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agillgren

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Everything posted by agillgren

  1. agillgren
    Last year we had an awesome trip making our way round with the car. We enjoyed boarding lots of different places with the only thing really keeping us in one area was were we had our accommodation booked (staying Tomamu, Asahikawa, Otaru, Niseko) This trip I was thinking it would be nice to free style it-- ie not book accommodation until there. With the thougtht being we could follow the weather pattern more. I don't think this would be a problem for most places as they seemed pretty quiet with lots of accommodation options -- was but was nervous that Niseko/Kutchan way may get booked
  2. agillgren
    The car thing was much easier than I thought. With the snow/ice you just had to be careful and adjust your speed - and more so start braking much earlier than normal and turn at very slow speeds. With that said it took us about 20min to realise that none of the Japanese stick to the 50km/h speed limits -- I would have thought they have speed cameras there but didn't seem like it as we had buses fly by (so we speed up a little too). The roads are cleared very well-- so we didn't have any problems there. Only time we had to dig our way out was from a parking sport in Niseko after the snow plow
  3. agillgren
    Very jealous-- enjoy. 35 degrees here. Major comedown.
  4. agillgren
    Thanks guys. Sadly the Chitose snow clearing army are too good and we managed to get out (did have fingers crossed for a cancellation till Saturday) . Back home to 35 degrees today- not pleasant. It was pretty cool seeing 6 or more snow clearers speeding around the runway at a once though. We didn't end up getting to Moiwa this time round. We've had couple of awesome days there on previous trips so we know to keep it on the books for next time round (everyone else seemed to disappear out the gates leaving the inbound trees and groomers all alone). The morning was windy with no new sn
  5. agillgren
    Thanks... not a regret or an apology there. Just an observation. When we planned this trip we thought it would be nice to finish in Niseko. Back in the comfort zone and staying walking distance to lifts. But once we got into this trip we were loving freedom to choose our destination for the day and finding new routes and we didn't want to stop. Niseko has served us very well in the past as our riding developed - and in my mind still has a purpose/place depending on what your looking for on a trip. It still served well as a nice base camp this time round--- and it was a change of sc
  6. agillgren
    Fun day at Kiroro today. Snow was a little heavier and not as deep as yesterday but it was still nice out there-- and much more pleasant weather. The mountain had definitely been wind affected-- I'm not sure the technical term but you could see the ridges and shadows of snow carved by the wind. Our first expeditions into the trees in the most obvious spots were a little disappointing after yesterdays ventures as the snow changed from boot deep powder to ice rapidly. But as we found our way a little later we found some fun knee deep sections with plenty of fresh lines. We still had freshie
  7. agillgren
    Classic---- prime bus viewing location!
  8. agillgren
    NIce vids. The gopro did it justice.
  9. agillgren
    Oh. And here is one snowy dog bus: Got to love it.
  10. agillgren
    :D :D It's days like today that remind me why we love it so much here and keep coming back each year. It was a day you needed wiper blades for your goggles (after the face shots) and a defroster to unfreeze the smile on your face. Seeing the avi report and weather reports it looked like Niseko top lifts might not run---- and definitely no high gates. But good news was at least 15cm overnight and still snowing. We made the call to head back to Rusutsu - as when I checked on Monday with similar winds most lifts ran that day and there a lot of runs in gullies where you can get out of the
  11. agillgren
    I'm trying not to look. We fly out Thurs arvo (seriously looking at pushing flights back a day or so). Nice one with the gopro. Better than our effort though---- we were having too much fun to stop and pull our old fashioned camera out (and your had gets cold).
  12. agillgren
    Yeah... still got a grin from ear to ear. Waiting for the forecast snow to dump tonight... fingers crossed and tomorrow should be epic. Sadly the bus isn't fluffy.... that would be even more awesome. I didn't pull the camera in time unfortunately.
  13. agillgren
    Yesterday the wind was howling-- but at least there was some fresh snow. We headed to Niseko- Hanazono to try find shelter in the trees. That there was (it was still cold out there though) but unfortunately not enough snow had gathered to cover the ice layer beneath. We gave it a shot for an hour or two before deciding a big lunch-- then beer/onsen was more appealing. Today was another story With the avi report saying some of the gates may not open or be delayed we decided to somewhere we could stay in bounds and still find untracked fun: Rusutsu Honestly it was terrible.. don't
  14. agillgren
    Cheers- will do. And looking forward to Tues/Wed - looking like fun. Looks like 15cm or so overnight on top of the frozen crust. It's a start.
  15. agillgren
    Arrived in Niseko to rain... which has since been snap frozen - but at least the snow is falling again now. Hopefully tomorrow will be rideable somewhere. We went to the right of nagamine... but stayed in sight of the trail as you said Gozaimaas and had some fun. Thanks for the tip Pete--- I could see it falling away there so we stayed quite close to the piste. We are relatively conservative- so unless we can scope the way out visually from hte lift or a scoping run we don't stray too far. The run I was actually talking about is to the right of the Gondola---- I imagine on a full pow
  16. agillgren
    Thanks Mike good to know-- might see you out there this week sometime then
  17. agillgren
    We were at Kiroro same day as you Mike (Thursday).... we had some fun and could imagine this place on a proper powder day would be epic. Might try to make it back there later this week. How does the place handle the wind? Thanks for the update on conditions at Niseko this morning. We heading to there today but think we'll take our time.
  18. agillgren
    Last two days have been somewhat warm without any new snow. Apparently it's raining out there now... so we're having a lazy morning. We leave Otaru and headed for Niseko way today. Kiroro Only one day after some light snow... so there were fresh tracks to be found but the snow was quite heavy and took some pushing through on the board. Was still a fun day but I can imagine this place would be epic with good powder. There are plenty of nicely spaced tree sections to find without the need to duck any ropes--- and a particularly nice run between the peaks if your willing to duck ropes
  19. agillgren
    Thanks guys... the reason I wanted to post this was to help give people ideas. There are soooo many quiet resorts out there. Not just Hokkiado but other places too. Awesome idea with the Koala's Pete... we've had a few ppl just mention Koalas after asking where we are from. I don't think I could go back to being locked into a resort again. I don't think we've had as awesome snow conditions as on previous years... but it feels that as we've had the car we've been able to make the most of things. Next trip I'd go a step further and not pre-book accommodation. They we can really go
  20. agillgren
    Pippu What a nice surprise. When we first arrived my first thoughts were this place was tiny.... Definitely more of a hill than a mountain. But what a fun one. It had been three days since fresh snow so we really came just to check the place out expecting the off-piste to be tracked out or sun affected. We splashed out a full 1600 Yen for a 3 hour pass (super cheap) and then set out to explore. At the top of the first lift we were greeted by a sign to saying "Deep Snow Course". Sounding too good to be true we ventured in slowly at first to find some fresh patches of sno
  21. agillgren
    Asahidake We failed in our attempts to find a guide for Asahidake---- but when we woke to another bluebird day and no wind we decided to go look at Asahidake anyway. Even on the drive up the mountain we were rewarded with some spectacular views: With the excellent visibility we decided it would be ok to ride. We did a few "scouting" runs down the cat tracks and looking out from the rope car to pick lines. There hadn't been snow for a few days so other peoples tracks were also there to give a guide. After checking things out we were able to head in a bit deeper off the side o
  22. agillgren
    Thanks WVS... apologies for the Niseko comment. I was just trying to contextualise. These resorts are so quiet I don't think it's a bad thing if they get a few more international visitors. Tomamu and Sahoro were both better than I expected. I think we were very lucky to get some good snow... but then we had few ppl to share it with so it lasted a long time. We spent some time at Furano last year and I got a bit frustrated with ropes everywhere. So it's a nice change where they not only acknowledge off piste--- but give some guidance. We are staying in Asahikawa at the moment (5
  23. agillgren
    Sahoro Well. I think we've had a pretty lucky run weather wise. We spent all Saturday at Sahoro in sunshine and low wind (sounds like Niseko got blizzard conditions). From the state of the runs they must have been closed when they got the snow the day before at Tomamu. All the "advanced" runs hadn't been groomed and had a nice shin high coating on them -- that stayed pretty untouched for the first few hours: In the afternoon we scouted out the many tree areas that aren't roped off where we could find some thigh high stashes (ok I have short legs). There was quite a bit of choi
  24. agillgren
    Onehunga--- the GPS has an English screen (little bits of Japanese) and English instructions: I can't see a make anywhere... it looks like it comes as an option in the car (Toyota). Model is NSCT-W61
  25. agillgren
    Hmmm.. The video works if you click the box. Not quite sure how to imbed it.

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