gerard 6 Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Sorry, no pics, but here's what Hakuba was like for three days at the end of Jan/beginning of Feb. The bottom line: Except for Hokkaido, it hasn't been a great year and there were lots of frustrated people in Hakuba who couldn't find the goods. I went with low expectations ready to make the most of whatever came my way. Ewok and I drove up in heavy rain, arriving in Hakuba at 1:00 AM. Everyone had long gone to sleep by the time we arrived so I quietly crawled into bed as three other dudes slept around me in the dorm room. The rain continued through the night, beating down on the skylight window above my bed. Basically a big system was tracking up the Pacific Ocean coastline and throwing rain back at the Japan Alps. The system would move off into the Pacific Ocean bringing flurries to the region as temperatures cooled but there was no big snow event on the horizon. Day 1: I got up early and met some of the old SJ crew. I didn't want to impose too much so I ended up skiing at Happo One with a German snowboarder I met over breakfast. The top half of the mountain had 5 cm of some of the wettest snow I've ever skied and the bottom half was like mid-spring on a cloudy day. It was easy enough to carve nice turns in the soft snow and the moguls were fun but everywhere off-piste was really gross - like mashed potatoes. With a big scoop of natto on top. I actually had fun though. I like spring conditions and I was determined to make the most of each day of my 3-day ski season. I was also thinking that it would be a lot worse once this mess freezes over. Indeed, things were getting pretty hard by 4:00. There were flurries in the air but it would take a foot of fresh to re-surface the icy base. After skiing we went to the onsen and then ended up going to a potluck farewell party at a posh house in Hakuba. I kind of had an 'in' through Ewok and figure it's easy to make friends at a party if you bring lots of alcohol and some good stuff to throw on the BBQ. Good fun! Day 2: There was about 5 cm of fresh dry snow on the ground in the valley and it had been pretty windy. The mountains looked beautiful but you knew there was a solid block of ice underneath the thin veil of snow. Nobody was in a hurry. I was debating taking the shuttle up to Happo or '47' with one or two other people but decided to hang out and try to tag along with the main crew once they reached a decision. People had different opinions and the snow had blown around a lot so there was faint chance that we'd be able to find a few nice stashes on leeward slopes. Plan A. I borrowed some avi gear just in case we found fresh off-piste and six of us drove up the valley to Tsugaike to find about 10cm+ of fresh in the parking lot. On the hill, conditions were OK but the snow was weird. There was very wet snow under the drier snow which gave it kind of a spongy feel and there were other places where the snow had blown right off exposing a base that was about as hard as a frozen pond. Actually, it was a lot better than I had expected but some of us felt that we could do better still. We got on the phone with another resort to find out if the top lift was open. "No it's not open. ...No, it IS open ….. It seems like it's open". Time for Plan B. By noon we were at the next place; a smallish resort that I wouldn’t have thought to visit. We had lunch, got half-day passes then Patrick and Mike went up ahead of us and came back down to meet us as we were heading out. "How was it?", I asked Patrick. "AWSOME!" I was kind of confused at this because we really hadn’t gotten that much snow. He must be joking! Patrick was a Swiss guy who works 9 months a year and skis in exotic locations for three months straight. He chases storms and cringes at the idea of skiing on-piste, so surely he has better standards than that! But he stood by his assessment, we rode up the lift and split into pairs before dropping in. Patrick was right. The south facing slope had collected over 30cm of dry snow from the north winds, leaving no sign of the icy base below. The magic of wind and location. But the best part was – even though it was Sunday - the weekend - nobody else was in there. (Actually, that's a lie. I think there were a couple of other riders doing the same rotation but we didn't see them and the forest was wide and untracked. You had to really look around to find someone else's tracks!) To be certain, I've skied deeper and drier snow but this was fine powder on a steeper slope with no competition for fresh lines. It was deep enough to be called “‘Shit-if-I-lose-my-ski-I-might-not-be-able-to-find-it’ deepâ€. I don't know if it was because the area was new to me, or because I was sleep-deprived and maybe a bit hungover, but the forest had this totally magic quality. You'd just cruise through tall trees and these perfect lines straight down the fall-line would open up. Floating on the snow. We skied powder for three hours straight, then it was time for the "3:00 Special", which is just more poaching but in a less discrete area. We were about 45 minutes late, but there was no rush. We dropped in, hitting the icy base. "CKCKCKCK!" The wind had been kinder to the south face but after two crunchy turns the snow was suddenly deep again with not a single track in view. Uncut at 4:00. We got back to the lodge around dinner time and everybody looked grim! There were the hardcore Uni students from Finland, the loan Canadian guy from Alberta who came to ski epic J-Pow, the Aussie punters who wanted some fresh to play in... It seems like everyone spent the day skiing dust-on-crust or just plain ice at 47 and Happo. People were saying there was more snow in the village (5-10 cm) than on the hills. The rain had permeated the base, then turned to ice and the wind had done really strange things with the small amount of snow that had fallen. I tried to wipe the perma-grin off my face while everyone else was still starving for snow. Day 3 It almost seemed a shame to ski the same place again because I knew it wouldn't be as good the second day but it was really the only place to ride. We got some decent lines down the back side in the morning but it was rapidly getting eaten up by other groups of Aussies. Then the ski patrol started materializing at the top of the lift and following me down the hill so I skied the piste a bit. After lunch I slipped down the backside again. It was largely tracked out and the sun had started to bake the snow. The snow was heavy and probably less stable too except for the fact that it was getting skied out. Almost time to call it a day. Fortunately the three O`Clock special was still fresh for one more run. It had been sitting in the shade all day and the threat of having your ticket clipped had kept people from skiing it. I ducked the rope. No traversing or messing about, just quick turns straight down the fall line line, crossing under the lift near the end. Nobody stopped me so I hopped back on the lift and did the same thing over again. I was in danger of over-staying my welcome at that point, plus Ewok and I had to get going, so after that I hit the onsen and then we headed home. Link to post Share on other sites
2pints-mate 0 Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Snow was generally really good at the places we went. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Ger my friend, that was as eloquent a report as anyone could hope for. Thanks. Great stuff. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Ewok must've helped with the metaphors Link to post Share on other sites
XilR8 0 Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Haha, gotta love the 3 o'clock special. Or even a 1 o'clock special if the morning's been good!! Link to post Share on other sites
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