john_g

Miteyak, you said the ski area below the Hotaka ropeway is now closed : is that permanently? Cheers.

Anything much above 25 degrees will avalanche given the right conditions. Digging a snow pit does't take that much time. Maybe 15-30 minutes for a ruschblock, shovel shear test and a quick poke around for weak layers. Also I sometimes find you can get wildly different results from two ruschblock tests that are only a few metres apart. I think that maybe multiple quickies are the way to go.

Norikura is open pretty much all year (permanent snow). From Golden Week you can catch a bus up to about half way between the peak and the ski area. A few years ago a mate and I went up : plenty of snow up high and lots of people. There wasn't enough snow to snowboard back to the ski area parking so we ended up waiting for the bus - about an hour or so. Good fun overall though. I keep meaning to go back late Winter though. Don't forget the sunscreen - I did and ended up with suppurating blisters over most of my face.

Thanks for the info about Rapie/Ishii Sports, will probably pay Rapie a visit next trip. (Their homepage has a nice map.) I'm 178cm and 72kg. 15 odd years ago I used to ski on a pair of 190cm Fischer somethings but I was only an average skier. I've got a 3 or 4 year old pair of Rossingnol 175cm Carving skis which seem to be pretty flexible (somebody kindly left them out with the rubbish). I was thinking about mounting bindings on them. Any thoughts?

Cheers for the tips. I don't mind buying bindings online but what about boots? The hike up doesn't bug me but the slog back through the valleys does : it flattens out , the board stops so out come the snowshoes. Then a couple of hundred metres further down there's a bit of a slope - off with the snowshoes and on with the board again. Maybe a split board would help but telemarks seem more versatile.

I've been interested in trying telemark. The slog back in the back country is just too much with snowshoes (I'm a snowboarder).What sort of ski length, boot and bindings would you recommend? I couldn't imagine spending too much time on the groomers. Also where do you buy telemark gear in Japan?

db, nice to see a surfer - did you get out much this year? This summer sucked big time : where were all the typhoons?

Does anybody know of any regular, well informed avalanche warnings in English or Japanese? Most of Europe, US and Canada seem to have detailed avalanche warnings for backcountry travellers but not Japan, or maybe I'm not looking in the right places. Does anybody bother writing up pit data and posting it online? Not living right next to the mountains it makes it difficult to check on a regular basis. cheers

Buried somewhere in this forum http://www.telemarktips.com/forums/Avy_Safety_/ are several discussions about the selkirk tragedy. There's also a fair bit of info regarding avalanche triggers and safety.

The trip to Tateyama is a hassle and expensive but can be well worth it. Ocean 11, for someone who has on a few occasions described various aspects of snow safety/avalanche awareness as boring I was surprised by your apparent enthusiasm. Nonetheless it's good to see. Should this be taken to mean you're going to invest in some safety equipment to go with your eagerness.

Why take the helicopter? Try walking - it only takes a couple of hours.

I think there's a shuttle bus that runs between 47 and Goryu.

I think there's a shuttle bus that runs between 47 and Goryu.

I think there's a shuttle bus that runs between 47 and Goryu.