Markie

How much is that ticket to HK? There might be enough for that as well!

With the Australian dollar appreciating and the Japanese Yen depreciating, travelling to Japan must be quite an attractive option for Australians these days. I just changed some Aussie dollars I bought several years ago back to HK$ this morning to take advantage of this high exchange rate. That should cover all me for all my ski trips for a whole year.

Hey, sexy thigh, I think my first ski trip to Japan was in 2002. Not much luck on that second question though.

That's two questions!

Rusutsu is one of my favourite destinations but going in April is a big gamble. Although Hokkaido is further north that doesn't necessarily equate with better snow conditions because it doesn't have the same elevation as many places in Honshu. Two years ago I skied in Tomamu (in Hokkaido) during April and it dumped so I could ski fresh powder. I was very lucky that time but I've also skied in Hokkaido in April during other years and had to do slush and puddles.

I'm in.

I've done rain and can live with it. My dislike from wind greatly exceeds that for rain.

Also, anyone else who's coming, remember to enter for those Hakuba Village lift ticket giveaways. I already won one!

Weegeoff, I'm afraid you were already on our list of people attending the BBQ....sorry for not asking first! SJA are you in as well? Slow, I will arrive at Narita on 31 March and leave on Apr 7. I hope I can see my farvourite person while I'm there.

Weegeoff, see you there. Thursday, I'm not much of an X-box man, but I'm sure your X-box will be appreciated by Fattwins. Creek Boy, sorry, but Kansai is not on my itinerary this trip, but we can touch base later. Cal, that's well put. In fact, I'm a snow slut. I don't care about the quality. If it can be skied on, I'll ski it, rock ice or mushy slush.

That's nothing, SJA, I already have my plane tickets for my Hakuba trip and that's in 4 weeks time!

Thanks for that info, Simon. Now this mystery about ski equipment check-ins is getting even more mysterious. Another bunch of my friends from HK who went with me on the same trip to the 3 Valleys actually took Air France from HK to Lyons because they booked really early and got a good offer, about 25% cheaper than my ticket. However, they were not charged for checking in their ski equipment.

WantToSki, try making an appointment with Fattwins or EskimoBaseCamp and head down to Hakuba. They are not only great skiers but they know how to teach their skills well. I always recommend them to my HK friends when I bring them down. Last time, because we had so many wanting lessons, we needed extra other coaches as well, but they were all fighting over who would get Fatts and EBC.

Knees can be a problem at any age, especially when you do moguls. I've been lucky so far. Also, about charging for ski equipment, I hope the other airlines don't follow Luthansa's example. Anyway, it will be good if other members also bring this to our attention if it happens....not good to find out when you're at the check-in counter!

Quote: Originally posted by eskimobasecamp: i've taken so much shit on planes before I usually leave that in the toilet before I board the plane.

That's totally weird, isn't it, BCS? In your case, with Cathay Pacific, it seems you can actually check in extra weight just because you have a ski bag. Similarly, when I was on my return trip with Lufthansa, at Geneva, they didn't even bother to weigh the ski bag, they just tagged it and me stack it on a trolley with lots of other ski bags. It could have weighed a ton and they wouldn't have bothered.

That's a good idea Serre Che. I checked out the HK Lufthansa website and it did state that there are extra charges for ski equipment which came into effect on November 2006. But I still wonder why they didn't charge me on my return journey. I also wonder how they can charge you a 40 Euro fee and not accept Euros and force you to accept their exchange rate.

The nicest thing about TIGNES is that it has that train which gets you to the top of the slope really fast even though the distance covered is quite a lot. Saves a lot of lift time. On a separate note, this time I was quite pissed that Lufthansa charged me extra for checking in my skis. From my knowledge, no other airline does that. I was below the weight limit even with all my ski equipment but they said they charged extra "just because it's ski equipment". This was on my out-going flight from HK. They didn't charge me anything on my return flight. To make it even more infuriating, the f

Quote: Originally posted by Creek Boy: too many peeps are always PMing me It's a curse being so popular, isn't it? .....or is that mainly hate mail?

C.B.: Give me a week and I'll think of a better excuse. B.C.S.: Those are some exotic locations you have in your sights. I even found the 3 Valleys primitive compared to Japan and home....that's because I had to wipe my own ass after my business, not used to that! I'm thinking more like Val d'Iseres/Tignes for my next Eurotrip. On this trip we totalled 11 (10 from HK and 1 from Holland) and there was no overlap with the people from the Christmas/Hakuba trip, except me of course. Thursday: Funny thing is that physically, I only suffered from some very dry chapped lips which are still a bit

No actually I need you or BCS with me to take those photos. I have never been into photo-taking but you guys are right, photos need to be taken. The terrain there is incredible, 600 km of pistes and over 200 lifts. The highest elevation I skied at was 2952m (Mt du Vallon) and from that, I could ski down to 1100m (Les Allues) which is where I had to hike to because of insufficient snow cover but the piste should have gone right to that station.

Fortunately, there was a week of good snow just before I arrived so there was a good base layer and practically all the runs were open. However, there were no freshies. Sorry about not having any pics. I don't even own a camera.

OK folks, I'm back from the 3 Valleys. I must have done about 15 miles a days. Had good weather every day, no wind and blue skies. I now have a very sunburnt face with the "panda-eyes" because of the googles. CB, I was using your skis and I'm glad I paid you what I did instead of what you were asking or I would now be feeling like I ripped you off. They really suited me well. As they were a bit shorter than what I normally ski on, I felt it much easier to do the moguls. I think I skied every single black mogul there except one which was closed off. That was about 20 altogether. Also, as yo

Yes, I like that one too. Especially the chorus: A-A-lone A-A-lone

That's great. Have you got a picture with you squeen while the wife sking?