anything

really happy with my new Arc'teryx jacket, should tie me over for another 10 years ;p

it just rains instead

lol, its holding on!

Hehe yeah, unless the instructional company offers it it'd probably make you look real cocky and just piss them off Ive seen it offered when I was in Canada and USA, so thought it might be something pretty common.

Afaik you might want to organize for 1 and 2 at the same time? I thought level 1 was a 2-3 day job and then you're done, and you'll be stuck with only beginner skiers all the time. Are you sure you want to do it tho? Most ski instructors are dicks. You will get used to telling people what to do, and so you'll figure that gives you the right to tell EVERYBODY what to do. Pretty soon your ego will be so huge you will need a convertible to be able to fit your head in. Figuring you are always the center of attention, you must always ski in perfect form. So much so, that you now look li

theres a foot of powder on my roof. i just had an idea for the next busy day! 'private powder'

Why is it crowded any special holiday or just the way it is? was still finding stashes of freshies at 2pm tho.

ski crashes are so much fun to see I think Charlie's first stack was the best tho. Was this was pretty early in the Holiday 'extra pow' area ? just before where the cracks are forming? not like im gonna hit it tho, broken too many bones already

it seems Mike likes to wear non-powder skis so that he sinks into the powder more. Its more difficult to ski, but it means he is waist deep (or neck deep!) into the powder and guaranteed face shots all day long. Not exactly sure how he does it, I ski on fat powder skis and half the time I need a snorkel to breathe and cant see where im going either. Maybe he has snow gills!! some sort of waterworld mutant. Imo, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages, like hitting the hard stuff underneath, and not being able to get as far out into the slackcountry, and the track back is more difficult

Cool to see that you had such a good day. seems like I shouldn't have given up so easily. I managed to catch the great snow on Sat afternoon. Lucky I did, because Sunday sucked for me. I didnt need to queue for a ticket, so I managed 2 runs on the gondola before the lineup was huge. 900 million 'powder frothers' were lining up for swinging monkey, so I gave konayuki and mihirashi a go. I was shocked to find they were such bad quality snow and snow drifts, that I thought I might try to see how it deposited on super ridge instead. Saw the lineup for ace quad was just as bad. When compared

the avi report is constantly talking about people ducking ropes. so it sounds like they went out a closed gate or ducked the ropes into the gated area. as far as i saw, the gates were closed all of yesterday. with the huge wind and drifts i reckon it would have been pretty lousy conditions anyway. I didn't think they did much with cracks. most of the time they arent marked or fenced (nor do I think ski patrol are responsible to), with so many unprepared / reckless skiers it might have happened anyway.

when you see 8, 9, 10 and 11s on the snow forecast you know its time to do some snow clearing in preparation. my entrance walkway before i destroyed it (too much effort to maintain):

I have Niseko Drinks every night! just sometimes they're at home. alone. in the cold. curled in a ball crying to myself. ps: ill meet up, but you forgot to include when / where

if only my goggles had windscreen wipers!

M Hotel didnt work out? You could try looking for places in the Izumikyo areas. I still count them part of hirafu, but its separated in most searches. Still has shuttle busses to/from the slopes / etc, but is a little further away. Niseko is 4 resorts. So you could also try Niseko Village (aka Higashiyama), or Annupuri. I dont think Hanazono has any accom. Otherwise, in hirafu, ive stayed at the red ski house a couple of times before I started doing longer stays (I couldnt find a snowjapan link for them). They've been pretty quick to respond to emails previously. note to

im still shocked that Wild Bills does 'food'

ANDY LOVES POW! I just had such a fantastic day I just had to let everyone know. the peak and peak gates opened again today at Niseko. Although I had to cut the runout, I lapped jacksons like a crazy person, getting 20+ linked turns of untracked pow every run. can barely walk im soo tired. alexeiw123 has prompted the suggestion of a niseko SJ meetup, bit of a ski, then drinks. sounds like a pretty great idea to me. but anyone wanna do the hard work of working out a date ;P

nice shots!

i dont mind the niseko dissing. i just hand people a tall poppy

there must be quite a few buried in the snow. recently i've seen lots of go pros mounted with a safety string as backup. makes me want to extend my stay and cash in during the thaw.

we're on to you Mike. your secret super-hero identity is David.

hi mate.. have not seen you out for a few days... Very windy today at niseko.. . top lifts were going real slow.. but lots of deep pow around.. hey! how goes the tree skiing? ive been out (except today), and even went night skiing a few days ago. But i dont line up more than once, so when it gets busy down the bottom i give up. its been clear weather at night, and busy during the day, so less enthusiastic than usual. but the forecast for the next 7 days looks fantastic, probably 30+cm every day ive cleared a little extra snow around the house just in case

get some skis instead? then you can join us in making fun of the boarders stuck on the flat.

Niseko is 4 ski resorts combined. The difference in prices you found is probably because one lift ticket is for niseko village only, the other is for all mountain (niseko united, which gives you access to annupuri, niseko village, hirafu and hanazono). ive not taken chuo or donan bus from sapporo before, so no comment there. i only recently use white liner, and skybus a long time ago. whiteliner have more scheduled times than chuo. and book / etc in english. but you need to book in advance. it is possible for a beginner to ski to / from niseko village to hirafu and back. from the top

holy cow