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i dont care. if theres snow on the pitch im playing snobo.

As i once mentioned. If im willing to travel the entire length of korea to score shitty indoor snow on a run that takes less time to complete than it took me to sit down and strap in, you can bet your ass while theres snow, im on it.

 

I wasnt alone either. Looks like everyone changed their plans and came to kagura instead. It was honestly as busy as ive seen it. :) Amazingly kagura gets busier in march than in january and february when its absolutely killing it for powder. I HATE having all the park rats hit the top but whatchagonndo? Better that than them shutting the lifts down. Plus, as i said, Naeba was still decent fun again. Loads of people there too by the way. And theyve gated the top of the small gondola run. Not sure if its just to keep the numbers down (it was muju numbers out there this afternoon), or if the conditions turned this into a black run, or they just want people to slow the hell down... either way, now a massive fence and a small entrance way through it.

 

I would like to make one complaint. I have a pizza la just down the road from me. Its not great, but its passable. The pizza la at naeba is ****ing disgusting. Its reconstituted cardboard. Avoid.

 

So anyways, this weekend:

 

Day 1:

- OMG!!! QUEEEUUEE for the ropeway stretching to the carpark! Never seen that!

- Chatted with a dude on the gondola who told me that shiga sometimes even goes to june... Ill be there on the last fekkin day, you mark my words! he also drew me a cute little map of where the good riding was in tenjindaira (its a 3.5hr hike from the top toward some other mountain beginning with T i think). He also told me what goes on up beyond that gate at the top of kagura. 30 minute shank by skissnowshoes to the second ridge. Its where all the cool kids go. And its northfacing so apparently its nice.

- Got to the high speed quad and almost spat out my protein jelly. NEVER seen such a queue at kagura. 10-15 minutes later i made it to the front (loads of groups trying to skip the main queue by going as singles). Headed straight for the top... turned skiers left and headed under the ropes to realise the snow was sticky as hell. Rode it all the way to the gondola in the forlorn hope that id maybe get lucky and score some ice. No chance. Velcro all the way down.

- Rewaxed my board several times. Fine on piste, but the second i went off piste it dried it out. Had to decide whether i wanted to reapply every two runs or just give up and stay on piste. Stayed on piste the rest of the day. Kinda bored and finished around 3.45.

- During all this finally destroyed my goggles. They didnt stand a chance against the speckly rain. It wouldnt be so bad if it was proper rain, itd at least run off, but this shit is like mist glued to yoru goggles. Its too fine to go anywhere, but it doesnt half build up. Jesus i hated it. But it meant i kept rubbing it off, so i reckon thatll be the lens done for.

 

Day 2:

Thought, "HUZZAH!!! Mayhaps the cold night air hath turned the slush to choppy ice!" Went down the little side alley under the high speed lift and found out that no, no it hadnt. Had a few runs in the already wet and mushy (untracked by the way), groomers before the peasants made it to the top then once the queues started forming (about 9.30ish) headed to Naeba. Had some fun over there just playing on walls and getting trenchfoot. Enjoyed the fact the mist wasnt as bad, ran up and down the walls, and made a point to try and do it in switch, took a few spectacular tumbles thanks to digging, but had a generally fun time. Came back to kagura around 2, took a last run top to bottom, got my bus (only just) and came home.

 

Basically worked a lot on switch trying to learn to hold presses and hit rollers without being completely off balance. Also rode some walls but kept coming out regular toe side which kept confusing me. Need a bit more work i reckons. Carving is fine. I think the biggest thing was just enjoying being on the scope again. I was kinda psyched to be on it now that ive lost the berzereker and the bataleon isnt working for me. No washing, perfectly stable (though we'll see about that on ice?), super soft. Shockingly so. But still hods it together at speed and is happy buzzing up and down walls. So all in, a reasonably fun weekend. Just a bit pricey. Maybe next time it rains ill just go to karuizawa or something. :)

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Ipps, thats all well and good, but if thats the case then you shouldn't really complain about the weather being shit.....you knew it was gonna be!! :)

 

I reckon that on shitty weather days, Kags'll be busier in March as people will hope that its height will provide snow instead of rain.....in Jan and feb there are more choices of lower places where the precipitation is gonna be snow simply because its Jan and Feb and generally colder than now

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Ipps, thats all well and good, but if thats the case then you shouldn't really complain about the weather being shit.....you knew it was gonna be!! :)

 

I reckon that on shitty weather days, Kags'll be busier in March as people will hope that its height will provide snow instead of rain.....in Jan and feb there are more choices of lower places where the precipitation is gonna be snow simply because its Jan and Feb and generally colder than now

ah, not really moaning about getting a bit wet, thats the funny part. Its the unforseen consequences of the rain that caught me out. The queues as people tried to escape the rain at the other resorts... the misty property of said rain destroying my goggles... and last but not least, velcro snow. Its the third one that really caught me unawares. Barring a massive hit, I reckon the best place to go from now to the close of the season is somewhere that gets groomed to hell; you like those runs; and doesnt accumulate any snow :)

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=========================================================================================

and thats that weekend done for!

 

Onto the new!!!

 

This weekend... hmmm... depends on people im riding with. You see its the END OF TERM!!! AT LAST!! WHeeeEEEEEEE!!!!

 

But they might just want to hit up the weekend, so if they do, nagano - maybe even nozawa.

 

If they dont though, ill skip the weekend and just head out to hakuba for a week from teh 27th. About time i got a little more out of it than a weekend.

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I've exhausted my Hakuba quota for the season but may well be up for a Paradise Alley or Fukushima jaunt - preferably using one of those ultra-cheap bus/ski deals as I'm now skint! :D

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wheres that ryuoo review, mister? And the hakuba one. Im doing a naeba one, but i anticipate its gonna be short(er than all my other reviews... i cant really think of much to say about it to be honest since its always been half days and ive yet to hit it all).

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wheres that ryuoo review, mister? And the hakuba one. Im doing a naeba one, but i anticipate its gonna be short(er than all my other reviews... i cant really think of much to say about it to be honest since its always been half days and ive yet to hit it all).

 

:lol: its not April 1st yet, Ipps! ;)

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weathers looking good for tuesday thus far. Saturday looks like a blizzard with the snow peaking saturday night. On sunday it all calms down, but also tops up during the afternoon. Heres to hoping. :)

 

And done the Naeba review elsewhere, the problem with it is, it keeps talking about kagura. Its kinda like trying to explain small things by pointing to things larger than it :stir:

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To Grandeco? I think 11 times so far.

 

Sadly, though, the Restaurant of the Rangers has closed for the rest of the season.

And the boarded-up kebab stand has now had all its signage removed, so seems to be permanently out.

 

But we persevere.

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:doh:

 

Don't worry Metabo, I had a Wigan kebab yesterday and I'll post a photo tomorrow. I know it's not proper consolation.

 

But you got your moneys worth out of the lift ticket right?

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:doh:

 

Don't worry Metabo, I had a Wigan kebab yesterday and I'll post a photo tomorrow. I know it's not proper consolation.

 

That will be most appreciated, thanks.

 

But you got your moneys worth out of the lift ticket right?

 

Yes, and checking the fine print, I notice that they don't actually guarantee the availability of kebabs, so I would have to judge that they have held up their end of the bargain.

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Don't worry Metabo, I had a Wigan kebab yesterday and I'll post a photo tomorrow. I know it's not proper consolation.

 

Ah wigan! remember the days when grandstand couldnt show any decent sport so you had to watch rugby league when the 5 nations wasnt on the telly. That is the only noteworthy thing i remember about wigan... well that and the fact that the virgin train from euston to glasgow goes through it... or was that preston? Senility wont be long.

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