journey_man

A question for the old hands: How reliable is the snow supply around Christmas? I had heard that December can be hit and miss even in good years.

Maybe they need to get those cameras in focus... Actually there was 5cm two days ago and the piste skiing is good - it's just the places I like to go aren't great. The wind blew the fresh pow to hell. I bet it all landed in the prohibited areas...

There was about 5cm up the top but with a heap of wind there were some "deep" pockets. Some Ok skiing. It was brutally cold tho. The wind chill numbers must have been scary low!

I'm back up in Niseko and it's a sad story. It's not as bad as Hakuba as it's still cold, but we need a decent amount of fresh snow. From another thread I read today, things are coming right in North America - so that might be the go if you've got the dosh!

Good on you for doing something! Everything's gotta start somewhere.

I just headed back up to Hokkaido. It's rock hard at Niseko, not the pow I was hoping for... Apparently it did snow a few days ago but it was followed by a two hot days. Damn! The ski patrol here thinks it's all over.

Just flew from Haneda to Chitose on Skymark and they charged me 1000yen for my skis, because they were skis. Their normal weight limit is 15kg - I had about 45kg all up (Ski bag was 23 and the other bag was 22) and they didn't even blink. Completely different from the story told by the website and phone agents. Bizarre.

AK's Folly Valley of Death Avalanche Alley

Great skiing with you guys. A sick day. Good luck on Fuji, I hope it worked out.

Nice pics guys. The snow looks nice at Kagura too...

Scotland! God, I hope the snow never gets that bad!

Thanks!

Heading back up today

I recently went from Haneda to Shinjuku on my way to Hakuba. To do it I used two trains to get through Tokyo. Someone has since told me that there is a bus between Haneda and Shinjuku. Does anyone know about this service?

This image was also taken at the Snow Festival. This chick is in a bubble up on a snow stage playing music to the crowd. I'm not sure why, but it was bizarre somehow. I guess because she was warm and dry while we punters were out in the wet, snowy cold, but quite able to see her play. If I can figure out how I'll post a video link later.

Quote: Originally posted by NPM: Journey man ... Can you let me know how to "get" Photoshop too??? You get a PM too!

Quote: Originally posted by Creek Boy: *cough* bit torrent NPM ...I would think You might well think that, but I couldn't possibly comment...

Cool! I'll look forward to that!

The final pictures are from the ice sculptures. The next picture is an ice sculpture of a building - it looked kinda funky all lit up at night.

Many of the sculptures were huge! They must have had hundreds of man hours go into them. I liked the contrast of the boring commercial buildings of today with the ornamental look of yesterdays temple. The level of detail that has gone into this sculpture was amazing. Even the small penguins were beautifully sculpted. The best time was to go was at night. Some of the lighting was amazing.

It's a bit late, but here are some pictures from Sapporo Yuki Matsuri - the Sapporo Snow Festival. Unfortunately the few days leading up to the beginning of the festival saw rain and temperatures above zero. Some of the exhibits were looking decidedly second hand by the time the festival started. Some of the topics were quite surprising. First up is Thomas the Tank Engine! The melting snow was most apparent on the "smaller " sculptures

Does anyone know how to embed youTube in forum posts? You could just put up a url, but it would be great if you could have the actual picture inside the forum page.

Photo 5 looks like the Karate Kid!

Dude, awesome snow! Please bring some back with you...

Quote: Originally posted by eskimobasecamp: and i need photoshop!!!! PM sent on getting PS...