RockyV

number9, any more photos? if you have time to write it up I would be interested to read a journal entry

Well I went to Karuizawa last week Nov 12, great to get my first turns of the season in. karuizawa journal Then yesterday I went to Shiga Kogen Journal entry more photos here Obviously no comparison with the snow conditions at both places had a fantastic day, hopefully more of the mountain will be open next week

Thanks SJ2, I reckon I'll go to kumanoyu tomorrow and maybe sunday too, do you know how much day passes are?

150,000 yen!!! unbelievable I don't know how anyone could justify that! it's almost 3 times the price of my Nozawa season pass, they are pushing their luck (trying to rip off people based on Niseko's current popularity, makes me angry, trying to take advantage of people) but in regards to a hours based pass, resorts would need to have a fairly complex ticketing system monitoring at what time ticket 45678B is used etc, I don't think it will happen in Nagano, sound's expensive to install. but I agree, it's a good idea in theory but difficult in practice

I will write up some more info tomorrow in my journal in regards to Karuizawa, price, more pics etc

Forecast is for about 30cm at shiga and other areas in Nagano between now and saturday morning add that to their current 15cms? and I figure I should be able to find some nice areas to slide down. My question is where to you recommend for someone going alone with only limited back country experience, but proficient skier I went skiing last weekend in Karuizawa, and now I don't want to stop. Unfortunately I don't have the experience to do anything like Torque and Fattwins on their Tateyama tour but I figure there should be onther places that I can reach easily enough by car, hike from the

Fattwins/Toque, wow Tateyama sounds awesome, I did a search on the forum and found heaps of interesting info. I need to do an avalanche course this year, buy some backcountry gear and then I too will give it a try next year. Certainly beats Karuizawa that's for sure, but you need to know what your doing too which I don't. You guy's obviously have the knowledge and now I've seen what I can gain from having that knowledge I wanna learn!

just went up to Iizuna which is only about 15mins from my house, it was snowing lightly above maybe about 800m. I too am soooooooooo excited edit: I took some pictures that I thought I might be able to play with in photoshop and get them right, but the result isn't much chop, not even worthy uploading, too dark. what I wanted to show however is that the runs were clearly visible andother edit: just looking at the weather forecasts and it looks like we might be in for over 20cm in Nagano over the next week, fingers crossed

yeah it wasn't too crowded at all, but I too am keen to hit the real stuff, where are you hiking this weekend Toque? Oyuki kigan there actually was snow at the top of Asama, you just can't see it, I forgot my camera that day so it was taken with my keitai. Can see it a little better here

I bought a pair of cobra PR400WX's from ebay prob cost me about 7000 with shipping, they work like a charm but I'm yet to test them at the snow, not too big and I think they pump out 5 watts. My buying advice is to use ebay, but be careful with shipping because most places over charge, as as rule of thumb I don't pay anymore than $20US for shipping from America. walkie talkies are expensive in Japan.

what ended up happening here? I would like to see it, I can host the file too as long and bandwidth doesn't get too out of hand (I have 2GB or webspace and 20Gb or bandwidth which I barely use)

Gamandekinakata kara, I went to Karuizawa Prince yesterday and it was pretty fun, sure it doesn't rate up there with my best days on the snow, but certainly not my worst either. I recommend it for you other guys out there who like me can't hold out for a few more weeks, it's still skiing and long as your expectations are not too high you will enjoy yourself. I was also lucky enough to try out some new Ogasaka skis, they had a tent setup for some type of ski camp and although it wasn't officially a demo day, I had a chat to the boys there and there were happy for me to test drive a f

Sanno, the second link works fine, thankyou, sorta weird that ore and O11 can't access skier-x pages

both bimyou for mid december, wait if you can

I can not connect to www.skier-x.com? same thing happened with a pic sanno posted a week or so ago. Anyone got any ideas why I can't navigate to that page? the rest of the internet is fine

wow 6man a month, some of you guys must have good jobs! I pay 7man for everything because I live at a homestay (parking, food, rend, beer, electricity, internet, water, gas, kero, newspaper, telephone...) on top of that I have a few expenses like keitai, insurance etc, but no way could I afford 6man for parking!

Ocean, not sure exactly what you mean, maybe you mean they don't need it because they get lots all the time anyway? (just like newcastle, in Australia had lots of coal in it's prime) I'm actually a coal mining engineer by profession but maybe it's a bit before my time. I suppose your right though

I have been waiting patiently for Nozawa's Homepage to be built, they said it would be ready today and I have checked it twice an hour since I woke up this morning. First, I looks great and it's not a flash webite, which is a definate plus (flash websites may look good, but they loose functionability like coping text and pictues) -Prices are the same as last year -currently still the old english page, just the japanese site has been updated -the trail, map is flash -the following lifts are no longer operating -karazawa2 -nagasaka 4 -still have

um, I think kintaro is a Japanese name, it's meaning varries depending on the kanji, totoya I have never heard of, it's not in my name dictionary but I suppose it could be a name, again meaning would vary according to kanji

when I was in canada I bought a RCR superpass, I think it cost arount $720 for a weekday pass (mon-fri). Now the pass has gone up to over $900 and they removed a day now only mon-thurs, when I went RCR superpass could be used at 9 different resorts now it's only 4. For a full season pass it is $1200. In my experience from Australia and Japan resorts normally charge about 12 times the day season rate for a seaon pass, in Canada it's 20, sure their season is maybe upto a month longer than many parts of Japan, but wow $1200 is expensive

Toque, where is first on your hitlist in two weeks? a resort or a hike?

sava sorry mate, if you pronounce it like Japanese pronounciation eni would be any Yamakashi, hopefully next year works out and I am able to go. The plan is maybe for 3 months, fingers crossed

I'm wondering if anyone has been adventuous enough to risk damaging their skis on the few resorts that have opened on jinkouyuki yet? I plan on heading to karuizawa next weekend, I just can't wait any longer. This year I planned on going to Chile in August, but I had to stay while I waited for 4 months for my visa to be renewed. So no snow since april.

I'm not sure if living closer gives you the "luxury" of canceling or not? For me it's maybe the opposite, being it's a hour or less away, why not go have a look I have nothing to loose, anyway that's why I don't cancel. I have arrived a couple of times to a resort with all the lifts on wind hold, but it's rare and I had an onsen and enjoyed the drive.

misorano I don't mean to pick on your Japanese, or maybe just a typo but I think you mean Hagaki