skidown that is the worst looking map for Honshu, pineapple express. Niseko shouldn't fare as bad. I am hoping for a ripper of an upgrade tomorrow though.
3 mins, 18 seconds for you to reply Well the USA charts have massively upgraded for Colorado between the 3:45pm update and the 9:45pm update. Unfortunately I don't believe what they are saying for now. Will wait for another few updates to see what they say. Back to the topic, yes the Japan chart is pretty bad at the moment. Will see what the next updates bring! I have my fingers crossed for you!
Cheers skidown, have been studying those reports the last few days and have been getting very keen thats for sure. Gonna hit it up early March so looking forward to it!
March is still very good in Niseko. Some data suggests a slightly deeper average snow base in March than February. My own March experience has been a bit less deep powder and a bit more sunlight. There should be plenty of bargains and plenty of empty slopes as the peak season ends in February (probably for calendar reasons rather than snow conditions). The lifts usually keep turning until Golden Week in May.
Super cold yesterday - got up there early for some first tracks. That's my trip done - heading to Sapporo for the Snow and Ice Festival today. Stellar conditions this past week.
SA they aint my pics. Glen is a professional photographer up this way so don't feel bad if yours aren't quite up to his standard. I can assure my ones aren't!
GN - not sure if it'll be another 5 years before I come back to Niseko, but next time perhaps we can catch up for a ski. The area between Moiwa and Annupuri looked pretty interesting, and I only scratched the surface I'm sure
I'm sure you'll get the itch to come back in less than 5 years! I'll still be here and would be happy to catch up.
Great morning, if not for the wind and low visibility .! heaps of new snow , but the gondolas and upper lift closed about 11. Has stopped snowing at the moment, but about -15 around noon at the big thermometer. Will try th night skiing , hopefully it won't be too cold. PS. Rented a set of wide skis for the past 4 days. Best money I spent this trip. Wish I had done it 4 days previous.!
Do you guys know if avy gear is expensive in Niseko compared to Aus? Got a friend who wants to buy the basics, not sure where it will be better to buy.
Today started off badly with the gondola being closed at the Village. Bus to Hirafu at 9.30 was packed, but not as much as the gondola there. Anyway things started clearing , queue wise, by 11 ish. AT times it was like Perisher! Sun appeared and it was glorious , but wind gusts were painful. Snow is looking pretty beat up, compared to the last couple of weeks . All things being relative of course. still as good as the corduroy at Vail , but off piste is very tracked out , getting crusty. About 8 degrees at the thermometer mid afternoon and the groomed runs were nice and mellow. Village gondola had opened by 1 (perhaps earlier?) so had quite a few nice runs that helped to remind me how much fun a quick groomed run can be. PS. I wish I had listened to others about getting some fat skis for the pow. I though 85 underfoot was wide enuff. HAH! After 4 days of scaring myself and getting depressed I lashed out and tried some Katana's. I am now a convert .
Looking at the forecast for this week and it is looking quiet on the snow front. Any thoughts? There from Wednesday and hoping that the cover will be reasonable and not icy chop
Visual update on how much snow has been accumulating down here in Kutchan. View from my bedroom window towards Annupuri. 9 Dec 7 Feb
Looking pretty good there GN. A mate and I are thinking of heading over in mid March and I'm just sussing out our options. Have you got any suggestions/ recommendations on what area and where to stay? Any help, much appreciated. PM me if it's better. Cheers
You'll have to give me a bit more to go on. What kind of accomm, cheap, mid-range, luxury? Want breakfast included or self-contained? Mid March is not going to be overly busy and rates are much lower than peak season.
A self contained one bedroom unit would be what we're chasing I reckon or a mid range hotel. Not too fussed about whether breaky is included or not. Don't really know what we should expect to pay a night somewhere reasonable?
It's been snowing on and off all day,coming in more this afternoon. Around 5-10cm fresh stuff up high. I don't think you have anything to worry about with the cover, unless it warms up between now and Wednesday.
Is it Tuesdays's that the bus loads of people go from Niseko to Rusutsu ? I'm in Niseko and thinking of going tomorrow but not if that is the bus day.
The bus to Rusutsu runs every day. In my experience you won't need to worry about crowds on the hill. Bus stops at the Hirafu Welcome Centre first and then at the S/Mart bus shelter.
Last day today and it was a hoot, the snow started falling as we were eating our breakfast and didn't stop till about 6pm tonight. We were able to find fresh lines all day and as the snow keep falling the better it got. Climb the peak as soon as the gates opened and got a run out thru Gate 3 and although the visibility was poor there was some good snow to be had. A few more runs thru Gate 5 and we headed over to Niseko Village and by the time we arrived there was a nice 5 - 10 cm on yesterday crust and very few people. Pick of the runs would be Superstition and the tree runs between Misoshiru and Unforgettable. Next stop Annapuri and again a nice cover of snow and no people. Hit the trees on the side of Silver/Paradise etc for while and then the fukayuki - Rinkan area under the gondola before having a late lunch. A few more runs and it was time to catch the last lift to get back to Hirifu. Getting back to Hirafu it looked \as if they had had some decent snow as again there were opportunities to go deep in the trees on the side of Miharashi and pick plenty of new lines. There may off only been 10 odd cm metres or so but it looked as if there was much more. At the end of the day we were really surprised with what a great day we had and especially in the afternoon we were getting mid boot deep freshies. This trip has been my best so far with over 2.1 mtrs of snow falling over the 10 days we were here. We had blue bird days, a big dump of over 40 cm, freshies for 9 of the 10 days,visit ed two new spots (Rusutsu & Mowia), \boarded in snow that was really two deep(never thought i would say that), found some new and great restaurants (RIN in Hirafu and The Red Lantern in Kutchan) and shared a lodge with 8 US F15 Jet fighter pilots (pretty wild boys but great people to have met). All in all it has been a week of memories & experiences that I wont forget for a long time
ratherb@thesnow sounds like you had an awesome time, ah Niseko next season for me... Those US fighter pilots sound pretty nuts, were they based in Okinawa and up for a ski, sure you would have heard some pretty wild stories from those boys...
If anybody is interested in a super cheap all mountain season pass PM me (I have two). I'll be leaving on the 13th.
It snowed all last night and then actually cleared up for a few hours this morning. Had knee to thigh deep powder up high, which lasted in some spots for most of the day, as the snow came in again at lunch time and continued all afternoon. All in all, the best day of the trip so far for us, we are very tired but happy geriatric skiiers tonight!
I've been at Rusustsu the last two days. Lots more people about today than yesterday but its all relative, still pretty quiet. I'm going BC tomorrow up at Chisenupurri so we can take some nice powder photos/video. Today was standard powder day modus operandi, buy a 4 hr pass, do not stop for drinks, food, photos or friends. I must admit I did wait for family though. I'm planning on going to Sapporo Teine and then the Sapporo snow festival on Friday. Anyone tell me where we need to sort of go/park to see the sculptures ?
All the big snow sculptures and stuff is in Odori park and there are ice sculptures in Susukino. Parking may well be difficult, probably best to find a big department store and park there. If the wife or yourself buy something in one of the shops you will probably get the parking for free, just make sure you show your parking ticket.
Yeah its pretty tough over there!! Powder powder powder. You get to the point where some mornings you sort of hope before looking out the window that there has not been any fresh snow. My body was done after my 10 day stint. Mate and I went pretty hard. Body told me it was done after 10 days of go go go. Body did a system reboot on the plane on the way back. I fainted in my seat!! Scared the carp out of me....I could hear people talking around me but could not open my eyes or move. Make sure you keep up on the water.....all that hiking will do you in. That's where I came undone in the last few days.
F..k me...fainted? Air pressure + booze plus lactic acid? man thats nuts. How many onsens did you have?. I know when I was in Nozawa (and having a onsen every night) my body felt a million times better.
I must say it was the scariest thing that has happened to me. As pox as it sounds I thought my food had been poisoned and I was a dead man walking. Extreme body fatigue and dehydration. Had an onsen all but 2 nights. I agree they are very good to get the blood moving. We circulated from a 52 deg to a 12 deg on multiple times. Worked a treat on the legs. I think my main problem was lack of water on my last 2 days. That and only having some alcohol on my last day......not a great deal at all......had 0 drinks on my second flight from HK to Melb for I was starting to feel very AVERAGE 40min into the flight. Got checked out by doctor and waiting for some blood tests.....strict orders from the wife! <img src="https://www.ski.com.au/xf/styles/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="\:\/" title="smirk" height="15" width="15" /> Pretty confident that it was just body fatigue and dehydration. I have certainly learnt after this to drink plenty of water before and on a flight after putting the body through the extremes. Must be getting old....
Earlier this year at the age of 37 I spent the night in ICU at Royal Melbourne. For 5 hours I would not record a decent blood pressure. There is a lot more to the story but the short version is that the doctors arent quite sure what went wrong but believe it could have been severe dehydration. When they had put 6 litres of fluid into me, I had only put out 0.5 litres through the cathoder (yuky). When you are pushing yourself for days on end (onsens make it worse), its not hard to suddenly have the wheels come off. Like you Cham, one minute I was standing, talking, feeling OK, next minute I had passed out and the next 5 hours was not a good place.
Sli1...read on that blog that you guys got to around 1400m up Yotei before deciding to drop. Weather came in and not worth the extra 400 or so meters? Did the weather stop you guys from completing much of the planned agenda in the backcountry? One descent from the peak of Niseko that I did it was blowing it's ring out and it was that BULLER special fog that you could not tell what was up and down. Typically you can drop a few turns and start to get a visual on the descent but on this occasion could not get a visual for 200 meters or so and all of a sudden I found myself upside down cart wheeling. Did not realise what speed I was going and got all disorientated. Mate was p!@sing himself from behind.
That stuff makes me sick - the fog that seems thicker at your knees than your head? then its coupled with that blower pow falling down up swirling....you don't even know if your moving ?which ways up? Its like being in a strange "white room" ...We were in it so thick over the back of moiwa(traversing towards the bowl) one day that the only way you could tell if you were going was watching your nose of your board...it was umm not nice. I was never so happy to see a tree in my life.
Hey mate...thats sounds intense..Thats alot of liquid my wifey nurse tells me. Those Cas. depts. are nasty places.
White room.....ha ha .....yeah that is the best description for it!! 6lt....that is a hell of a lot of fluid.
