Hanazano Powder Day!

As good as it gets with the boys in Japan...

Japan Days

Before the snow flies...

Japan Fun 2

Thought everyone you could use a little Japan break from work.

Cheers

Faceshot - Version 2

Antiquing

As they say, all good things must come to an end.  It was another amazing trip to what easily has become my favorite ski resort away from home.  It's not only because of the snow but because of the locals, the food, the volcano, terrain, etc... The trip started out strong with a surprise snow storm that left up to a foot of the fresh stuff on the highest slopes.  It was a great intro to the resort for the new guys.  We didn't get anything new for a few days and although it had us worried, we found plenty to do/eat/drink.  The last day of skiing was by far the best and as good or better than any single day we experienced the last time we were here.  I think we posted a comment during the previous trip stating that if we only could ski one good day out there it would have been worth the journey.  Well that pretty much sums up our last day.  The video shows some of the highlights.  Can you guess what movie soundtrack it comes from?

Thanks for following along.  It was a lot of fun again.

Snow Report

The official (as measured on my ski pole) snowfall numbers:

condo at the base of the mountain: 6"

mountain average: 11"

upper Hanazono bowl where we did 4 laps and where the photos below were taken: 14"

A truly amazing day with some great guys. Saturday was a wonderful way to wrap up our trip.

Niseko Haiku

 

Choking Down the Run
The Storm Has Finally Come
King Chair Number One

Fun Clip - after some noodles

Powder Day

Well, it might be better late than never. We woke up to the snow still flying and are getting geared up to do some powder run laps. We're guessing 6" of new snow, but it might be more up on the mountain. I'm sure we'll have video of good turns to post later on today.

Snow, Finally

So, after 5 days of no snow, here it comes-FINALLY. The forecast only called for 2 inches, but we'll see what ends up happening in the morning. The video shows the snowfall and pans up to the resort. We're about a 500' walk to the gondola, and then the skiing starts.

John's One Ski

Between the top of the first gondola and the next lift, we had to ski/walk uphill a little bit. John combined the two with a little left footed pedaling.

Making Friends

So, on Wednesday night, John and I went for a grocery run and made a pitstop at Wild Bill's for a "Sapporo Time" video opportunity. At the bar, we struck up conversation with a Swedish couple over an ice cream sandwich and ended up trying on each other's jackets (Norrano, Mt. Hardwear) for size.

For dinner, we headed out to Kabuki and rolled on to the Irish Bar in town, McGinty's. We tried in broken English to talk about rock and roll and where we were from and what we liked to do. It was a very multi-cultural day. Luke is a rock star in this land of Japan. He is not only the nicest guy, but the tallest that we have seen on our trip.

Sapporo Time 二

We took the day off the boards yesterday ate two lunches, watched three movies, and made another Sapporo Time video.  Enjoy.

View the original Sapporo Time video by clicking here.

More of Volcano Laps

More great views of the volcano.  Here Nick is topping out on Mt. Niseko An'nupuri on lap 1.  You can click on all the images we've been posting to enlarge by the way.

Tea and Naan

Believe it or not we haven't been eating just sushi this whole time.  There are any number of cuisines to choose from including Indian as can be seen behind Andrew in this shot.  The mobile Taj Mahal restaurant offers naan bread bigger than your torso, taj rolls, samosas, and chai tea.  The driver/chef won't let you pass without checking out his latest offerings fresh from the oven.

Tired Legs

Todd and Andrew resting weary legs on panda fur pillows they bought behind the sushi restaurant we ate dinner at.  Todd makes a shooting gesture at the pandas on t.v.

Sapporo Time Video

This morning, Todd took his first shower of the trip and it was all downhill from there.  After two runs sliding over cruddy frozen death cookies and fighting blind-man, vertigo inducing fog, we pointed our tips at Boyo-so noodle shack for lunch.  As we slurped bowls of salty, delicious ramen and udon, we overheard sour Aussies bitch about the weather and lack of fresh pow.  We tipped ten Sapporo bombers dry (6.33 liters of beer), toasting, laughing, and celebrating the fact we landed in the best little noodle shack east of Winter Park, CO.  We left Boyo-so two and a half hours later juiced and grinning about our ridiculous idea to make a GoPro video about our beer of choice.  Enjoy.

Meet the New Members of the Crew - Luke Duke

Can't believe we forgot to post Luke's profile.  Everyone knows Luke is an incredibly tall guy, measuring in at 7'9" but did you know that he's also one of the nicest guys you could ever meet? It's true.  He has started 10 different philanthropic organizations around the world including the Big and Tall Store for the Less Fortunate and Talls Without Borders.

John's Good Run

This hill was an impossibly steep 79 degrees but John still ski'd it with 1 hand.  Nice work, John!

Fog + Frozen Death Cookies =

Sapporo Time
Loyal blog followers: Check back at 6:15 p.m. JST for the world premier of "Sapporo Time", the crew's video homage to the official beer of PowderSushi.blogspot.com.

Volcano Laps

We did a few laps yesterday to the peak of Mt. Niseko An'nupuri.  On sunny days there are great views of Mt. Yotei as you can see behind Todd in this picture.

John's Ski Pole Cam

John fashioned several camera mounts that should provide some interesting perspectives to play with.  We saw this trick a little while ago and it definitely makes the video seem more stable.  Kind of fun...

Napananuri

Figuring out how to get to Napananuri while at our favorite mountainside noodle shack.

Nicko Owning the Window Shade

The appliances in foreign countries are always slightly different than we are used to in the US but Nicko is having an unusually difficult time figuring out how to lower the shade.  Here he is working the window crank and the shade lanyard at the same time in his long underwear.  He's somewhat of an exhibitionist we've come to find.  The crowd of local Japanese girls outside our window enjoyed quite the show.  Not sure if it was his inability to lower a window shade or the pants. 

1st Day Hike

 

Great 1st day! Having been on the planes, trains, and bus for the past day, none of us had a chance to see the snow report.  To our surprise there was a good 10-12" of the fresh stuff with more in the trees and side country.  The conditions were favorable and the sun was shining brightly on our home mountain -  Hirafu.  Don't think there will be any new for the next few days but we are planning a little touring action tomorrow on some of the distant peaks we've seen off the backside of our resort so we'll get some untracked lines in for sure.  Here's the group shot at the top of the peak.  From left to right: Andrew, Mike, John, Nick, Todd, Darin, and Luke.  Sea of Japan in the background.

Leaving DIA for Japan Ski II

Andrew, Todd, and Miller. Luke was in the bathroom.

Meet the New Members of the Crew - Niko Kutrumbos

Nico, our little Greek brother... Kid can ski, too bad he can't drink beers with the pros... Nick ski raced for DU in his past life and runs our favorite restaurant and watering hole in WP. Nick has been to Japan before, but never on a ski trip like this... Good to have him here with us.... to carry our bags.

Meet the New Members of the Crew - Andrew Goodwillie

Even though he is a Cleveland Browns fan, Andrew is a great friend of the bunch. He is super fast on the bike, runs one of the coolest non-profits in Colorado, and has three little ones under three. Andrew has ski'd since before skis had metal edges and is one of the oldest guys in our crew at 58. He once ski'd for 24 hours straight just to say he did it. Andrew is a true inspiration to anyone that doesn't like sleep...

Japan Ski II

Can't believe it but we're going back! It has been 2 years since we were fortunate enough to enjoy the splendors Japan's northern most island has to offer.  Since the last trip not too many days have passed without at least one of us reminiscing about the good times we had on Japan Ski I.  Once you've been and the memories have been formed, it becomes too hard to resist.  As a result we've committed to this return trip.  The original cast of characters from the 1st trip is going except for our only single-planker - Matt.  He's too busy escorting 4 Chinese government officials around the Carolina's.  Said it had to do with the lectrics on a new carrier killer or something.  Who knows.  We did manage to recruit 3 new trip goers: Luke Duke,  Niko Kutrumbos, and Andrew Goodwillie are joining us - John Fruit&Hotdog, Mike "Credit Card Air" Miller, Toddahabba, and D-Toronj.  New bios to follow.

We're all praying for good powder but don't expect to experience the same good fortune we had last trip.  That was probably a once in a lifetime lineup of snow storms.  We know it's going to be fun though and we'll do our best to describe our experiences.

Japan 2009 Trip Video

Dr. Haav and the Banquet Factory put this together.