Simon

Lufthansa is not alone in this. I've been forced to pay for my snowboard bag on Air France (US->Europe) and Delta (again, US->Europe). As far as I can remember, Air France was quite expensive: something in the 75/100 USD range. Anyway, the fact you had to pay in HK dollars is insane. Bah.

If your browser is having problems with that link, you can find the same vid on YouTube: Insane jumps

Definitely not as close to Sapporo as those mentioned by quattro, but Tomamu is around 90 mins by train from S. JR station. It's not the best resort of the world, but it's ok, especially if you have beginners in your group.

Sorry Mantas, I didn't want to single out your comment. I quoted it because it was the perfect synthesis of what a lot of people think about skiing in Switzerland. Quote: I just checked the snow report of the places I skiied in Italy and Austria. Both have less than 50cm coverage today. Italy got hit pretty hard by the lack of snow. I wouldn't be too sure even about those 50cm. :-/

Quote: Originally posted by Mantas: Snobery, crowds and expense. I'm not sure about the snobery and expense part (hotels are pricey, but everywhere you go you have a big selection of flats and backpackers places that don't cost much. If you avoid the ritzier restaurants, food is not that expensive and lift tickets prices are the same of the US resorts, if not cheaper), but crowds can be a real problem if you hit the big resorts. I remember reading in the annual report of Televerbier (the company that controls lift and terrain in Verbier) that the biggest factor in the increasing number of pe

Ciao db. If you're in Milan on thursday try to have a very loose schedule: traffic is *insane* in these pre-Christmas days (today it took me almost two hours to cover 17km). The trip to Chamonix looks great: fingers crossed for the snow. I'll be in Switzerland for three weeks (and then every week-end after that) from next monday: the season pass at the 4 Vallees comes with several free day passes at other resorts and I'm quite sure that Andermatt is one of them, so I'll definitely be there on jan or february. Chamonix is also very close to us, so... I'll track your movements arou

Quote: Originally posted by boardbaka: sweet pic- bro is that you? No, I haven't been on skis in the last... hmmm, let'see, 15 years, since I first tried snowboarding (I'd like to give it a go again this season, though). The pic comes from fuorivia, a very small italian forum.

It snowed pretty hard on the 9th and the 10th. Then almost nothing. And the forecast doesn't look good, either. Verbier on the 10th:

Thanks for the link, SerreChe. (it has probably been discussed in other threads, but there is also a "Australians pouring money into Japanese ski area" video on the same page)

Quote: Originally posted by _spud: I wonder how the London Olympics will be termed by the press etc in Italy? London Olympics or Londra Olympics. It will be Olimpiadi di Londra. As you've seen, every city name gets italianized (not even sure if such a word exists) over here.

Marco, give me five minutes and I'm gonna send you an e-mail (in italian) with the infos you need.

Marco, it all goes down to how much time do you want to spend in Japan (and how much skiing), when do you want to go, ecc. The links above should answer your questions. If you need a ultraquick roundup, just send me a PM and I'll give you 'una panoramica generale'.

Quote: Originally posted by _spud: Not looking good in the NW Italian area. After last week's nice dump we are seeing an immediate follow up by the hideous warm foehn wind and temps up to 8 degrees at 3000m ...and conditions are unlikely to change for the next 10 days. The propaganda machine is in full effect right now ("we have absolutely no problem. Plenty of snow over here"), aided by the fact that northern Italy has been under a huge dump in the last week-end. But the truth is that it snowed a lot in the central and eastern Alps, while Sestriere only got a few inches of snow. From wha

Quote: Originally posted by _spud: We are near to Piazza Maggio which is a really short tram ride from to Porta Romana. D'oh. My weekdays apt. is 500m from your week-end apt! I'm gonna throw in a couple more suggestions for restaurants. Giulio Pane e Ojo. Excellent roman cuisine. Again, 5 minutes walk from Porta Romana. http://www.giuliopaneojo.com/ Pizzeria Da Willy. If you are in XXIV Maggio, you probably have already tried this one. It's at Piazza XXIV Maggio 7. It doesn't look that much from the outside, but pizzas there are amazing. And at those prices, it can't be beaten. And,

If you're going to do the one-day trip thing, remember to avoid sundays: driving back to Milano from Val D'Aosta on sunday night could transform you into a serial killer (one time it took us almost six hours to do Aosta-Milan). The resorts Meathelmet has listed are on spot: if the conditions are good, Pila is pretty nice too. Other places you might want to try on your day trips: Madesimo (Lombardia). 150km from Milan. Some years ago driving there was crazy, since the last part of the road is quite narrow. And long. And parking was a nightmare. But now you can leave the car at Campodolci

Quote: Originally posted by Meathelmet: If you want good snow now, head to upper dolomites, closer to the austrian border. That area is LOADED now, especially austria. Nasfeld (AU) rocked a week ago.Tigh deep pow, no people. And last weekend they got more... Exactly. Conditions are not that good in Valle D'Aosta and Valais right now: there has been a huuuge dump a couple of weeks ago, but since then cold and no snow is everything we've got. And forecasts are not that good for the next 10 days... Eastern alps would make a much wiser choice, for the moment. (Meathelmet, excellent descripti

Sahoro Resort is closer than Furano. Less than 200km from Kushiro. A couple of hours by train. IMO that's the biggest resort you'll find without driving 4+ hours. [yeah, not a great help, I know ]

Old video, but... http://www-scf.usc.edu/~ronaldwc/Tetris.mpeg

Whooops. Too late.

Alferg, check this out: Niseko bus

MS, if you buy one, get Metroid Prime as well. Awesome game.

Good call: 1080° Snowboarding was dope. The sequel is coming out in mid-april (on Gamecube). Best game for me gotta be Winning Eleven 6 FE. If you love football, you can't miss that.

Terrible. My lack of english skills doesn't allow me to describe how bad this game is. One of the worst PS2 games I've ever tried.

Taking out Niseko, I would say Rusutsu and Tomamu. The second one IMO is good if you're staying in Sapporo, wanna do a day trip somewhere and don't have a car. You exit from the train (90 mintes from Sapporo), cross a bridge and find yourself on the slopes, ready to go. JR has pretty good deals on train+skipass combo. Furano... argh. I think the reviews on this website sum it up pretty well. I agree completely with Big Dave's review: "On-piste skiing is very flat and completely lacks any interesting bits. Very difficult to find any good powder off-piste, and when you do the local ski pa

Mog, I've travelled to the US (with United as well) and Japan with my board bag AND my backpack without paying ****. If they want me to pay when I'm checking in, I usually use the old "Whaaat? I've spoken with Jennifer Stewart (or Giovanna Rossi or Yuki Tanaka, depending on the airline I'm using) at your main office and she said it was ok" excuse. Showing your frequent flyer card also helps. I've done this a couple of times and it worked. But most of the time, they simply told me to drop my bag at the oversize luggage counter. Stress the fact that you have only one bag to chec