hutch

Hakkoda was pretty sweet.....knee deep and face shots at most turns..... so great launches off bowed trees. Just in time for powdertopia ....about 25 JETs from all over Japan descending on Hakkoda Thurs -Sunday Feb 14-17 pray4pow ps. heard from a buddy Nagano was sick....top 5 ever!

I have stayed in the Log Kanon....decent place with a great large room that sleeps about 6? It's on the SJG Niseko accom section. Communal kitchen to do a cook up too. About a 5 min walk to the Alpen lift

Montoya the place to stay on the mt is the Hakkouda Mt Lodge : Hakkouda Sansoo... a single night there starts are 10,000 per person and includes two AMAZING homecooked meals....dinner and breakfast (which alone would got for about 4,000 yen together) They can provide you with info on how to get from Aomori eki to the ropeway by bus: check out their website: http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~h-sansou/bimi.html Also check out the info on site: http://www.skijapanguide.com/2002/resorts/demo.php?resid=86 FYI I am putting the finishing touches on a feature article on the Hakkouda

You can find email access (about 500yen/hour) in the Niseko Adventure Centre....in JoJo's (the restaurant there)...great nachos and burgers...plus the store and indoor climbing wall

no not a guide. just love the mountain and the powder lifestyle it provides done most of the backcountry routes in the northern Hakkodas.....7 main peaks in the northern range with two mt cabins

Danz Hakkoda..... looks like a feature article I'll be writing on the Hakkoda Ropeway Powder Mecca will be out on Feb 11th. It'll be pretty in-depth. In March I'll be writing one on the backcountry.... about the guide club etc. You are seriously in luck as the Guide Club there rocks. Sooma-san is the head guide....cool guy. All with advanced CAA cert and first aid. A full day (excluding ropeway pass) is only 4000 (including insurance). I'd say March skiing is powder heaven until mid March...then it gets a little bit heavier by the end of the month....but then again I'm a

SJG could you guys fix the spelling of Hakkoda? I had to punch in Hakkouda into the search engine..... easier to find it cheers

any info you need I can help you out i actually just interview the head guide for a SJG feature I'll be writing on the backcountry there (out in March) in the meantime I think my feature on the ropeway area will be out on Feb 11th. check out the info/reviews page connected to Hakkoda on SJG: http://www.skijapanguide.com/2002/resorts/demo.php?resid=86 backcountry guide trips for only 4,000 per person for a whole day! How much pow can you eat?

They don't SELL them on the site....but have them in the NAC store. Might still have a few pairs left 2 man reduced from 6 man send them an email....see if you can work it to pay by cc and send by takyubin. Haven't seen them sold anywhere ever. Atomic Deep Powder 130mm fat tip to tail 180cm long

Danz thought this might interest you .... as you live at the base of Tsukuba-san...came across this in The Japan Times: Twin peaks offer a double take on plants By GERARD TAAFFE The summit of Mount Tsukuba in southern Ibaraki Prefecture has two peaks, one regarded as female and the other as male. Rising to 876 meters, with a shrine on the top dedicated to Izanami no Mikoto, the female creator deity, Nyotaisan is just 6 meters higher than Nantaisan, topped by a shrine to the male creator deity, Izanagi no Mikoto. Tsukuba Shrine is located at the foot of the mountain

Danz you were asking about any resorts that don't practice the double standard: Hakkoda-san in Aomori.... deep pow tree skiing that has no ropes....not enforced really. They stop a rookie who might duck under. There'll be a feature out on the gondola area likely on Feb 11th. 330cm of POW right now....70cm dump over the weekend!! The attitude there is all about the POW

delusional I'm afraid. Hakkoda is unique .....particularly to Japan I'll be writing a feature on the gondola area of Hakkoda in February. Full details then. The patrol (numbering bout 20) are primarily there to bail people out when they get hurt or to go looking for people in the backcountry. This is a blessing truly.....no music, no crowds, no courses, no ticket loss for ducking what few ropes exist.....just your ass if you loose the orange poles on the two routes down the mt. No blasting really necessary.....that small slope I was on is the only nadare susceptible slope r

biiru that new awashu (bubble shit) in Japan has about 15% of their market.....it isn't even beer!! seriously can't even be classified as beer! it is cheap and high in alcohol content....tastes like crap...what's with this country!? THe big 3 beer co. trying to sell more with these crap bi-annual promotions on new non-beer!??! #)$"#&$! As for beer overseas....Vancouver Island Brewery has a VERY dark lager called Herman's....once a year they take it and do something magical with it....making the HERMANATOR (no shitting you)....pours like maple syrup almost and has a alcohol conte

slacker in the house have the PC on pretty much all day so post between working

defintely thinking freelancers.....keeping the coin for lift passes eh?! trick park as opposed to 'snowboard park'..... you tongue depressors might have inspired it but twin tips are moving in. thank Mike Douglas and Salomon Japan for that invention!

Yep... I did cut the slope and I did have two spotters pretty confident about taking the slope as it's a in bounds powder course that I've run countless times.....plus no trees to run out. Think I was damn lucky that it was my first slab slide experience. Am going to take the CAA rec 1 level course. There are a few guys that run this CAA RECOGNIZED course within Japan. One being Dave Enright. Just gotta get to Nagano or Hokkaido to do it

about 20 times first year 30 in 2nd 40 in 3rd going for 50 in 4th year here? Nice having a powder mt nearby....Hakkoda in Aomori

They need to discover the CLIF bar....still edible at -20 unlike the power bar that goes to pure rock I always stock up on cases of CLIF bars thru Foreign Buyers Club out of Kobe: http://www.fbc.usa

WHo is it that runs Niseko Hirafu? and do they run any other resorts? prince hotels run Shizukuishi in Iwate (93 downhill worldcup venue) ...... what are the big players here in the industry?

When are they going to bring all the stuff together into one park? The rails over on Hanazono the pipe under the gondola..... I read something in a SJG feature article about the 'school trip ski instructors' fighting against having it all together at the base where rookie highschoolers can more easily break their necks.... when is the resort going to wake up? Sure the kids bring in the coin.....but shit, are they held ransom by these school trips?

We all know about the crap conditions we were all bitching about last week........it seemed the dumping that we received on the Thurs and Friday night in northern Tohoku made for prime conditions for NADARE (avalanche) ..... skiing a ridge within the gondola area of Hakkoda I dropped down a beautiful uncut slope of about 45 degrees.... down onto the gut of Mokozawa (the main 'backcountry' run within the gondola area)..... it was about high noon and the snow was heating up sightly. BIG MISTAKE.....a boarder friend cut hard at the top of the slope and the whole thing released in a slab slide. Th

I just got word from http://snowboardnet.jp/ that the CORE GAMES will be on again this year. To be held March 30 and 31 at ISHIUCHI MARUYAMA in Shiozawa town in Niigata-ken. Here's the SJG info on resort: http://www.skijapanguide.com/2002/resorts/demo.php?resid=8 The website for the resort is: http://www.ishiuchi.or.jp/

The Salomon Xcreams (men's) are selling for about $600 right now at backcountry.com quite possibly the best all-mt ski of all time....and most defintely the best selling ski in history. decent salamon titanium 900+ series bindings can be had at about $200 ....and that's top of the line You can find cheap FATS at about $200-$300....as they are seriously a novelty item for deep POW dayz.....don't want to ride them on crud. Worth having for those amazing deep days of 30cm+

Anyone seen anywhere selling/showboating the new Volants??? Shane McConkey's making..... the Spatula (sp?) fat at the tip....even fatter at the centre and think at the tail. Much like a pair of water skis......taking the weight where you need it most to float. I heard they'd be out for next season ......as per the pic and expl in POWDER at couple of months ago.

Snowboarders actually reading this topic?....what's going on??? Tell me those that TURNED years back from the toothpix to the toungedepressor aren't just a little interested in riding FATS.....these things are FAT FAT FAT.....even puts the pocket rockets to shame (FYI Hakkoda's RENTALS this year are the pocket rocket.....tells you a bit 'bout the mt eh?) ..... so just how fat do boards get? Think you could handle two FAT edges instead of one?