JAPAN GRABS - Hakuba Blog 2013 / 2014
I wouldn’t worry- it’s a blizzard outside right now. More snow through tomorrow. Should be an amazing weekend!
When do you arrive?
I’ll get a current status report for you
I get there on 16th of Feb till 22nd of Feb
lol early days man!
*************
IwatakeOn the drive up I heard that there was 50cm of fresh, Cortina top lifts weren’t opening due to avy danger and it was super windy. Plus, it was still the winter break so the bigger resorts would be rammed with tourists. What to do? We decided to try Iwatake for a change. I always hit Iwatake in the spring as there are loads of side hits on the runs, but would it be good on a pow day?
these guys seem to think Iwatake is a good idea
Iwatake is quite a fun resort and it has a young, hip vibe to it. They actually play good music on the speakers on the lift poles and there are lots of university students there on tours. It’s the only resort in Hakuba that has runs facing all points of the compass, so if one aspect is wind hammered, you’ve still got plenty of options left.
Anyways, it was quite a good day. We scoped out a tight zone within view of a lift that had some tasty drops and were cheered as we pulverized the line.
My third time down was my favourite as I hit the jumps hard and didn’t crash like on the run before (the shame!).
I was stoked the rest of the day, thinking about how good the gopro footage was going to look. To my horror, the jump footage was ruined by snow sticking to the camera! Aaargh!
the most epic run evar!
We heard later that Cortina opened up on time and it was epic, but no worries, hitting new terrain is always fun. Then, after a long laidback lunch, we went to check out a small cliff line that I first seen over five years ago, but had never explored. It looked good, so we hiked it, and ended up spending all afternoon there, doing drops. It was great fun and good to get the feel of cliffs again.
Random guy riding powThat night when we hit the onsen, my friend found that he had forgotten his towel! Practical as ever, he proceeded to use the hairdryer to dry his entire body
The look on two young Japanese boys, waiting for their father, was priceless! “what is that white guy doing??? Has he no shame? Why is he too cheap to pay 200yen to buy a towel at the front desk?”
Sounds like a corker of a day!!!!!
Shame about the camera!!!!! Try usin Rain-X on the housing/lens!!!!! Works unreal!!!!!
Usin a Hairdryer!!!!!
******************
Norikura
Another good option for avoiding the crowds, Norikura is quite a spread out resort. It’s right in between Tsugaike and Cortina. There is good backcountry access there, so if you know what you’re doing, it’s a good place to check out. We hit the skin track and I was pleased to find that my new Burton Freebird was easy to handle and while it’s not a challenging skin, I didn’t have any problems whatsoever.
The skin track was well built up from heavy traffic and we thought that the trees would be totally tracked out, but went anyways, considering it good exercise. An hour and 20 minutes later, we arrived at the summit and had lunch.
To our relief, it wasn’t tracked out at all and there was lots of pow left.
The Freebird rides powder really nicely and has loads of float. It really feels like a solid board and I am very happy I sold my K2 Panoramic for it. I’ll be doing a proper review on it when I get more days on it.
After a nice long powder run, we changed out the splits for our resort fun boards (Burton Root 152 for me, 159 Smokin Clancy pro for today’s male model) and did a bit of jibbing.
random snow bunnies from Osaka - “Do you mind jumping in the air for me?”
I assume this is the official resort mascot ..... ahem, the one on the right
******************
Happo One
So guess who I saw at Happo One last week? The Almo Film crew. Two of the three riders agreed to throw down some carves for me. (The third, Sylvain Bourbousson, didn’t get the memo and came down with me, and asked, “what are we shooting?” 
)
Morgan Le Faucheur manages to get a slash out of hardpack.
Mathieu Crepel turns in front of people setting up a ski race course.
They’re here filming for their webisodes, and for a documentary. I had the chance to hang out with them so I’ll be blogging more about them in the upcoming posts…but my ears are still ringing from the horrendous karaoke session last night!
These guys are legit.
First off, check out their movie, Drole de vie:
That was awesome Marc! Great that you could hang out with those guys too.
marc whats the visibility like in japan most of the time ? what lens you recommend to bring over there ?
i heard japan is pretty viable
i heard japan is pretty viable
lol shut-up mate….
Use your Optimistic Lens!!!!!
What i said above your commend.
In all seriousness though, use a high vis yellow!!!!!
thanks,
i got
red solex for bluebird
pink for partly cloudy
was thinking of getting yellow for greybird
thanks,
i got
red solex for bluebird
pink for partly cloudy
was thinking of getting yellow for greybird
Who cares what color the birds are, it’s the weather you’ve got to worry about!!