Another lunch. Another line. This time shorter. Only 30 min. Maybe not as tasty???
Lunch Line Again
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Tag Archives: Niseko
Niseko – Day 3
Yet another fabulous snowboarding day. It had snowed the whole night so another 35 cm or so had been added to yesterday’s snow. I was in one of the first lifts up and got out in the backcountry immediately. Whohoooo!!!
I had a few of my best rides ever. It is difficult to describe the feeling of floating on snow in the woods. The only sound you hear is the wind, the swoosh of the board on the snow, and the occasional bird that probably are telling their friends about the crazy creature disturbing their peace.
What else can you do but smile?
Niseko – Day 2
As always in Niseko the weather can change in a minute. Yesterday morning it was sunny with just a few white clouds. In the afternoon it started to snow, and it snowed the whole night.
I woke up to 30-40 cm new snow. Whohooo!!! The only drawback was that the visibility was not so good. If you haven’t experienced a whiteout then this is it…
Despite the whiteout the snowboarding was superb. I was riding my board almost exclusively in backcountry area. The powered snow was knee deep in some places, and by the end of the day I was pretty tired in my legs. And the rest of my body as well for that matter.
I was well deserved of a hot bath. Which I also took. Afterwards I had pasta for dinner before I ended the night by writing on my GLOBIS report, and watching an episode of Spartacus. Goodnight!
Niseko – Day 1
Got up almost before I got to bed, at 4:45 am. At 5 am I was downstairs trying to haul a cab. The first one that stopped and opened the door just left while I went for my bags :-O Maybe the driver was at the end of his shift and did not want a foreigner with a snowboard in his car??? No problem though, the next taxi stopped and took be promptly to Haneda airport.
By 8:05 am I arrived in Hokkaido, and by 9:15 I was on a bus on my way to Niseko. 4 and a half hours later I had checked in at Niseko Norther Resort An’npuri and was getting ready for half a day snowboarding.
The weather was great, -10 degrees, sunny with some clouds, and powder in the woods. First rides were easy going but then I climbed Mt. Niseko An’nupuri to go backcountry. Once at the top clouds had started to roll in. And the ride in the backcountry was bumpy with a lot of old tracks in deep powder that had started to freeze again. Hard work, but still fun.
After the backcountry ride from Mt. Niseko An’nupuri I was being more relaxed. I just got on the gondola and rode in the slopes down to where I could go out in the woods where the snow was still soft powder. Great fun… Though a twig smacked me in the face, resulting in blood and a somewhat swollen lip 😛
At 4:30 pm I called it an end and returned to the hotel. Had an early dinner. Took a hot bath in the outdoor onsen. And did part of my GLOBIS homework due next wednesday. Overall it was a great day, though I missed Chie 🙁
5 Days Snowboarding in Niseko
Today I returned home after 5 days of snowboarding in Niseko, or Annupuri to be more accurate. It is a great place for skiing and snowboarding, especially if you like a lot of snow, backcountry and powder.
This year they have had more than 13.5 meters of snow in Niseko. At the top they had 4 meters in the slopes. The snow is dry and it is almost always perfect conditions in the slopes. But even though the snow is good in the slopes it is the backcountry snowboarding that is amazing. Easy access directly from the slopes, and very liberate rules. Also, every day they provide detailed snow information and avalanche risk evaluation.
Most of the days I snowboarded backcountry, with my beacon on, and my probe, shovel, and first aid kit in the backpack. And made sure to stay away from the high risk areas. Even though Niseko is a popular place there is not many people in the slopes, and even less so in the backcountry. But still, at the end of a day many lines have been made 🙂
It was great. And just a crazy good feeling to be out in the snow, in the fresh air with fresh white snow everywhere. Sometimes I just stopped and sat in the snow watching, listening to some birds tweeting (the real kind and not the digital version we humans do 😉 in the trees.
