TeleSkier
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Posts posted by TeleSkier
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http://www.snowjapan.com/e/gallery/readers-teleskier-1.html
Here are some photos of Tateyama when I went up there June 10th two yrs ago. As for the Tateyama area - you need to get up to the Marudo Plateau. There are two ways to do this - you can go up via the Alpine Route over from Omachi (about 20km south of Hakuba Valley). This consists over a few electric buses that go through the moutain, a funicular and a tram ride. It takes about two hrs to get up to the Marudo Plateau. Do a search on the web for "Karobe Alpine Route". The other was is from the Toyama side I think (never done this) and you take a bus. There is no private vehicles allowed up to Marudo. From Marudo you will be able to hike/ski wherever you would like. Compared to Norikura it has way more possiblilities - steeper lines, etc. There are cabins you can stay in at Marudo or you can camp. As usual, they would like you to stay at the "campground" but you can pretty much camp wherever for the most part. When I was up there a few yrs ago I was able to see Fuji from the top of Tateyama. The main chute coming down from the top of Tateyama is a great run. I was having a hard time bringing up the Tateyama cam for some reason. This shows how much snow is left up there. I would imagine there is good skiing til about mid-late June. Hope this helps - email me if you have more questions.
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Not sure if Jimabocho is the same place as Ogawamachi but I recommend there. Just walk down the main street there and there are shops all over the place with sales too.
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Big fan of the Yokohama Train Station with some must stops in the near vicinity.
1. That cream puff place - Piping Hot Cream Puffs. Always have to pull over for that when I go to Yokohama.
2. New one is the Tokyo Soup Stop I think. Big fan of the pumpkin soup.
3. As always - Starbucks.
The drive from Yokohama to Nagano (Hakuba Valley) will be about 4-4.5 hrs with no snow. Pretty good drive from there. Train sounds much better.
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Yeah, getting tele stuff over here - maybe a little tough. Recommend the most important thing that you purchase is a good pair of boots. Scarpa and Garmont both make great boots for tele. Crispi as well. Boots are pricey but you will be much more happier if you get a good pair. Next get a pair of bindings - I like the Hammerheads by Rainey Designs - may be hard to get over here in Japan seeing they are mostly sold online. You can also probably get a pair of G3 Targas pretty easily. Lastly worry about the skis. You can't mount the bindings pretty much on all alpine skis. Get a cheaper pair of used alpine skis and use those for a while.
As for slogging in the backcountry with your snowboard - have you ever thought of getting a splitboard. Look pretty cool and you can slap some skins on the bottom and ski right on up the mountain. Through in some collapseable poles and you should be in business.
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Yeah, skiing on a pair of 195cm AK Launchers with 5 yr old T2s. I was a little worried about the T2s and if they were going to be able to drive them. The seem to work pretty good but the T1s would be much better. On another note - they aren't that great on hardpack. Doesn't really matter to me since I hate skiing hardpack conditions. They rock in pow, crud, spring conditions. Not so good in moguls. I'm going to get a newer pair of T2's - three buckle and thermofit liners - much lighter.
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Yeah - I like to tele too. Only been once this year so far - have a new little guy only six months old as of now so that has slowed me down a little but well worth it. Generally go up to Hakuba and Happo-One and Hakuba 47/Goryu. Been teleing for quite a bit of time now. Look to be heading up the weekend of the 17th to Hakuba. Hope we get a little more snow between now and then. I'm a little sad as this will be my last winter in Japan....
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Would have to agree - brushing no existent snow off a chair on a warm spring day brings a laugh to me. Classic......
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Not necessarily annoying but a little funny.
Sensory overload when getting on a lift.
Things to tell you when to get on the lift mainly on the quad at Happo on Usagidaria.
1. Person telling you to
2. Lights going off
3. Wands opening
4. Buzzer
and lastly
5. The chair and people in front of you have gone by
Kind of funny to me.
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Ocean11,
Hope that wasn't serious about all skiers all screwed up. Talk about a major generalization. I'm sure there was a day way back when you may not have been that good of a snowboarded and were a little out of control in regards to stopping, avoiding people, etc. Well here is a little story - my buddy goes up to snowboard at Hakuba47/Goryu the other weekend. A snowboarder runs into him - totally the Japanese guys fault and not his. Japanses dude doesn't get hurt but they go down to the ski patrol anyway. Somehow he gets his phone number and the Japanese guy wants to sue/extort money out of him now saying that he is going to miss some days of work. Doesn't make sense to me.
I have a feeling that most of this is caused by the number of lifts at mtns and the limited number of trails. At the top of Happo I think they have about four lifts to service two trails. It get unbelievably crowded up there. I have never seen so many people in one spot skiing/boarding. Same thing at the top of Goryu too. I think they need some more trails over here. When you have a mtn with 30 trails and 30 lifts I think there is a problem.
And with the generalization of skiers all screwed up, give me a break. I've seen my fair share of snowboarders all over the place. Slide slipping slopes, falling, etc. One of my pet peeves is snowboarders laying/sitting all over the trails to take a break. Regardless, I think to blame it all on skiers either makes you quite uninformed or close minded. Maybe both.
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Not sure on the distance. I am thinking way more that 15km. A few years ago skiing at my favorite mtn back in the states - Wildcat in NH I was able to log some serious distance and vertical. I was able to churn out 5 runs/hr on a 2100 ft vertical detachable quad. No lines, nice spring skiing. I started skiing at 9 and quit at 2pm and got 25 runs for over 50,000 ft of vertical in five hrs. The average run there top to bottom is around 2 miles. So 2miles*25 runs = 50 miles. 50/.62 = 80km. Keep in mind this was a large day. By the way, people generally are more interested in how much vertical was skied in one day versus the total distance skied. Quite tough to do here since the lifts are so short on the most part. I miss the longer runs with continuous fall line from back in the states. Just my 2 cents.
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Yes - they don't seem to use too much salt over here in Japan. Anybody know why? I just got a used Subara AWD wagon and looking forward to seeing how it performs in the snow. Looks like it is going to be sick up in Hakuba this weekend. Wish I was going to be there.
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Ohhhh....pick me!
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Looks like it is going to be a great weekend up there with the new snow. Unfortunately I will most likely not be getting up there. What do you think for accumulations 80+cm? Don't want to jinx it though. Was up there the other day flying around and it was gorgeous. Looks like this storm will open up quite a bit more terrain up there. Enjoy.
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Just got back into town - anybody have the beta on conditions up in Hakuba this weekend and what appears to be open. Thanks
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NoFakie,
Congrats on getting the tele setup. You will not regret it. Also good move getting some substantial stuff with the T1's and the Volants. If the bindings give you some problems I recommend the HammerHeads by Rainey Designs. Little more expensive but worth it I think. I have been totally happy with mine. I have a feeling you will be teleing most of the time now. That's all I pretty much do now - unless it is real hardpack and the alpine skis come out. Where are you going to be skiing this year?
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Saw it with my own eyes today - getting psyched for the winter.
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Was out near Fuji today and there was a bit of snow on it from the other day. Was also able to see up into the Alps and it looked like they picked up a little amount of snow as well. Soon winter will be here.
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Size is all relative to me. What I look at when I see a mountain is the amount of vertical skiing. For example, when going to Happo I usually just ski one lift at a time and end up skiing around 1,000 feet or vertical at a time even though the mountain is somewhere close to 3,000 ft of vertical. Rarely do I go all the way to the top via the three lifts and then back all the way to the base of the gondola. I would say this is quite true for most ski areas. The middle quad at Arai is around 1,500 ft of vertical and that is pretty big for Japan. Lifts here are on the little of the short side. Back in NH back in the states where I ski it is a 2,100 ft vertical run. I guess if you compare that to the 4,000 ft at Jackson Hole and the huge vertical of Chamonix it is nothing. I like to ski long runs but for the most part I have not found that here in Japan. Anyone know where some of the longer runs are in Japan.
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Fattwins,
If you have a firewire port I recommend getting an external hard drive. I got one for my ibook and it cost around Y15,000 for 80GB or so. Lets me edit video much more and then I can firewire right into the hard drive. Much more easier than using my 20GB on my computer.
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I think those suit are porous on the front and not on the back. Creates more lift when they are jumping. I went up to Hakuba for my first time two Octobers ago and was stunned when going over to the Olympic Jumping facilities that there were people launching off them. It was pretty amazing to see them fly live.
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Going out on a limb here. When I think he means gay, I think he means gayer than a three dollar bill.
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Flew near Mt. Fuji today and it was the first time I've seen it in a month. Actually, it looks like there is more snow on it this year than last year at this time when I skied it. May head up there this weekend depending on the weather. Keeping the fingers crossed.
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IM,
Great trip to Fuji. Unfortunately it looks as if my window of opportunity has been closed and I will not make it up to Fuji this spring. Looks like you had a great day and skiing down to the 5th Station is the way to do it. My buddy who went with me last year flew over Fuji last Sunday and said there is very little snow left. On a side note, I have flown around Fuji a few times and it looks like the Gotenba Trail side has the most snow. I guess it has something to do with the weather patterns because that would make it the southeastern side with the most snow. What do you think about this. Great to see that you had the tele skis up there. Nice report.
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Cal - simmer
thanks fattwins...pics
in Snow talk, trip reports, Japan avalanche & backcountry
Posted
Nice pic there of poaching the line there at Happo-One. I have done that line many times myself and it is fantastic. Most excellent.