damian

You didn't offend. Stop being so soft. Just follow up if a crowd of people dish up some info in reply to your good question. This would have been a fair response: Quote: Originally posted by WantToSki: hi... i can barely relate to what was posted, and still trying to think things through... having started skiing only around feb/mar '06 - most of my experience are with groomed pistes, and thus never saw the rationale of planning a route. then, seeing and hearing talks about "choosing a line," To which I would have asked, who the F picks their line on a groomed run, espec

Second that one by AK, like wise the recommendation of something like Freedom of the Hills, a very good text book. I am a beginner and found it accessible. Oh yes, here is one of my awkwardly long (embarrassing) posts that contains a few references to some concise and practical books. Its also lists some of the basic snow skills I have recently learnt and found useful. These techniques are repeatedly described in mountaineering books. http://www.snowjapanforums.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/6834.html#000004 Most people (guides) that I spoke to say that the core skills in alpine m

Oh shitto, I didn't know it was you. I actually couldn't remember who it was that asked the language question. Twice in a day, sorry man, don't get a complex.

Quote: Originally posted by WantToSki: pardon the inquiry, but... Well, seeing as you extended the opportunity for us to individually pardon you: No need to pardon the enquiry, it was a good one. But I don't feel like personally pardoning your lack of follow up or reply. You got serious answers, fun answers and combo fun-and-serious answers. Surely you could have found a hook in one of them for you to latch onto and offer up something of your own? I guess your name says it all.

Traffic, hmmm. Thanks for the warning. I scoped out some really good looking northerly terrain near to Andermatt a few weeks ago. Access is easiest from the Gottardo pass road, which is of course shut in winter. You could still hike the road route - a very long but mostly gentle option. Or possibly get there from the top of Andermatt with some solid hiking and a few small ascents and descents along the way. Eitherway, its a very long day out, probably a two day effort with a tent. But it looks good and offers a few choices for ending the tour with a really long descent back down to

Just in case no one noticed, this thread and conditions report was for Jan 06. Anyway - Torihada... have fun with your guide. Compared to a lot of Europe, 12,000yen is pretty inexpensive if they deliver a seriously good tour, not just supervised rope ducking. If you get a good guide then he will talk along and answer questions. But remember, you have to ask the questions first, even if you are out of breath. The other issue that gets in the way of education is that you almost always walk behind your guide in the track. Skinning/snowshoeing can be noisy and speed (or at least uninterr

I asked this in the wrong thread. Cut and paste to here: I see the word 'guides' being used a bit more in Hakuba online info these days. I even remember seeing a job ad a while back looking for IFMGA/UIAGM qualified guides. In Europe that is a genuinely difficult designation to obtain, even as an aspirant you can charge 300 euros per day for your services. Anyway, my question: what kind of meaning does the word guides have? Does it imply real guides or is it local crew who know the terrain and can show you around the resort and off piste? Are there many IFMGA/UIAGM guides act

Hey! Simon is back for his regular friendly start-of-season hello. Hi dude. I was hanging out in Milano on the weekend. Also passing through town next Thursday on the way to Cham. Planning a week hiking and attacking some lines off the north ridge along Tete Nord de Fours, which is a pretty cool low level corner of the massif tucked away part way between les Contamines and Courmayeur. Perhaps the snow wont cooperate, who knows. Let me know if you are in the area over Christmas. Also in Engelberg over NYE. That along with Andermatt are shaping up to be my regulars until sprin

Fun these days is basically evil. I took about 50 flights last year, so I don't point the carbon finger. Actually, I am at the airport now. I just giggle at all the concern about resorts hitting hard times. I don't think that large resorts are necessary to enjoy mountains. But it would appear that air flights are.

This post has been cut and posted somehwere else. I would have deleted but only forum leaders can delete posts.

> what's wrong with making money off a sport that everyone loves? By our society's standards, nothing at all. You raise an interesting observation. One cant make money off something that doesn't exist. 'The industry' can express no complaint nor feel sorry for itself when the key input resource runs low. Jobs will be lost, hotels, restaurants, bars, pensions, small towns, the local economy... all will suffer, not happy days for those that lose, but such is the flip-side reality of business. All is fair in cash and capitalism, especially when making money off a sport that everyone lo

Protecting your kids must be quite difficult. Not having the time: that’s half the problem. I speak for myself firstly - always wanting to indulge in luxuries that I don’t otherwise have time for. So I fly rather than drive, I use lifts rather than hike etc. Makes perfect sense to do so, but does it make sense to do things for which we do not have the time? Perhaps we should limit our activities according to our resources, time being one of them, rather than adapting destructive technology to manage the time shortage. I don’t expect anyone to start soon, myself included. But its

I am just amazed and a bit dissapointed that my trash-fiction forum babble focusing on the "personal choice" term caused so much hell to break loose. It was never intended to be antagonising beyond laughing at the entire internet debate on helmets vs not helmets which on every forum I have seen boils down to it being a politically correct "personal choice" (like toilet paper softness and what you do with your snot after picking your nose). Of course its a damn personal choice. What I childishly poke fun at is the fact that so much heartfelt belief is behind the topic. The reaction to my cl

Quote: Originally posted by Fubuki: no actually it was quite clear that your opinion is advocating helemts, but what it also clearly demonstrates is that you have a propensity to overanalyse a philosophize a phrase that clearly everyone understands except you. Or you are just looking to start an arguement, but the fact remains that no one is mandating that people must wear helmets and if they did then that would undermine the nature of freedom. I am sure your life has the utmost value and maybe more than anyone elses on this forum and for that maybe helmets should be mabdatory, but other are

Quote: Originally posted by mina2: SJ perhaps in future you don't want to consider adding cool stuff to the site for fear of being accused of all sorts by your readers. Sad. Interesting word: Reader. Since 2002 you managed 500 posts. Don't get me wrong, post count is not the measure of a man by any means, but it is certainly indicative of his chosen level of transactional engagement. You are reader. Many of us are contributors. Contributors of flow, traffic, forum content and character. You do not have the same understanding of reciprocity. ps - don't try and use what I po

Serf.

Thanks slow I am learning about new places all the time. It didn't interest me much when I lived there but with new things in mind, it does now. Quote: Originally posted by mina2: Minakami is a very well known ski and onsen town in Honshu. The fact that you had not heard of it means sod all. ooo, touchy little boy. I hadn't heard of your town and you got all sulky. Loser. Truth be told, seeing the face in that picture a week ago I was glad to have belatedly learnt of it. Either way, I think you missed the point. SJ1 - no problem. Just an observation.

Hey wow, one of the pictures on the photo page of this lodge is the same as one of the pictures on the new Minakami Now! page. Latest addition to the database of places to stay. http://www.snowjapanforums.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/9/373.html#000000 Its in Gunma. From the lodge website From the brand new Minakami Now page I had never heard of Minakami before it hit the Now! radar screen. And heres a place to stay in Minakami. Really, you couldn't buy marketing like that.

I agree with SG. At the risk of talking about me again: I used to get a lot of satisfaction from setting out to increase my body weight by 10 - 15 kg in pure clean muscle over 6-12 months. Considering I am 172cm and normally 65kg, it was a big change in my body. The huge buzz from the pump and the simple physical challenge and experimentation with my muscles went very well with a life full of mental challenges and mental experimentation. On 4 separate occasions in the last 15 years I have pumped myself up from 65kg to 75-80kgs. I usually stop when I realise that my head looked too small

>The poly inner shell of helmets is only designed to absorb one hit, and the helmet doesn't do squat to protect after that. This is how much of a truth I wonder? It applies to stiff shelled motorcycle helmets designed to take 100kmph cracks on the sidewalk. It also applies to one-hit mountaineering helmets with no hi-density foam, just a plastic shell and a webbing inner: effective protection against a golf ball sized rock falling from 100m above you. But what about ski helmets? If it is an absolute truth then it is another reason why helmets are impractical in reality even

Quote: Originally posted by snosurf: 1. Niseko Hirafu 2. Niseko Annapuri 3. Niseko Higashyiama Unlucky to miss out... 4. Niseko Moiwa 5. Niseko La Ponte 6. Niseko Weiss Triple flatlander pirate to you as well.

gone

You are so Japanese some times.

1. The word n00b pisses me off. Its a stupid sounding word. Its a stupid looking word. I hate it. 2. This guy gives me the shits . When people use him I picture them as dim witted grinning idiots. 3. The phrase "first turns", especially when using the grinning idiot

How did it go Vronnie? I hope Mr Kacho didn't get drunk and try to kiss you.