as designed with whatever version of IE that is resident on this machine.
(0)Kirin has produced two recreations of their historical brews, one Meiji-era lager, and the other a Taisho-era Pilsner. Both have cans representative of the labelling during those respective eras. The Taisho one has the Kirin emblem that we are familiar with, but the older Meiji one has what at first appears to be a weird little dog. Both are 5% ABV, but the Taisho pilsner has rice as an adjunct as opposed to the pure malt of the Meiji brew. Both have a stronger bittering, but the Taisho pilsner has the distinct “ricey” finish common to American lagers that are adjunct-heavy – It’s not bad: It’s just not as malty. Continue reading ‘Kirin Retro Beers’
Finished packing for the most part and hunger was setting in, so I walked down to MOS Burger and tried the new Tobikiri Hamburger with cheese. Not bad. From the brief examination of the menu blurb, it might be domestic meat. The cheese is white and melty like a fluid or sauce. The meat is brushed with a teriyaki sauce before assembly. Those who know me know I don’t particularly care for teriyaki-anything, but since this sauce was more on the salty side and less on the sweet side, I could accept it. It was good overall, taste and quality wise. Since it is gettng into winter, the salad fixings are getting rather unhappy – the lettuce is pallid, and the tomatoes grainy. Value-wise, it is about on par with other midrange Japanese burgers, in other words, a bit expensive compared to what you’d get in The States, and volumetrically much smaller. I’d still get this again, though I would have preferred the cheese being less runny. Continue reading ‘Last Lunch’
The crew will all remember walking in the cold down to 7-11 at the bottom of Kita 3 from the ekimae Century Royal hotel in Sapporo on many an occasion. Well, there’s a Family Mart on the first floor now. I think you can even access it from inside the hotel lower lobby. Kuso!
The section of street between Oodori and the JR Sapporo-eki is all ripped up and is a sea of undulating metal plates and temporary asphalt. There will eventually be an underground arcade connecting the two, but for the past couple of seasons, it’s been a mess. Couple this with the younger generation who doesn’t know how to “walk left” like lanes of automobile traffic, and you have anarchy! Chikusho!
There are no actual bike messenger services in Sapporo to my knowledge, but there are at least half a dozen hipsters on their stupid fixies doofing around town making a mess of things. Double-kuso!
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