andylaurel

I definately would have posted it had I known about it sooner! There were maybe a total of 5 or 6 foreigners there total.

I was at Norn (Minakami) on Sunday and I had saw the traffic on the highway before I got on. I took the route 17 down to Shibukawa and then the 353 back through Akagi and Kiryu. I beat my friends (in a separate car) home by an hour, and they took the highway. Good times.

My friend suffered a ç²‰ç •éª¨æŠ˜ã€€which I'm not sure I can translate into English. It's a multiple snapping of the bone? It was broken in 4 places and required surgery and a week and a half in hospital. He needed a plate and screws etc.

It's about 5 mins from the Minakami IC so it's very easily accessed. It wasn't bad, but it's not massive. There aren't any walls to ride, and the slopes aren't particularly wide. I'd say go and check it out if you can't be bothered battling 15 odd km of winding snowy mountain roads. It's just really conveniently located. Another good thing, is that you can use your 500 yen shouhinken in the restaurants!

Some of my Japanese friends alerted me to the fact that Norn was holding an international day on the 31st of January. Unfortunately, they only told me late on the 30th! The deal was that you show your Gaijin Card and receive a one day ticket for 1500 yen. Yatta! Unfortunately the snow was hard in the morning, and progressed into wet in the afternoon. It did mean riding all day with an open jacket, a t shirt and sunglasses! Kimochii! There was also a Taiko demonstration. Akemi rips! Norn has a fun little park.

Yeah, you see grass. I went the previous weekend, and took my camera but unfortunately my friend broke his collarbone before I could take any pictures, so I had to go back up last weekend and get these ones for you guys. The weekend of the 24th of Jan had great snow, a good 50 cm of soft powder, and good coverage, but it seems just 6 days later that a lot of that snow had melted.

Oze Iwakura is quite nice huh. I've only been there twice, but it is always good fun!

Originally Posted By: andylaurel I'll upload to snowjapan.com! ^^^ Not reluctant, but I was too tired after 5 hours of driving and 8 hours of riding to upload them last night. Will definitely do that tonight for you guys!

I don't really know what's going on. I uploaded the pics I took and then linked them into my post. I also tried linking them from facebook (which works on other forums) but that didn't work either. Well, can't say I didn't try! I'll upload to snowjapan.com!

Thankyou to SnowJapan for sending me a free lift ticket to Kawaba. I headed up to Kawaba yesterday morning with my pal Riichi for some sunny snowboarding. The weather was fine but it had been a warm week. Unfortunately the conditions were less than ideal, with a strong cold wind and icy slopes. We still enjoyed ourselves however, as bad snowboarding is still better than no snowboarding. Kawaba is 17 km from the Numata interchange (although I took the local roads) and has a bus service running from a rest stop down in the town (if you don't like driving on snow). There are Pizz

We were at Kagura on the 16th. The powder was so deep, I found the limit of my all mountain board! It just simply wouldn't stay on top of the 3 odd meters of powder. What a day!

Yay! Oze Iwakura is awesome! The milky way rocks!

Entered! How great is this forum!

I've had my Ride DH2 for about 2 months and used it only 8 times, but it's already really scratched up. How will this affect the performance? Can I fix it/have it fixed? Cheers. Andy

I'm off for a ride with Gaijindrifter this Saturday and I have a free lift ticket for Hotaka Ogna, Hotaka Bokujyou and Houdaigi. I basically want to know what your recommendation of the three is? I've been to OGNA once but it was a blizzard and only the romance lift was working. If anyone is keen on meeting us for a ride, let me know.

The Indian food there is good, but servings are modest.

I rode at least 4 days at Kawaba last season. It was definately one of my favorites.

I was there yesterday too. It was much more comfortable than Kazawa on the 19th. It was minus 11 and snowing at Kazawa on Saturday, but it was zero degrees and sunny at Malnuma on Sunday. What a great resort. They didn't have many park items out yet, though. SKI, it was quite crowded yes. Aargh, two days of riding back to back has left me so stiff I can barely move!

Who bumped this 4 year old thread?

We got one about 20-30 seconds long last night up in Gunma. It was one of the strongest I have felt. It woke me up.

I finally found my way onto here. I'm 194 cm and ride a Ride DH2 157cm board. I feel comfortable on it and (if I wasn't trying to do crazy stuff) I don't fall down. Is there some sort of rule about board length? Wouldn't weight be a more important factor than height when choosing board length?

Shot from Hakuba from 10am, 18th Dec 09.