montoya

Quote: Originally posted by le spud: Due to the black dog of depression at my side this week, this should cheer you up..

kumapix got me thinking about shredding and face-shots. here you go: small rooster tail medium rooster tail big rooster tail telemarker rooster tail face shot on AT gear add to the list..

was just there yesterday. still kinda quiet. I think it will pick up much more mid-Oct. that said, there are some shops already stocked up if you look around. you can easily spend hours wandering around: http://www.sports-kanda.com/kameitenlist.html there are a couple of good restaurants also (thai near McDonalds, chinese-gyoza along haku-san dori near intersection with yasukuni-dori).

Quote: Originally posted by SerreChe: Maybe I can get her a new powder board and take her into the BC, but I am not sure she will be a big fan... Maybe I will enlist your help into convincing her! can she also ski? anyway, just make sure she's on a board that stands taller then her and she'll float no problem. maybe I can loan her one of my longboards.

Quote: Originally posted by SerreChe: One dilemma though, should I teach him skiing or boarding first? either is fine Serreche. one thing, though, are you going to get your wife a nice powderboard this year?

3/5 uh, oh...

160-165cm sounds good

here's this year quiver: 181 prior pow-stick swallowtail 173 egf swallowtail 172 winterstick tom burt also have a couple of splits, 156 kyber and 172 pow-stick, that I'll probably use for +3 hour trips. chop you can find lots more info about splitboards here: http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/index.php

more stuff here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_game

fattwins, maybe one route is to look into boardgames with a "canadian" theme, then make something on your own: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/metasearch.php?searchtype=game&search=canada&B1=Go

just noticed Prince put up some opening dates for Naeba and Kagura recently: Kagura 11/25 http://www.princehotels.co.jp/ski/kagura/index.html Naeba 12/23 http://www.princehotels.co.jp/ski/naeba/index.html anyone with info for other resorts?

hi dizzy, would be great to see anyone's hiking photos here also. Tairappyo is a major yama-ski area. it also slides alot and when it goes it can go big. last year there were 3 fatalities there, 2 mountaineers, 1 skier. Iijisan, I think it's simply too steep, as in the snow won't stick for long. Fuji-san, we hiked the yoshida-course from kawaguchi-ko 5-gome around 10:30 pm and reached the summit around 2:30am. Probably should've went slower as we got pretty cold waiting around on top. sunrise was ok, too cloudy to see much though. hiked down the gotemba side via the sunabashiri-route

here's a recent pic off Yahoo!Japan: http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20060924-00000004-maip-soci.view-000 lots of great mountains in that area

getting cabin fever these days, eh spud?

Even in Japanese, I've yet to see any good comprehensize books about the Japanese ski industry. If anyone knows of one, please let me know, I did, however, recently finish Hal Clifford's " Downhill Slide ". The subtitle of "Why the corporate ski industry is bad for skiing, ski towns, and the environment." should let you know where he is coming from. Mainly it's about the "Big Three" ski companies - Vail Resorts Incorporated, Intrawest Corporation, and American Skiing Company - corporations that control many of the largest ski resorts in North America and the effect that they have had

after +200 days of use my Switch 25 is ready to be retired so I've been looking for a new day-pack recently. Here are some specs: old Switch 25 / M-size / 25 liters / 1.82 kg new Switch 36 / L-size/ 39.0liters / 1.53 kg Arc'teryx m40 / tall-size / 38L / 2.2 kg I went with the new Switch 36 as it was very light and relatively cheap. The Arc'teryx had better construction/materials/board carrying system, but cost a fair bit more. Maybe next time. Here's what it looks like: You can find more detailed pros/cons from a similar discussion here: http://talk.spli

Quote: Originally posted by le spud: Did you pick any nice stuff in the undergrowth to put in your soba? eh, soba??? ramen is the way to go, quick and easy..

Quote: Originally posted by Toque: Cool that you did the daikiretto Was it as difficult as you thought it would be? there were 2-3 places with pretty good exposure - overall it was pretty fun, lots of scrambling which we enjoy. still, you had to pay attention. a few days later a local doctor working at Karasawa fell to her death near the Hidanagi-Peak area of the col. if we have time this fall we might try to explore the Hotaka-area more, as well as Tsurugi and maybe even the mts around Hakuba.

these books should get you started.. The ABCs of Avalanche Safety Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain The Avalanche Handbook

Quote: Originally posted by Toque: Hey Montoya Where have you been? What did you get yourself up this past summer? toque and spud, I've been busy with work, but managed to get out there a few times. here you go..

ok here are some pics for toque and a few others who are interested in the mountains. the yari-daikiretto trip took 3 days, the rest are all single-day outings. Tairappyo-Sennokura (Yuzawa) Kiotsu-sawa course (Yuzawa) Daigenta-Nanatsugoya (Yuzawa) Yarigatake-Daikiretto-Kitahodaka (Kita-Alps) Fuji-san Kagura-Gangamine (Yuzawa) Iijisan (Yuzawa) Ichinokurasawa (Tanigawadake)

We used to visit the climbing gym last year off and on, it was fun and probably helped out when we had do some scrambling on mtn. routes recently. I could definitely see how it would enhance your bc snow skills. For example, digging a pit on suspect slopes while using a belay rope, rappelling past obstacles, etc.

the majestic is an all-round board, solid and stable, ok in the pow. if you want to make the most of your powder days, I'd get a swallowtail or something like your dupraz. last year my wife used a regular 165cm swallowtail 90% of the time. next year I might lend her my 173cm board for a day and see how fast she can go.. I think "women's-specific" board is just vacuous marketing-hype, focus instead on weight/height/riding style and she should be fine. btw for steep technical stuff in the spring I'm looking at either the winterstick st or donek incline.

wife has a split-majestic, I've a split-kyber. to be honest the Dupraz you ride sounds very interesting. another good boutique firm is donek, their incline looks like a solid all-mountain board. I'm thinking about it for spring-touring: http://www.donek.com/01_products/freeride.htm

hey panhead_pete, was curious about this topic and looked at the specs of the boards you mentioned: Premier V-Max Never Summer 157 122 effective edge / 850 side cut / 0 taper Prior Kyber 160 118 effective edge / 800 side cut / 22 taper Prior Kyber 165 120 effective edge /850 side cut / 25 taper I'd think the 165 would be a good move from your current NS, has almost the same effective edge and side cut radius, but with a much bigger nose and taper. In general I've found the Kyber to be very easy to turn and maneuver, so I'd go with the added float of the 165.