hakuba

Wet Dreams in the Hida Mountains: Shiradake Diagonal Couloir

Due to the complete media blow out coming from Japan this winter, I’ve been hesitant to share anything from over here. I know I’m sick of hearing about how awesome Japan is; I can’t imagine how annoying it is if you live somewhere suffering through a rough snow year. However, I thought it might be appreciated to see a different perspective on the skiing and mountains in Japan. Everybody knows about the deep mid winter powder season. It is a lot less common […]
Post Tag for BackcountryBackcountry
Lee Lyon |
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Japan Snow Continues To Go Off 13-Foot Snowpacks = The Norm

Japan is having one heck of a big winter this year. There is more snow on the ground here right now than there has been at any point in the past 8 years. Many ski resorts on the main isle of Honshu already have over 4-meter (13.1-feet) deep snowpacks. This January has been almost nothing but big storms. The second two weeks of December were exceptionally snowy as well skyrocket the Japanese snowpack to record levels. Things have filled in in a way we don’t generally see here. Pillows are bigger, lines are smoother, new options have opened up, and the bushes and low trees are nonexistent. […]
SnowBrains |
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Japan Conditions Report: Bottomless Powder at Cortina Yesterday

What a start to the season at Cortina! With 50cm today and 50 cm yesterday, it was truly bottomless, by any definition. Snow quality was quite good, and face shots were plentiful. As the lifts opened, the clouds parted and gave us a few hours of beautiful light before it started to snow again. Despite weekend crowds and limited terrain due to only Chairs 2 and 4 being open, the resort did not track out too quickly. This last storm has done […]
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Lee Lyon |
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Weekend in Avalanche News | 3/24/14

After a quiet week of Avalanche activity in the United States, the weekend crowds have found places to trigger slides. While only one person was killed in the United States other areas reported avalanche fatalities. One man is dead following an avalanche on Granite Mountain near Snoqualmie Pass, Washington on Saturday. Two men were hiking in the Granite Mountain area on Saturday when the avalanche occurred. One man was hit by the slide but able to walk out and contacted […]
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SnowBrains |
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ไธ€ๆœˆ = Photos of Japan in January

big mountain in japan ski

Some say home is best. Here, there, at the end of the day, it’s where you hang your hat…or lean your skis. Hakuba: the white horse roams from rice paddies to peaks. Undisturbed. Untamed. We chase this wild ambition in the mountains. They present themselves as one of the most rewarding places to ski in January, remorselessly collecting payment in the form of sweat on the skintrack and numb […]
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Zach Paley |
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Japan Today = Skiing Downtown, Backflips, Pillows, & Powder

Hakuba, Japan gave us cloudy skies, fog, light snow, wind, pillows, and great skiing today. Up high the visibility was low with a thick fog that wouldn’t budge. Just below the fog, the visibility wasn’t too terrible and the snow was superb. Happo-One ski resort currently has a 230cm base and we got about 10 centimeters of new snow during the day. It was just enough snow to cover our tracks from […]
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Miles Clark |
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