montoya

got the pics from some friends, here they are in order as listed above: Anyway, I think the snowpack is trickier than last year. At least last year you had big glide cracks that were pretty obvious. This year we are seeing lots of surface hoar and crust layers. Even Nakaone will slide, given the right conditions. There were +100 people in the bc both Sat/Sun, lots of tours and newbies and people who usually go to other areas (eg Arai) and now come to Kagura instead. Given the numbers, I think it's just a matter of time before we see some big accidents.

powder days at kagura, the locals show up with fat skis and swallowtails, they the rip the stashes from the get-go and then it's all tracked-out in an hour or two. you'll probably face less competition at a different Yuzawa resort, like Ishiuchi or Kandatsu, etc.

for anyone interested, there were 3 separate avies in the bc around kagura this Jan 20-21 weekend: *Jan 20, caused by skier, soft slab, East face on Karagamine course, 50cm depth 100meter wide, 25-degree slope. looks like new snow from Jan 19 on top of Jan 16 surface hoar *Jan 20, caused by skier, soft slab, East face on a bowl behind Nakaone, 20cm depth 50meter wide, on steep convex rollover, starting zone probably 35-degrees *Jan 20/21?, looks like a cornice dropped, soft slab, South face just above #5 Kagura Romance lift, 20cm depth 50cm wide We did a quick compression t

I've had this problem in the past also. After talking with the Japanese distributor and BCA directly, the problem is that the oxyride batteries are too strong and the beacon is not designed for the extra voltage. I would also not use either lithium nor rechargable batteries, for any beacon (not just the tracker). There's more info on ttips, if you're interested: http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=14095&highlight=batteries

yep this is a bad snow year, stay home, yada yada yada... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

after re-reading your first post, just wanted to add another note about white-out conditions. sometimes it's not just our actions we have to worry about, but other groups in the area that you can't see/can't see you. last year around this time there was an avie fatality in tateyama/murodo, a group triggered a cornice fall upon another group below, supposedly in fog white-out conditions.

fwiw over the past 3-4 years I had 3 sets of Oakley a-frames that I rotated with. they fit really well and the lense was very clear, but I frequently had problems with them fogging up. switched to smith last year and there's much less condensation-trouble.

for an easy convenient 1-day trip in the yuzawa region, kandatsu is pretty good. it's a bit small but there's lots of free shuttle buses, somewhat close to the station, good course variation and an onsen above the locker room. kagura is much more bare-bones about that stuff. also when kagura shuts down because of the wind (which is quite often) there's a good chance kandatsu is still open, since it's in a more sheltered area.

a friend recommended me to this place awhile ago: http://kshj.co.jp/

may not be cheap, but at least you may find someone knowledgable/sizes you want at their new flagship in harajuku: Burton Tokyo Store Address 5-17-4 Jingumae (a.k.a ‘Cat Street’) Shibuya-ku Tokyo, Japan 150-001 Phone: 03-5738-2777

glad your experience didn't go pear-shaped snosurf. a couple of years ago some friends got lost in white-out conditions due to fog. they skied down the wrong side and ended up spending a very cold night in a snow-cave. they mentioned they'd be f*cked if they hadn't had their shovels and a gas stove. white-out due to a heavy snowstorm is not very fun. if you stick to low-angle slopes often it's too deep to ride. if you want to play on steeper slopes you risk the mtn sliding on you. if it's coming down that hard, the resort runs should have more than enough pow to keep you happy.

latest issue of Powder Guide Magazine (2007 no.5) just came out with some interesting BC articles. pics not as glossy as FallLine, but if you like big mountains might be worth checking out. Someone I occasionally ride with also wrote up an article about his telemark-tour in the mountains in China. He and his wife hiked up and rode down a +7500 meter peak. Crazy.. http://www.edico.jp/pg.htm

just out of curiosity, how big a bag do you prefer for camping?

Serreche if you have time there are a bunch of shops in Tokyo you can check out for fit and other details: Sakaiya / Jinbocho http://www.sakaiya.com/ Calafate / Mejiro http://www.calafate.co.jp/ Kojitsu / Shinjuku http://www.kojitu.co.jp/ Based on what friends have told me, I think the ArcTeryx has better quality construction than the Dakine. My wife has a M30 and really likes it. As you said, though, the M40 might be too small for your purposes.. (perhaps, snow camping?) It's kinda hard to find a good +50L bag that also carries a board w

after about a year's blank, finally did some bouldering at a local climbing gym in Kinshicho. dizzy, do you know if it's smaller/bigger than the t-wall in Edogawa-bashi? anyway my arms are pretty sore but I had forgotten how fun it was. probably won't do much during the winter, but definitely something to look forward to after the snow season is over.

oh just picked it up from the maggots on the tgr forum

here's a few reviews/pics of it http://www.wildsnow.com/?p=438#comments http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=2534&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=60

c'est une montagne website.. it's a fake ski-resort. someone with photoshop skills/free time created it. just a joke. how can it not be with accomodations like the dude ranch lodge and runs like "over the rainbow", "bump pump" and "cruise 'n the woods".

http://www.skibrokeback.com/images/ski_brokeback_trail_map_HR.jpg but, how do you say in French... c'est une montagne fausse?

..land of the newest winter playground: http://www.skibrokeback.com/

nice pics of hakuba! Pretty lame of Monkey Ride to go around stealing photos for their commercial website though. Stuff like that makes it a wee bit hard to recommend a place like that to anyone.

one of my mates used to ride there alot. Tenjindaira is the small resort nearby, Tanigawadake is the overall mtn range. +780 deaths (mostly rock-climbing) there since they opened the nearby railroad-line in the 1930's. To me it has a pretty heavy omnious vibe to it. Lots of gnarly lines at Tanigawadake. You can google for pics, here are some guys riding machigasawa:

we probably need to agree on some definitions before we can develop this further. regarding terrain, "backcountry" in the widest sense can mean just a snow-covered area, regardless of slope angle. if it's flat, then I'm probably not at much risk regardless of how many days I'm out there. on the other hand, if you mean "+30 degree slopes" by avie terrain, that's a different story. you would also need to talk about timing (eg green/yellow/red light days, proximity to storm cycle, etc). experience/skill level, I don't know how you would quantify that. this is also related to th

I'm still surprised the resorts in the Niseko area haven't jacked up their ticket-prices (--or have they?)

more news about the building boom up there. article mentions the higher end units going for $750,000AUD, which translates into $579,074 USD. looks like there are alot of very moneyed-type aussie skiers out there. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20684139-25658,00.html Hutchinson skis in for Japan project Maurice Dunlevy 02nov06 QUEENSLAND construction company Hutchinson Builders will develop two luxury apartments blocks with a combined value of $35 million in Japan's emerging alpine sports capital, Niseko. Chairman Scott Hutchinson said yesterday