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Chriselle kindly invited me along for a small road trip up north to Hakuba. He picked me up at Otsuki station and we, well he, drove up, facing some strong winds and as we drove into Hakuba, some horrendous snow storms, that can only be described as massive. He got us safely to the hotel, at around 10:30pm and after a quick beer, collapsed into out beds. The snow was coming down thick and fast all night, as you can see in this picture:

 

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And it didn't stop at all. Thankfully, on waking up, the view was spectacular and was well worth the drive up.

 

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The only problem was with the winds. Having never really been to Happo-one before, well only around the far left area, Nakaiyama, the new areas of Sakka and Kokusai were unknown quantities to me.

 

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Chriselle pointed out that Skyline was THE place to be; however, while the snow gods were with us over night, and had left us some nice presents, the wind gods clearly though we had not had enough and were continuing to blow all over the place, meaning we were resigned to the bottom areas, which were still fun nonetheless.

 

There was plenty of powder to be had, and plenty of tumbling occurred on my part, as switching from powder to corduroy runs proved to be a bit too much in my excitable state.

 

Looking up, we could see that the clouds were not moving from Skyline, and were starting to feel a little disappointed that we might not get up there.

 

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All that fresh powder and a long way to get up there. Some people were hiking up to the top to get some action, but Chriselle and I were having none of it. We tried, but we clearly were not cut out for it. Plus with the wind blowing, a huge swathe of the area was crusty due to the aforementioned wind, and was crusted over. Not much fun.

 

In the afternoon, we finally managed to make our way up to the top of Skyline and boy, was that some fun! Still lots of powder to be had, and all we did was ride and ride and ride. Some nice tree runs too to be had, although some close encounters though at the same time. The Beast did well, although with the amount of snow there was, I would have preferred to have had my powder. But alas, I made do with what I had, and fun was had.

 

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The first day proved to be the only day where we could get photos, as the Sunday. Well, the Sunday was a general wash out due to snowstorms/wind and stupid turning competitions meant most of Happo-one and the Hakuba area in general was closed down. We made our way back, with tails not quite between our legs, home. Stopping off, I managed to get a show of Suwako, a picturesque lake that was partially frozen over.

 

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A great view to end the trip.

 

A brief report as I still don't have a decent camera. These were taken off of my smartphone. Here's hoping that Father Christmas brings me a nice one this year, but still time to go there.

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Ta for the report MIJ

 

Lapping Skyline would have been awesome with all that snow. Too bad about the wind but sure you would have

had a few places when you dropped down lower and in the trees where it would have been fantastic.

Is it a hooded chair on Skyline? I can't remember!

Did you have a beer or some cheese?

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Na, it wasn't hooded so we were exposed to the elements. Chriselle and I certainly had some red faces at the end of the day.

 

Think I posted a cheese shot but still going through the pictures on my phone. Boy In Japan managed to take some obscure ones recently....

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Na, it wasn't hooded so we were exposed to the elements. Chriselle and I certainly had some red faces at the end of the day.

 

Think I posted a cheese shot but still going through the pictures on my phone. Boy In Japan managed to take some obscure ones recently....

 

Is that a disclaimer............your honour? :shifty:

 

;)

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Nice report. It can get very windy on Skyline, earlier this season I was stuck on the lift for about 20 mins in howling wind.

Surprising thing is, that only from this season have the put on safety bar on it.

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