bro

Has anyone been to Myoko Seki Onsen? It seems a small field but the tours there are cheap, there is a jump park and they market themselves as having a lot of powder snow. It might be good to get away from the big popular fields if the payoff is good snow, cheap prices and fewer people. Anyone with first-hand experience? Brodie

Hi all, Is anyone driving from Tokyo to Hakuba this Friday night that feels like giving me a lift, or the return trip from Hakuba to Tokyo on Monday night. Of course my share of toll and fuel money would be forthcoming, as well as a beer (or other alchoholic beverage of choice) at the destination. I'm doing the avalanche course this weekend that Dave from Evergreen Outdoors is putting on, and need to get to Hakuba. I'll have snowboard and other small luggage. Course details: http://www.evergreen-outdoors.com/english-winter.htm Let me know if you can give me a hand. Po

After foolishly buying boots too small for me 'cause I was stupid (actually the excuses I used at the time were: 'in a hurry', 'look good', and 'although too small by numbers, they feel real good!'). I think can honestly say that I know what foot-binding feels like. I took the footbeds totally out of the boots and found it helped a little, but they were really still too small. I used to come back from a day out hobbling and one day at the end of the season my feet continued to hurt even the next day while wearing sandshoes. This season I've finally retailiated against my Scottish her

Hey, I never noticed that before. Funky. I don't think you're really going to be put off but a little scary snow though... Not when there is all that nice powder out there After reading a site (link posted another thread) about deaths due to falling head first down a tree well though, I'm going to be a bit more careful next time I'm mucking around inside the trees! To put the risk in perspective, they do say that it's exceedingly rare, and the danger really only happens when the trees have uncut low lying branches and after a large powder dump. Brodie. Ref: 1. Eight

Although not in the same area, but if you are heading for zao, then I'd recommend heading up to Aomori for some tree skiing at Hakkouda. I was up there last year, and I'll be getting back up there this year for sure. It's got open trees, lots of powder, not a lot of people and is a hell of a lot of fun. You ignore the puncy runs down the bottom of the hill and just use the ropeway. Although there are only 3 'runs' marked on their map (which I think keeps the crowds away), you can go basically anywhere you want on the mountain. There are some really good reports about Hakkouda on the