[Mt Annapuri]

Thats interesting.

There are a lot of "cracks" around in Hokkaido this season. We had an early winter so the first snow was quite heavy and wet in many areas. This flattened bamboo which usually acts as an anchor. In many areas Ive been in Hokkaido this season Ive seen large cracks formed by snow creeping on a smooth layer of bamboo. I could see down to the gound a few times!

As spring approaches and more water penetrates the snowpack Id say we will have to be very careful around these spots.

Perhaps the crack at annupuri is caused by the same thing.

[I got thrown off of Dynaland yesterday - currently fuming]

I wouldnt say offensive is fair ocean but I dont mind winding you up a bit. Its just that I cant take your posts seriously. You always get on here and carry on about how you know better than ski patrol and try to justify totally ignoring the guidelines but at the same time you admit to knowing very little about mountain safety.

Im happy to hear you are now interested in reading up a bit. Ski patrol are also very helpful Ive found. Try going into the office with a proper map and asking where they recommend.

I know youll say you dont want to hike blah blah blah but if you want to ride in someones resort you have to follow their rules.

I realise its quite possible to ride under chairs but there is a time and a place for that. Taking the attidude that you know best and nobady has a right to tell you otherwise will get you what you deserve which is a firm boot up the rear end.

by the way I dont wear underwear dude.

[I got thrown off of Dynaland yesterday - currently fuming]

Yeah Ocean maybe you could come up with a code word to yell out when you're stuck under the lift, that way we'll know its you and we can start throwing stuff.

riding under lifts is lame but trying to promote it on the internet is beyond stupid.

[I got thrown off of Dynaland yesterday - currently fuming]

If you want to ride undr the lift you have to be prepared to accept the consequeces. This sounds like an extreme case but the patrol has to consider everybody. Little kids riding the lift who might decide to follow you. Somebody might drop something (eg board/ ski) from the lift onto you. Is there sufficient clearance under the lift ect.

 

Everybodys done it but hey dont cry like a big baby when you get caught.

Riding under the lift is usually lame if you ask me.

[3 lines in Superpipe?]

I should clarify what I meant by begginers. I mean begginer pipe riders not beginner snowboarders. I wouldnt imagine riding the pipe would be much fun for an absolute beginner snowboarder.

As long as you can get down the pipe at about the same speed as evrybody else I dont care where you want to drop in as long as you wait your turn. Resort managers should make sure some kind of sensible queing system exists.

Last year I went and rode the Makomanai pipe the day after the world cup. Everybody was up there, massive crowd. Most people were pretty good about queing but there were one or two clowns who thought they had the right to drop in as soon as they'd hiked up. These dudes were going the biggest and had heads to match. The Japanese didnt say a word but I just walked up and asked them to kindly line up with everybody else which they did. They tried their best to look intimidating everytime they saw me after that but, I was quite happy practising my small straight airs.

Last week I saw a little girl riding the Makomanai pipe she was about 7 Id say. pretty good little ripper too, she wasnt dropping in but I thought It was cool to see the little kids having a go. She only did one run and did well I thought. I hope she didnt get bad vibes and thats why she left.

Peace in the pipe for all riders !!!!

[3 lines in Superpipe?]

Superpipes are pretty good for people learning to ride pipe. Nice big smooth and even transitions. Smaller pipes tend to be a be a bit too vertical too quick making it hard for learner pipe riders to hold an edge. Let em go in the center if they want they are probably getting just as stoked as the more experienced people dropping in. If they werent having fun they wouldnt be lining up there. Everybody was a begginer some time.

(by the way I have no problem dropping in.... or waiting for learners to have a go.)

[Caught up in an avvie]

Ive told my story on here before.

Cant remember the thread but if you search my posts youll find it.

[Beacons]

Montoyas WHERE question is an interesting one. Lots of people like to duck the rope and ride a bit of powder at the edge of the course and its probably not that dangerous but in boarding things tend to progress. Soon you want to ride something better. Riding out of bounds just near a resort can be dangerous for a lot of reasons.

A few things to watch out for near resorts..

1. Powder panic riding.

this occurs when a large pack of riders rush to shred an out of bounds area. The object is to be the first to slash as much powder as possible. Usually nobody is thinking avalanche and nobody has a clue what to do in an emergency.

2. I can see the resort and hear crap music so Its safe here.

This is wrong, the distance from the resort has absolutly no bearing on slope stability.

3. Expert Locals.

These guys will point you down some slope saying something like "its sick dude evrybody rides there" and "Ive ridden it tons of times and Ive never seen an avalanche."

 

I personally think its best to ride prepared whwnever outside a controlled area. That way you can let your riding progress knowing that your riding smart.

[Beacons]

The cheapest beacon Ive seen in Japan is the pieps opti four. I got mine for 19000 yen. Its an old style analouge beacon so you need to practice with it to learn to use them well. Expensive digital beacons are much easier to use but hey Its better to ride with a cheap beacon than no beacon at all.

Remember you should plan to never use your beacon because they are just a back up when bad decisions have already been made.

Up to 20 percent of avalanche victims are killed in the slide itself so dont think a beacon is a magic force field.

But as the other guys said Its your life we are talking about so get some kind of beacon even if its not the top of the line.

[About avalanches]

Wendy,

Its Difficult to give a simple answer to that question because there are a lot of factors that make the right conditions for Avalanches. The snow, weather , slope aspect and angle and you the skier or boarder.

You should consider any area outside a marked trail to be a potential avalanche zone and be prepared with the right equipment and training if you want to ride there.

[newbie question...clothing]

Dont wear cotton clothing when skiing. This includes underwear. It will just get wet and make you cold. Polypropelyne thermals with no undies OK!

[Avie Danger-Gifu]

I was up at niseko for a few days. Got back last night. Strong winds especially at higher elevations persisted for several days. Very windy last night in Saporro. Id be very careful on wind loaded slopes up there today.

[Binding breakages. Totally unacceptable!!]

As for Drakes, One of the bindings I snapped was a Drake (heel strap). Still under warranty.

Higuma, I agree that It wouldnt be a big deal If the things showed signs of wear before failure but what we are talking about here is plastic components they dont crack beforehand they simply snap off.

You just shouldnt be allowed to sell bindings that can do that.

Im carrying spare parts with me on Backcountry trips now.

[Niseko Trail Maps & Strawberry Fields]

Hey freak,

Check out www.niseko.ne.jp Its in japanese but to find the map click the third box on the menu bar at the top left of the page. You can also look at web cams by clicking on the menu at the bottom left of the page.

"Strawberry Fields" (note: only foreiners call it this) is located under the bottom lift at Hanazono this is on the far right of the Hirafu trail map.

Enjoy your trip.

[Heavy snow - good for practice?]

I dont think your friend was too wrong. Heavy snow is great for begginers in my humble opinion.

[Binding breakages. Totally unacceptable!!]

Snobo, Your last comment illustrates my point perfectly. I realise things wear out espeially with the punishment we dish out to our boards but the kind of failures Im complaining about are things that could really work you over. Imagine your binding poping on take off at that third jump at teine. Your leg would be twirled like a piece of spaghetti on landing.

If we were talking about brakes on a car there would be no question every one would be recalled and they'd have to redesign it. The quality is just not good enough. I've noticed a lot of gear seems to break after what I would say would be the average amount of use theyd get in a year. Funny that.

Down with these capatilist pigs I say!!!!

[Binding breakages. Totally unacceptable!!]

I'm dissatisfied to say the least about the quality of bindings.

I've snapped numerous bits of several different brands.

The bindings that Im talking about here are not cheap Im talking about top end models. On My last pair of Burton bindings I snapped both a toe and heel strap.(Not at the same time) On each occaision a quick repair was immpossible due to specialised hardware etc. Next I went with Drakes, once again heel strap snapage! (still under warranty too!).

Just last weekend I was out with a group, one of the guys snapped the heel strap insert bit not the main strap. Again expensive new Burton bindings. What made this worse was that that situation occured on a serious backcountry trip (several hours hike fron the nearest road.) I could go on but Im sure everbody has seen this a million times.

What really gets up my nose is the fact that this crappy gear is a real safety hazard. Binding breakage could result in a serious incident. Having your bindings snap in the backcountry could be life threatening. Who the hell do these companies think they are! There no way that they dont have the engineering know how to ensure those straps cant fail. I hope somebody sues one of these companies real soon so I dont have to put up with this rubbish any more.

How about an open letter to binding manufacturers from forum readers to let em know we aren't going to take this irresponsible behaviour.

[niseko local rules update?]

This came up in another thread.

I thought the local rules at Niseko were brilliant last year.

Anybody know If things are going to be the same this year?

Any changes to the system?

[Pass pulling and just saying no]

The opening words of my last post were aimed at creating a less confrontational tone. After all I thought that was what we were talking about, getting into confrontations. Ocean If you want to talk about whether more or different terrain should be opened Im sure Id agree with you but I was thinking we were talking about the range of acceptable behaviour when dealing with patrol. I get that you want to go out and have a fun day riding fun terrain without any hassles, that makes sense, but your not going to do yourself any favours by getting into a fight with Patrol. Your profile says youve been here for 11 years, I would have thought youd have worked out that things get done in Japan with a little give and take.

The patrol guys Ive spoken to all seemed pretty cool. Then again a lot of places I ride at have good "legal" off piste terrain.

Anyway, The main thing is to have fun riding wherever you go.

You guys can have the last word on this one If you want cause Im done with this topic, its starting to disturbe my "wa".

[Pass pulling and just saying no]

I enjoy exchanging ideas here and I think often people tend to take an extreme point of view just to stimulate discussion on the board. Thats pretty cool by me.

With that said Ill go ahead and make a few comments on Oceans last post in this thread .

Ocean says he wants to ride "safe and fun" in the resort.

He doesnt want to equip himself with saety gear.

But the patrol guy is a "shithead"

So whats the story? are you taking control of your own decisions or are you asking someone else to provide the "safe and fun". You cant say its your party if your in somebody elses place. If you want to be the guy who judges whats "safe and fun" go ahead. Dont give someone else grief for doing their job, ride somewhere else or apply for a job with ski patrol.

By the way how do you assess whats avalanche prone or not? Considering you dont equip yourself for emergencies you must be pretty confident with your stability assesments I guess.

[Pass pulling and just saying no]

I didnt suggest that you "prepare for battle" Ocean. I simply suggested communicating your opinion in a way that is more responsible for the Snowboarding community as a whole.

I do have a bit of a problem with people acting like clowns because it reflects on other snowboarders and in some cases other foreigners.

Some people are claiming that the resorts have no right to stop you riding in certain areas. There is certainly a case to be made for the right to access public land outside of resort boundaries but if you are moving in an out of the resort on a regular basis things might be different. Im pretty sure that there would have to be certain safety standards required to operate a resort on private or public land. This would no doubt include the lifts themselves and the resort area. I would Imagine that resorts are not just entitled but probably required to enforce certain standards. It is the responsibility of the operator to decide how to do this.

I really cant see what the big issue is anyway. Maybe Im spoilt up here but there are several areas that will allow you to ride off piste no worries at all. At Kiroro you sign in with ski patrol and head BC they just want to know when youll be back. At Rusustsu they dont like off piste. Result: I dont go to Rusustsu. Why dont you go see the patrol guys before you go off piste and find out whats cool with them. If you dont like what you hear take your hard earned elsewhere.

Half the problem here is that what a lot off people are talking about is the mythical powder next to the lift. I dont really think it exists. Well ok it can, but not for long.

You guys should decide whether to ride powder or ride in a resort.

If you really want to ride under the lift grow up and dont whinge when they tell you to rack off.

[Pass pulling and just saying no]

actually I did finish the avalanche story. You mean you didnt read it Miteyak!!

I dont want to get into a fight about this but Ive been in Japan for a while and a lot of people take advantage of the system here.

Pulling the Im special, Im a foreigner card is totally lame. If you want to change resort policies ect thats fine but why not do the job properly, learn Japanese and write or speak to the management. Youll get more respect and get a lot more done than being confrontational and making an idiot of yourself.

[Pass pulling and just saying no]

So I take it all you big "just say no" heroes are completely able and prepared to self rescue when you get injured skiing out of bounds.

How about just saying sorry and next time go somewhere you can ride the kind of terrain you want without pissing everybody off and making a complete w***er of yourself.

[the expense of the sport]

Theres no end to it Doc.

[Avalanche conditions/ Observation posts.]

So where was I.just about to drop. Now dont get the wrong idea. This little ridge thing a the top of the slope wasnt big or intimidating I just pointed and went. I got a bit of air as expected but as soon as a hit the snow below the drop it all went wrong. Everything just collapsed. It was like falling into a bear pit or something, you know the big hole covered in leaves and twigs. It just goes crack and down you go. Any fantasies you have about boarding out of it just dissappear. Its sudden. Next thing I knew I was in what was like a current in a river. I stuck my board out and tried to stop I could feel the snow flowing around my back and it was getting higher applying more weight trying to flip me. I could see the slide growing in front of me as more snow slid downhill. Needless to say I was crapping myself, I thought this is it nobody saw you go down here and if this thing gets any bigger you are stuffed. Then it was over, the slide just stopped on a flatter section of the slope. I was upright about waist deep. I extracted myself and looked back up the slope. Id probably only been taken about 30 meters and there was about another 30 meters of debris in front of me. I cruised back down and had a beer. Later on I took my girfriend up and showed her the slide (from the opposite side of the valley) we got to see about three other guys ride the same face obviously totally uninterested in the evidence of recent avalanche activity.

I made a few big mistakes that day and I was just plain lucky.

Things not to do in future.

1 remember its your buddy who digs you out, your beacon wont save you if there is nobody there to locate it. Think carefully about riding BC alone. (If nobody in your group has the gear or knowledge to rescue you you are riding alone)

2 Dont get sucked in by the" Its just near the resort" factor.

3 Try to learn about hints that tell you a slope could be dangerous (I was actually happy that morning that the high winds overnight had covered over yesterdays tracks! I didnt think "windslab"