Plucky

Quote: Originally posted by thursday: Plucky, some of that stuff looked really out of control and some of your crew were not wearing helmets doing that. Nice music though. I never knew helmets were a prerequisite, but it may explain a lot about my friends and I. Just remember, that is a video of highlights, or lowlights if you will, from that ski season. It's just meant to be fun and is not indicative of how we skied most of the time. Glad you liked the music. The first song is from 311 and the last two are from Boy Sets Fire. Both great bands.

Quote: Originally posted by SirJibAlot: I hear you - I can't deal with cold water. My favorite spots on Oahu: Chun's Reef, N.Shore (hate the super strong current) King's - Haleiwa (home of the freak set) Kuni's - Waikiki (only breaks when there is a big S. Swell) Wall's/Graveyard's - Waikiki (love the backwash) Public's - Waikiki (scarry during low-tide - almost impaled myself there) Ala Moana Bowl - (always popular, but tough to get in the lineup as a haole) Barber's Point - (only on a super windy day to get that washing machine effect!) I'm no Hawaiian, but lived there for

Great post! I basically considered Hachimanti my home resort while living in Japan. Freaking loved it there compared to most of the tightwad rule-constricted places in Japan. Check out my video post. I'm sure you'll see some stuff you recognize Besides Hakkoda, if there was a place I was intimate with in Japan, it was Hachimanti Forest. Such a difference from the corporate J-pop ridden BS over the peak at Appi. Too bad you never got to make the 2 hour climb to the top of the peak off the top chair (to skiers left). Fantastic stuff up there. Being from Oregon and having done a

Quote: Originally posted by Kintaro: game on! Tohoku saw so little snow this year that I must hit Gassan. It's not the ideal ski-jo but it at least has snow. My last time out in mid February I was hitting grass patches at Zao. Terrible snow year on the East side but I'm not throwing in the towel just yet. Was it really that bad this year Kintaro? From the snow reports I checked, it looked like a good season. Admittedly, I haven't checked this site much lately to get first-hand reports. Sorry to hear it sucked. If it's any consolation, this ski season in Europe has been one of the

Quote: Originally posted by muikabochi: Nice. Which resorts areas where you at Plucky? Sorry for the late response. Been a bit busy. Most of the footage is from Hachimanti Forest with some Appi, Amihari and Shimokura in there. My cabin in Alaska got broken in to last year and most of my tapes and video equipment were stolen. I lost a lot of good footage that I hadn't gotten around to downloading yet. I'm just happy I had what I did on my hard drive. Lesson learned - film and download right away! Hey, we finally got some fluff in the Alps! Scored two good weekends of powder

Thought some of you might enjoy this. I received requests from some old friends to put my vids up on YouTube. Instead of putting the old stuff up, I made a shortened video from my 03-04 season in Aomori and Iwate. New music, probably some of the same footage some of you have seen, but cut a bit different. I've skied exclusively in Austria this season. Due to the lackluster snow conditions, it has been a huge let down. At least it's been sunny and super warm every time I've been there! I haven't had to pull out my cold-weather gear once. The snow has, well, sucked. I mis

Quote: Originally posted by Fattwins: dont get that oregon thing its garbage. look on tgr they cant get the thing to sit right. I wish you spoke English. What's wrong with the Oregon thing? Yes, I'm being statilistic..... DB - what are you wanting to film? I actually have a lot of experience with this. We were filming things in Japan and only spent around 500 usd. If it's cheaper to buy at US prices, let me know. Seriously, I'd love to help out. I've got a US address over here in Deutschland......

Quote: Originally posted by db le pu: torihada - My experience has been that Brits love a bit of fun, boozing, clowning around and good sunshine in a ski holiday. I'm not sure many need to fly to Japan just for that. Plucky - (Its Saturday night... you're drinking aren't you ) ... and it sounds like your nationality-competitive edge is edging back into your stuff. I'm a little the same, so I wont cast stones. As for loud groups of Australian guys: they love being something special where they are, getting attention and strutting around. Its an Aussie thing and I see it ofte

Quote: Originally posted by Ocean11: Have a nice hangover Plucky. It wasn't so bad. Got a nice mt bike ride in today. Made it to the Czech and had to use the 'ol passport. Thanks for caring though. Ich liebe dich Ocean What in the heck is a paddock Mantas??? Not being all nationalistic and all, but I love American colllege football. Best sport - bar none.

I was watching Bayern vs. Stutagart and yes, I've had a few That was a damn good match!!! Okay, now we're going to wathch Ohio State vs Michigan. Teach some Germans what football really is

Quote: Originally posted by ibk6020: IF it's Terrain you want plucky and the good white stuff check out The Arlberg extreme west Austria, I'll check it out. I've just been given supreme power in the ski club for such a thing I'm serious. AND I don't hate Brits, just Ocean11

My best friend here in Germany is a Brit/German. In my experience, the damn Brits have taken over the 'ugly' label from the Americans. Christ, thanks to Bush's policies, the fatass midwestern Americans can't afford to travel anymore. Like I said, I met some very nice Brits on my last ski trip and look foward to meeting many more. Here's the crazy thing - at Kitzsteinhorn, Austria, 95% of the people were skiers. There was a group of 20 Aussies that were loud and all of them were smoking. I judge not, but damn. Guys were talking about surfing the gold coast. I so w

Quote: Originally posted by torihada: Interesting article in today's Guardian. Snowjapan also gets a mention over the page (in the paper edition). Guardian article about Niseko I wonder if Brits will start making the trek? I know someone who's forking out nearly a £1000 for a week in the Alps this New Year. Also prices in article are for March & April. -------------------------------------------------- I also like: Quote from the article: Quote: For most people, cloudy, snowy conditions (and it's always snowing in Japan) can often ruin a holiday. But here, ridin

Quote: Originally posted by Fossil: Plucky Its so nice to hear a balanced argument from an american gun owner. No Im not being funny, Im a gun owner a hunter here in Oz who hates the "gun culture" too. They are tools not expressions of our manhood and we dont have a "right" to own and bear arms it is a privilege that if we abuse should be withdrawn. Furthermore if guns where portrayed as tools just like spanners and hammers perhaps fewer youth would aspire to shooting someone. So I do agree that the irresponsible portrayal of gun use/abuse is detrimental. That goes triple for Hollywood.

Quote: Originally posted by Fossil: Sounds like normal young bloke type behaviour to me. Im mean to say which one of us hasnt blown up his best friend with a poorly designed zinc dust and sulphur bomb?.......I know i have. How many of us hasnt thrown a 20 litre jerrycan of petrol and a handfull of .22 magnum rounds on the campfire at a bucks party? I know I have and who amongst us hasnt set fire to a public building as a child and had the police visit their home I know I have. Fortunately all involved survived these and other mind bogglingly stupid pranks, eventually grew a brain and le

DB defense - THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO NEED TO HAVE A 9MM PISTOL IN THE 'BACKCOUNTRY' AROUND MT BACHELOR, OREGON. In case you missed it, one of the socks said that's where they were. I'm from the area, I should know. Shooting a pressurized Coleman propane canister whilst in the campfire is just plain idiotic. I've done it, I know. I was 16 at the time however, and we were using a 30/30 and were at least 75 meters away behind a dirt bank. We ended up setting half of our camp on fire - the tent and two sleeping bags went up in flames thanks to embers and shrapnel being blown out by

Fox and CNN are saying that it is supposed to hit after 9:10PM. It is saying this for both Hokkaido and Honshu but nothing more specific. That's in about 40 minutes, correct?

I just saw the headlines saying a 6.5 foot tsunami is heading for the Pacific Coast of Japan after an 8.1 eq hit the Kurils. I can't find much information on it at this point. Take care and be safe!

yesterday at Kitzsteinhorn, Austria. It cleared up later in the afternoon and I could actually see 5 meters in front of me! I didn't get lost, however. But I have before and it's not fun. The most scared I've ever been on a mountain was when I had to lead a group of 10 people down the side of an arete above the Lemon Glacier on the Juneau Icefield in absolute whiteout conditions. The so called guide had lost the wands and got us so off course as to put our lives in danger. All we could do was blindly down climb (with 75 lb packs and skis on our backs) until a safer place to hunke

I'm sure these two small mountains just north of Fairbanks, Alaska would have to be right up there. Much, much colder than anything you will find in Japan. I did most of my skiing at these two places the last two winters with some trips to Alyeska thrown in (and Whistler). Alyeska is like the tropics compared with Moose Mt. and Skiland. I remember skiing Moose Mt last year when a big temp inversion was taking place. It was 'only' -5F at the summit but was -35F at the base. Fargin' nutz. Did a couple days similar to this at Skiland too and froze my ass off on the super slow pre WW2 era d

Quote: Plucky, are you sure people are really jealous of your gas-guzzling American Jeep? I've actually had quite a few offers for it from Germans. It is fairly unique over here and good for the winters. I bought the Jeep in Hawaii with a soft top (perfect vehicle there), shipped and stored it in Oregon while I was in Japan and then drove it from Oregon up to Alaska where it again was the perfect vehicle for the situation. The company offered to send it over to Germany at no cost to me which is way better than buying a new car on the economy when re-settling. I'll probably sell it aft

Okay, everyone gets that it's snowing here. I'm just stoked! Two more: AND it is sticking to the trees and grass but not the cement.

A few pics taken 10 minutes ago (yep, very bored at work today) My gas-guzzling American Jeep that everyone is now jealous of because of the weather and ice on the roads. Falling snow and trees behind the office In focus trees Snowing harder yet now! Unfortunately it's 1C and the ground is still relatively warm so it's not sticking.

That looks like a fun place to go. I may have to check it out one of these weekends. I don't think it would take more than a few hours to get to. Let me know how it is if you go! Maybe we could meet up down there one of these days. It's actually started lightly snowing again here! It was beautiful, cold and sunny not 2 hours ago and then the clouds quickly moved in. From the radar it looks like it will continue for at least a couple of hours. I highly doubt it will amount to much, however. This weekend I'm going to drive down to Grosser Arber and take the dog hiking. It is a

We got our first flakes of the winter!!!! It was spitting snow last night before I went to bed which means it had been exactly 6 months since I last saw snow (the day I left Alaska, May 1) Wow, and it really piled up! I took these before leaving for work this morning. It was dark so the pictures suck. Now it's beautiful and sunny out but the forecast is calling for more light snow the next couple of days and then a week straight of rain. Oh well, as long as it's snowing in the mountains!