TeleSkier

Danger Steve, Got to say that your dad did well with the location in Tokyo. To me that seems like the best area to be living. You should come visit him - I highly recommen it. Nothing like seeing Shibuya Square at night with all the lights and people. Anyway I live pretty close to Tokyo. I drive up to Nagano and mainly Hakuba Valley. Takes about 4 hrs to drive and toll are around $40 each way. Lift tickets are about $35 so that's not too bad. As for the closest - it seems, even though I have never tried, that a train up to Gala Yuzawa area up in Niigata is the way to do it. Can h

Going with Happo right now but the trees at 47 may sway me that way depending on the pow this year. By the way how did the get the name Hakuba 47? Seems kind of odd.

Worst ever teleskiing at little Sierra Summit in California. Skiing in 2 ft plus of powder in the trees. Caught a treetop that was buried in the snow and it tossed me. Problem is with the tele cable bindings - the ski stayed attached. Thought I broke my foot but just badly sprained my ankle. I was still feeling that ankle sprain 3 months later.

I think the best powder ski/all mountain ski out there is last two year model of the Atomic 10.ex. I skied these a few times and they rocked. People just rave about these skis. This year they are called the Rex - same ski though. I was looking at the Big Daddy and Sugar Daddy on Ebay and I'm a little nervous that they are just going to be all pow and nothing else. People say the 10.ex is a great all mountain ski - the best out there for that matter. Got to agree with them.

Had a little adventure last season dealing with not allowing snowboarding all over the mountain. Went to this place called Yokoteyama which is part of the Shiga Kogen complex. My buddy was with me and he was boarding or so he though. They were nice enough to allow boarding on one lift - problem though it had about 50 ft of vertical. It was absolutely pathetic. So he had to rent skis and got set up with a sweet gaijin package straight out of 1983. Needless to say I will no longer visit this place (it was totally substandard compared to Haluba Valley) or any part of Shiga Kogen no longer.

Rained real hard down here this afternoon and evening near Tokyo. Not much wind though. I'm thinking over 4 inches of rain for sure. It was really coming down out there. It is slowing down now though.

Not too bad but compared to maybe Hermain Meyer not that good. Been skiing for 25 yrs now though. Doesn't really matter that much as long as you are having fun. What defines you as being good? - Zipper a mogul line - Land a sweet jump - Bash gates with the best of them - Carve hard turns on a board - Go real fast - Ski any run on a mountain Heard an interview once with the legendary great ski racer Franz Klammer and he said that the only people who ski right are little kids and people who race in the downhill event. They don't worry about outside influences of style. I

Great shot though - got to like the bamboo ski poles. Just as a note - I was looking in to going down to NZ next summer for some skiing and was surprised to see the meager amount of snow down there. Lots of places reporting 60-100cm bases. Compared to what we had last yr in Japan that is tiny. Happo had 250cm+ last yr and Arai at the high times was over 500cm. May have to look elsewhere for that trip. Is this an unusually light snow year down there?

Forgot one thing - I guess the Forest Rangers up there are now giving people tickets who ski/board naked up there.

Well I have seen it before - on the slopes that is. In a real famous place back in the States called Tuckerman Ravine located in New Hampshire on the east coast. If you are unfamiliar - Tuckerman Ravine has no lifts and is a hike to spot with snow depths reaching over 50 feet because of the way the wind deposits the snow there. The ski season doesn't really kick off there until April and sometimes lasts well into June. It is a three mile hike up to where the skiing starts - and many times you pack some beers with you. Well a few years ago "Ice" beer was the rage. Hoofed a 12 pack up ther

Great point - I couldn't agree with you more!

Brings me back to the 1998 Winter Olympics here. Unfortunately I was back in the States but the new sport of snowboarding was just added to the games. It got off to a rocky start when the winner of the event, a Canadian, got busted for high levels of marijuana in his system. He tried to blame it on being around his buddies when they were toking up. It was a real embarassment for Canada, the sport of snowboarding, and the Olympics in general...

What do people from GB think of Tony Blairs speech today?

Strickly technique only - but I have seen modified ski poles that have screw caps on the top that people pour a little liquid blanket in. I bet there is nothing like unscrewing the cap off a pole and taking a swig of some schnapps. Not sure where you can buy these but be warned - liquid blanket often leads to liquid courage. Liquid courage can also lead to a toboggan ride down the mountain with the Ski Patrol. May want to look in a dictionary but I have heard that they are both close acquaintances with beer muscle and beer goggles. Just a guess on my part though.

Ocean11 - don't have much to offer on the snowboard issues but a little concerned to see that you have slipped to 4 stars - especially for someone in the thousands on the posts. Also looking for the inside scoop on Nozawa. I drove through there on a rainy day last April from Hakuba but didn't ski. How is the moutain there? How much snow do they get? Is it crowded and how is the terrain? Tree skiing a possibility and also are there good places to stay. The town looked really cool. Never been to the European Alps but sure looked like pictures from there.

Recommend that you take a trip to Ogawamachi this weekend. It is in Tokyo pretty close to Tokyo station and Ginza. It is on the Teio Shinjuku Subway line. Ogawamachi is the skiing equivalent of Akihabara for electronics. Was up there yesterday and my buddy bought brand new last year Salamon X-Scream Pilot 10&bindings for Y60,000. They are the same model as this years and they are Y105,000 for this year. They have tons of shops up there. I recommend that you get some kind of all mountain ski - can do powder, bumps, hardpack, spring, etc. I would look for something with a sidecut in

Lin - Was in Hong Kong last spring. Found myself often in the bar district of Lan Qua Fang or something like that walking around aimlessly after about a dozen Carlsbergs. The 8 to 1 HK$ to US$ got mucho more difficult as the night wore on. Great time....could have used a few Chu-Hi's there though...

Lin - Was in Hong Kong last spring. Found myself often in the bar district of Lan Qua Fang or something like that walking around aimlessly after about a dozen Carlsbergs. Great time....

Chu-Hi is this magical drink that you can get at most 7-11's, Lucky Charms, Circle K, AM/PM, etc for about Y200 a pop. Pretty much can take a party that starts in first gear and go right to fifth skipping 2-4. The only problem I have found out is the next morning is that some little guy is in my head going to work with a pogo stick for a few hours. Can't get the stuff back in the States, Europe???

Got to go with putting two grape talls down on the way to some Karoke. Security Guard came at 2am to kick us out. Guess it closed at midnight. Close second is between bars in Rappongi. Definitely takes the sting away from the Y1,000 drinks and helps me forget that I got a vacuum cleaner taken to my wallet the previous night.

No work for me today. Heading up to Ogawamachi with a buddy to look for some skis for him. We'll see....

PolyPro for me

Going to have to go with the backcountry. I don't think I have ever gotten to the bottom of a hill and said to myself, "that was a great groomed run." But many of a time I have said sweet powder/corn snow on that one....

Oddis, Great question - as for the answer I am probably not the best one to give you the best direction but I will try. As for the Japan Alps - the backcountry potential is endless. The only problem is getting to the terrain. Expect a 4hr ride to get up to the Alps from Tokyo. As for midwinter backcountry I'm not sure but I did a few trips in the late spring - early June. Last year was my first in Japan. One way to access some cool terrain is to take the Karobe Alpine Route up to the Marudo Plateau. I think it opens in late April and will drop you off at 7500' in the heart of the A

I've got a North Face jacket with hood, pit zips, goretex, etc. Like it but more importantly are a good pair of pants. I like the goretex bib pants. They do a nice job.