deanrobi

Must be better as Mitch is way less active on this forum than when he is in Utah. waiting patiently for one of his video and some of those cliff bombs.

Originally Posted By: MitchPee Originally Posted By: Go Native Bottomless in Niseko today too. Thigh to waist deep, super light powder. Face shots with every turn! It was good! I can confirm, was epic. Should have a video soon. How's the video going Mitch?

Next couple of weeks will tell, graphs of the past 10 years show that it reaches its peak around the third week of August. There a possibility of another fall of snow this coming Tue/wed, maybe 10 -20cm but we will still be along way behind what we normally have around this time of the year.

Tex, what does the Hirafu Club membership get you?

I'm afarid that I have to agree with GN, I have been going the Aust snow fields for over 20 years but this year I just cant bring myself to outlay that amount of money on accommodation ect for what you get. The trips to Japan have lifted my expectations of a snow trip and what I want to get from the experience. This year for something different I'm spending my money on a quick trip to Fiji for a week of kite Boarding and then hopefully a 5 day trip to Mt Hutt NZ. And of course another two weeks back to Niseko where I can be pretty confident that I will get my money's worth and t

Back to Niseko next year for one more trip. The place is just every thing I want and to make the most of the two weeks and have great conditions I'm reluctant to try any where new just yet. Got 12 days this trip and hope to get a few days across at Rusushu. In 2012 I have Long Service Leave so that may be the time to do an extended trip and spend some time heading up north and checking out some of the other ski fields

GN, I'm going to stay over in Niseko Village this trip and just realized that I'm there during Chinese NY, i assume that its going to be busy over there, would that be correct.

Money is not an issue we just want to experience the really fast bullet train so I guess I will search up on the 'nozomi' thanks

RB, so help me out a bit here, The JR pass would cost me how much? and when you say 'Hikari' and ' Kodama' shinkansen are they different rail line to the same place. I fumbled around on http://www.hyperdia.com/en/# the other night (great site) and I think it was about 7,140 yen for the trip from Tokyo to Osaka. thanks for you help

RB, We will fly back to Tokyo from sapporo and then we were thinking of catching the high speed train down to Osaka just for the experience.

Next year we are going to fly into Osaka rather than Tokyo and after a day or so we plan on flying up to Sapporo, I haven't really researched this yet but I'm assuming that its possible and that the flight would only be an hour or so longer than flying from Tokyo. On the way back we would like to get the train from Tokyo, maybe the (Shinkansen)is this possible?

I just went thru the process of purchasing a new board from Sierrasnow a couple of weeks back when they fell out with Burton and announced that they would ship Burton boards to Australia. As an example of what they were offering, I purchased a 156cm Burton Custom LTD for $270US and Flow NTX bindings for $150US plus $60Us for shipping. The exact board is for sale in my local shop as a '2010 new arrival' for $700US and the binding are around $350US, so a big saving for me. The board took four days to arrive in Aust and was very well packed and protected. Here in Aust we don't pay any import

Mamabear, have a look on Ebay. you can find the whole kit for a very reasonable price and that will save lugging it back home from Japan

Thanks GN, Yes the new bus stop and I thank them for putting funding into community areas like that which serve many of the punters visiting Niseko. I certainly got the benefit from its use on a few nights particularly during that cold spell we experienced a few weeks back. I also notice a lot of building when walking around the upper and lower village that seemed to have the HT sign on then as well as every second vehicle I saw seemed to have the logo. Anyway good on them for putting something back into the infrastructure of the place. Its definitely a company name that now sticks in my memor

MB you do get around the ski fields, Thredbo in summer WOW.

Hey GN i meant to ask you this question a few weeks back as you have a good knowledge of who's who in town. I noticed when I was in Niseko earlier this year that the company Hokkaido Tracks seemed to have their name/logo all over the place and on so many accommodation premises, are they becoming a large stakeholder in the place?

Love the last one too, Never seen a shot from that view, well done

Last day on Monday and it was a hoot, the snow started falling as we were eating our breakfast and didn't stop till about 6pm tonight. We were able to find fresh lines all day and as the snow keep falling the better it got. Climb the peak as soon as the gates opened and got a run out thru Gate 3 and although the visibility was poor there was some good snow to be had. A few more runs thru Gate 5 and we headed over to Niseko Village and by the time we arrived there was a nice 5 - 10 cm on yesterday crust and very few people. Pick of the runs would be Superstition and the tree runs between Misosh

Well worth the trip, especially after some fresh falls of snow

GN what would the snow be like in the back bowls to day after the gates not being open for the past three days? would there be some soft stuff or would it have gone hard with all the wind and temps we have experienced in the last 48 hrs? any advice

Crazy day yesterday with the wind and many of the upper lifts closed made the crowds at Hirifu look like we were back at Buller. Decided that after to runs we would catch the shuttle bus over to Annapuri. We were not disappointed as the crowds were pretty much non existent over there. The snow was not that good on any of the groomers or in the trees around the edges so we made straight for Gate 7. A great choice as we got 12 runs in there and each time we were able to find fresh lines, it surprises me that no one ever seems to enter there. The snow was a little crusty and we didn't quite float

Exactly as the 'Niseko Now' forcast predicted the blue bird day quickly disappeared shortly after lunch and the falling snow came back in. i was really surprised how quickly it happen, we just walked out of hanazano308 after having lunch and were all committing on how magnificent the peak looked and that we were going to easily get up to the top lifts and down to Annapuri for an afternoon session and bang the snow just came from no where and really hasn't stopped since. Currently its snowing pretty hard and close to the heaviest it has all week. The trees around the village are all pretty

The food was excellent and the prices were cheaper than most of the eats on the Niesko side of the hill. The café is a really clean and modern building and the staff were very helpful. We were told that Mowia is under new management this season and that they are giving away passes so as they can say at the end of the season that X amount of people have used the hill, i guess this will help with there business model for what ever plans they have. We were also told that the company that owns Hanazano would like to see Mowia fail so they can snap it up at a good price and include it as

Took the opportunity to head over to Mowia today for my first visit. The snow was the best we have had here this trip, thigh deep on the basic groomers it was just fantatastic. There was some much snow and so little amount of people over there that there was no need to even leave the groomers as we could keep finding untracked runs every way. I think there was about no more than 50 people there for the whole day. The wind did get up a bit and the quad lift was shut down for a couple of hours over lunch time which made for more fresh runs in the afternoon when it did re-open. The