Japan 2016 – sKiwis

January to March 2016 (Hakuba, Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nagano, Japan) —

After a long flight that took us over the Bering Sea, we arrived back in the mountains of Japan in the first week of January.

The edge of Alaska looked pretty desolate and cold

It was great to be amongst friends, and the Ten O’Clock Ski Club (TOSC) reunited immediately. Minus Smitty, who’s a lazy ass, I mean, he caught the man flu.

TOSC skinning up the long way (due to lack of snow on the usual approach ridge) to one of our favorite areas

At the top, looking happy just before my binding exploded. Thanks to V and her Leatherman, and with no help from Clare, I was able to ski down.

V taking the “Clare Exit” through the bushes by sliding down on her butt

V & Clare on a groomer day testing out V’s new skis

Clare, V, and I then spent a week taking Avalanche Canada’s AST II class, taught by Hakuba MountainLife (moutainlife.jp). There was lots of skinning, jumping, and digging. We discovered that Clare was so good at digging that we started calling her Gimli.

v jumping on block — V jumping on block test

V digging — V taking her turn on the 2m pit dig

graduation celebration with beer and potato crisps

El Niño resulted in it being a low tide year for Hakuba, which led to a number of river crossings where we normally could ski over the snow bridges.

We sacrificed Clare to the snow gods when she headed back to Australia, and ended up with a storm that produced 100 cms of new snow overnight at 1700 meters, which put that storm’s total at about 1.5 meters.

Thanks, Clare!

There were still plenty of good days to be had, so we headed out on tours with new friends and old.

V’s birthday ski crew: Sebastian, Thomas, Matthias, Nick, and Lukas

With powder on the ground, he takes to the air. #millenials (skier: Jonathan Svensson)

End of a perfect Tsugaike tour: Pizza, beer, and a dog.

V finding some powder, and an unexpected launch, on her last ski day in Japan

With more rainy days than normal, there were more field trips than normal.

detour on way back from Sea of Japan to search for good stashes of snow

road trip to Nagano to see Star Wars with the Swedish Stormtrooper

We also made a mad dash to Tokyo for 36 hours to catch up with a long-time friend who was in town for work.

skiing in the morning and Tokyo the same night

And a quick trip to Kyoto to see temples and geisha:

Even the geisha were posing for Instagram shots

Unfortunately, the low snow year caught up with me (as well as several others in the lodge who were all injured the same week in late February) when I snagged a bush at speed and tore my MCL. Fortunately, Lori was available to help me nurse my wounds in Tokyo.

The crab at Andy’s Hashimoto is outstanding. Champagne for V’s birthday (from Clare) was an awesome addition.

many grapefruit sours at Andy’s Hashimoto

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of Alyce at Hakuba Physio, the orthopedist in Tokyo declared that my knee had not healed sufficiently for our scheduled backcountry ski trip to Central Asia. But it seemed silly for V to miss it too, so we headed our separate ways at Narita — V off to a yurt in Kyrgyzstan with Clare and two others, and me to Cape Town, South Africa to continue rehabbing my knee.