Sciclone

Although they may not get the mass amounts of Hokkaido, I tend to find that SK understates their depths. I've been there 3 times over the past 4 years, and except 2009 (which was a bad year everywhere), I've always found more powder than the reports/official snowdepths would have you believe. That's ok.. leaves it for us who don't mind making the trek out.

Huzzah! Big thanks to the SJ crew for nabbing us these sweet passes. Let's repay them by giving lots of good reports and photos.

Not so much off piste runs at SK, but there are some ungroomed sections at Yakebitai, and plenty of little powder banks and pits to play around with on the side of the runs. If you are a skiier, you can head up to Yokoteyama, but don't even bother if you're a snowboarder, it's a waste of time.

Boom. I'm there... ticket or not... but preferably with.

Looks like K2 cinch's, which were a great binding.

Watched Isenseven - Fools Gold and Burton - 13 on the weekend. Fools Gold wasn't bad. Some ok scenes, though I don't really find straight rails that interesting. 13 was pretty nice. Some excellent bc kicker shots, and the only real jibbing/railing was Jeremy Jones and it was slide-transfer-slide-transfer-transition type stuff. Both had decent enough soundtracks as well. No gangster rap or death metal ruining the show.

Bought these on the weekend - 2013 Salomon Synapse And a Red Mutiny helmet in Black with green highlights. I'm poor now, but I won't have to upgrade for a few years.

My brother already trolls, but isn't registered, while the others aren't as big net users. Wouldn't you prefer users who are regulars to get the tickets?

I will post a trip report and photos anyway, as I have done for the past couple of seasons. But free tickets would make it a lot sweeter Besides, there's me and 5 others coming. If I had free tickets, then I could buy a round or two... Sharing is caring, right?

If you have any for yuzawa area (naeba, kagura, gala/kogen/ishiuchi maruyama, or maiko), I'd write the best damn report possible. I plan on spending a day at each of them, so I hopefully can get a good feel.

I've been up the top of perisher in a sudden mini-blizzard. Pretty cool but freaky, not the place you want to be when you've run out of energy, with a blown knee, torn stomach muscles and jarred back and shoulders. That's why I always board with my brother or friends, because they were the only thing that got me down the mountain.

I didn't find the k2's bad for snow or icing up any worse than my current traditional bindings. I have gotten better at putting on traditional bindings whilst standing up. but depends how my knee holds up, because it doesn't have the strength it used to.

Too bad they didn't have a Cinch/Fastec style binding that fit EST/ICS boards... best of both worlds there.. But for the time being, I'll stick to my purple cartels.

I have Cartel EST's on a Custom ICS board. It is really easy to adjust your angles on the go, which is helpful if you find that you have an old knee injury playing up and need to put less pressure on it. Having said that, I think my next board/bindings will probably non-EST, as I'm really enamoured with the K2 cinch's I tried a couple of years back. The speed of flow's with the control of traditional bindings. If you do get them, I would recommend taking some Loctite (thread locking stuff) along so the bolts don't wiggle loose. Not that it's happened to me, but I'm a mechanic that pref

I've got a ContourHD and it works fine. The only time it got plugged with snow was when I bailed in a powder pit. I was more worried about finding my goggles than my vid.cam. I'll be mounting it to my helmet when I get a new one soon, rather than goggle cam which can be a bit shaky.

I watched Absinthe - Resonance on the weekend, some good shots, but not as well done as some of their older films (I loved Neverland, Twelve and NoWhere). I've still got the latest Isenseven movie (Fool's Gold) to watch. I hope it's as good as Don't Panic.

Oh please oh please be Gala/Kagura/Maiko/Naeba... I'll even take a picture of cheese at the phone box..

Where are the Bag jumps?

I hate you Andy.. Wish I was there enjoying early pow.

I wonder if work will sponsor me to go to Hamamatsu (I work for Suzuki...)

I don't think the numbers of english speakers that were actually coming to SK could justify running an english website as well. Not that I mind, because I enjoy being in a foreign country with locals. I think the customer service could be better though. There are some hotels that never reply to your emails, whether you write in japanese or english, while the lack of nightlife is a killer for most people (not me).

I've rented a few times in Australia and in Japan Thredbo had craptastic boards and bindings, that looked like they were from the early 90's or else cheap chinese stuff, but cost $121 for 3 days. When we went to Perisher, we rented from the BP service station in Jindabyne. The place was very reasonable ($130 for boots and board/5days IIRC, it's been 6 years though) and I had a K2 board. I think I paid about 11000Y for 7 days at Shiga Olympic Hotel/Snowcan for a K2 board with K2 Cinch bindings (like flows, but more traditional feel) so the prices are cheaper than Australia, but then aga

Wish they had this either at Shiga Kogen or any of the various Yuzawa/Kagura/Naeba places.. Then I could have a go,.

Looks awesome... Wish I was snowboarding, instead of sweating in 30+ heat.

Well, It's not too far from where I'm going to be staying (Takahan, about 50m south of G-Y station), so I'll take pics from the 4 mornings I'm there in mid-Feb.