Mark's Musings

Snow in Japan? - March 2007

2007-08-04T17:40:00.003+01:00

“Surely not, don’t you mean the artificial ski slope they built”?

One of the fun things I have found since my trip to Japan is how few people know that it snows in Japan, let alone has ski fields or mountains. It is amazing to think that it has the best powder in the world and almost nobody knows.

Where to go?

Typical Hokkaido snow – this is 20 minutes accumulation.
You can see through the powder!

Choosing where to go was a nightmare and I kept Uncle Google up late many nights trying to figure it out. There are there hundreds of ski fields and resorts, many of them are nothing more than a single chair up a small hill, most don’t have a website or if they do, it’s in Japanese. On top of this it is often impossible to figure out what ski fields are geographically close together.

I eventually found the Snow Japan website and its associated forums which are devoted to trying to help with this problem. The forums I found the most useful and with the help of some of the forums denizens I decided to go to a ski area in Hokkaido called Niseko.

Nice in Niseko!

The snow in Hokkaido starts life as a frigid wind that sweeps across Siberia and then down across the Sea of Japan, where it sucks up a heap of moisture from the relatively warm water. Once it makes landfall it does what all self respecting clouds do and dumps big time. Being as the wind is still damn cold it makes for very cold and very dry snow. And Hokkaido gets most of it.

Between January and March this is the prevailing wind… Basically it snows all the time. Perfect!

Ski Beaver rips up a fresh line.
Click for more crazy pow shots!

A vid of some mellow powder in the middle of the Niseko Resort

For the die hard Steep n Deep skiers Hokkaido is not the place to be, it definitely has the deep, but not so much of the steep. Now I quite like my steep (a la Fernie) so I was a little worried that I would get bored with Niseko. I needn’t have worried. The combination of lack of people skiing off piste, the quantity of new snow and the quality of the snow you could always find fresh lines of light fluffy powder. The funny thing is, the locals regard Niseko’s powder as being wet and heavy. I found this incredibly hard to believe, this was the lightest powder I’d ever skied. However, as I found out later, it was quite true. The snow further inland would hang in the air after you passed, much like smoke.

Japanese English is soooo much fun. This sign has nothing to do with food or bad pop…

Unfortunately for me, I’d done it again, I’d picked a less than ideal season. Hokkaido only got half it’s projected snow fall, they were looking at a record six metres of snow, well down on their usual 12. This meant that there were actually some dry weeks in the Jan to March period. If anyone even thinks the GW words, they’re going to get a slap. It’s not happening, I don’t want to know. I’ve got my head firmly buried in the snow.

I should put this in perspective though. Because of the ticketing prices I was buying daily passes, so when the snow wasn’t exciting I stayed home. In spite of this I still got 50 days in, 45 of which were powder days. It’s all relative, compared with last year Japan had a bad year, but I did enough powder days to make me into a serious powder snob.

The Sapporo Snow Festival was HUGE. There was 3 kilometres of snow and Ice Sculptures. You can see more pictures here and here.

A side effect of having less snow meant that I did a lot more exploring off piste. In Niseko this is relatively safe, it’s not that steep so the risk of avalanches is usually low. Niseko Snow Patrol, like their Canadian counterparts, limit access to off piste areas when it is dangerous. Unfortunately, their decision processes aren’t as good, potentially exposing their punters to unexpected risk. This is one of the amazing contradictions that is Japan – a first world country and they almost don’t have Health and Safety or Liability Laws. Basically if something in Japan looks dangerous it probably is – it is up to you to stay safe. I liked it.

I figured I’d better get some avalanche training. I’d got quite used to Niseko so when the snow stopped for a bunch of days I decided it was time to explore the “real” mountains of Hakuba, where they had real back country. To do this I had to go back through Sapporo, so I decided to time it with the Sapporo Snow festival.

It is a massive festival, so much so that the only bed I could find was in the scungy HI/YHA in the centre of town – at least the location was good! The Snow Festival wasn’t immune from the unseasonable weather either. On the opening day many of the smaller sculptures had started to melt. The festival requires thousands of man hours to put together so it must have been heart breaking for the artists to see their creations dying before the festival even opened.

Happy in Hakuba?

Sapporo isn’t just about snow…

Everyone knows that Japan is ridiculously expensive, it’s just one of those things. The thing is, everyone is wrong. Most prices are quite reasonable. Except for travel. To get to Hakuba I had to get 1000 kilometres to the south and across water. It was hellishly complex, unless one wanted to spend top dollar and even then you couldn’t call it simple. I’m sure the transport companies hire consultants to ensure that none of their services match up with that of any other company. Anti collusion you might say. I eventually stumbled upon another of Japans better kept secrets, a couple of cheap airlines, which helped.

I eventually settled on one plane, two trains and a bus. Easy. Except I got hopelessly lost in Tokyo with 30 minutes to find my bus. More accurately I got lost in Shinjuku Station. Shinjuku Station is big, like really big. London’s “big” stations are pipsqueaks in comparison. Some kind soul had given me a map but it didn’t help a bit. Fortunately the Japanese are a kind race and an elderly gentleman of very limited English spotted my distress and offered to help. He eventually figured out the map and delivered me personally to the bus station and even stayed around to make sure the bus people got it right. In the end it all worked, albeit a little stressfully.

My luggage on the other hand couldn’t have had it easier. In one of the contradictions I love about Japan, I delivered my luggage to the equivalent of an Off Licence/Diary/Corner Shop and for a measly $16 my luggage was whisked off to Hakuba via Japans brilliant Takkyubin service. It couldn’t have been easier. So when I dragged my bedraggled self through the door of the Hakuba Powder Lodge, there was my luggage looking fresh as a daisy to greet me.

Hakuba certainly had real mountains. The main range tops out at around 3000m so it is plenty high. In the Hakuba area there are two main arms of ranges that radiate out from a central peak giving huge scope for great slopes and scary big lines. Because of this Hakuba boasts a number of easily accessed resorts. Here I discovered another of Japans idiosyncrasies – with all these fantastic slopes to choose from the Japanese had chosen – none. All the pistes were on ridge tops or on gentle slopes with most of the interesting stuff roped off. When the resorts were “designed” the overriding design criteria wasn’t what would be fun, but the management of avalanche risk – that is by avoiding the risk altogether. It made for some fairly dull pistes. This situation had a great upside though, hardly anyone skied the really awesome stuff. The back country was steep, deep and oh yeah, it slid regularly. Not for the faint hearted or the unprepared. Unprepared I certainly was, but fortunately not unaware.

The picture doesn’t do this avalanche justice.
It was big. Standing at the bottom was scary.

The season here was even worse – they hadn’t had snow in ages and all the snow was hard and fast. Much like a good New Zealand season. I wasn’t happy. I’d turned into a fully fledged powder snob. My skis were of the attitude that they would ski hardpack if they had to, but they sure didn’t have to enjoy it.

So my plan was to get myself trained up and to hit the back country. Once again things didn’t quite go to plan. The next course was a month away and the changeable weather ensured that there often was significant avalanche danger. I got myself some BC gear and managed a few trips, but the lack of snow ensured that the snow conditions were difficult to ski.

One trip was through an avalanche prone area, although anything that could slide had slid and the weather over the previous few days had promoted stability – or so the experts told me. It was damn scary. The entry into the valley was nice, but the further we got down the more avalanche debris we saw – the biggest avalanche must have been 1000m long and had snow boulders the size of cars. The Finns I was with were unfazed by all the carnage and apparent danger. I guess it was all old hat to them – I just hoped they knew what they were doing. What I didn’t know is they had done their home work and Nick the lodge expert had recommended the route and briefed them on what it would be like.

I eventually found an avalanche course that was starting soon. Even better it was back up in Hokkaido, where there was still plenty of snow.

Kurodaki is the home of the best snow I’ve ever seen.
It is one of Asahikawa’s backcountry paradises.

Awesome in Asahikawa

The avalanche course was based out of the inland city of Asahikawa. It is a fantastic place, it is city that hasn’t worked out how to attract tourists, yet boasts a number of nearby resorts and great, easily accessible, safe(ish) back country skiing. It also has the best powder in the world.

The course itself was both exciting and sobering. Exciting because it would help me get access to a whole new skiing experience. Sobering because there are very real dangers, not just from avalanches.

As part of the course I got to use touring bindings and skins – these amazing pieces of equipment completely change access to the backcountry. Without them (or snowshoes) you are often struggling through thigh deep snow and moving very slowly. With skis and skins you stay on top of the snow and can easily walk up quite steep slopes. It was a complete eye opener. I think my next season in the snow is going to involve a lot more backcountry touring.

Hiking back up the back side of Kamui

The course took in the back side of the Kamui Links Resort and also the lift less Furanodaki mountain. The snow was really great

It is a funny thing, the snow industry is coming a full circle with increasing numbers of people subscribing to the “Earn Your Turns” theory ie you need to hike somewhere to find the really nice skiing. While you don’t get that many turns in, those you get are great and you don’t have to put up with hardpack powder or queues… Our grandparents would be stunned!

The course was only two days, but seemed much longer – we all learnt so much, but now knew how little we really knew.

After the course was finished it was time to put it all into practice. The course had catered mainly to the snow mad Asahikawa expat locals so it was no trouble to go to a different place every day and carve ourselves some truly fresh lines. I was only there for another week but I did as much quality skiing as I did in my first part of the season.

Asahikawa could be the ideal place to live the snowy dream!

And that was it. What a great way to finish the season.

Where on Earth is Mark - 27 December 2006

2007-06-02T17:52:00.000+01:00

Hey all!

I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas and are looking forward to an exciting new year.

As usual it has been a while in coming but please read on for my latest exciting update of what I’ve been up to and where it happened…

Sloppies in the Rockies!

Where there is water there are boys playing in it.
This is how NOT to land a 360… :-)

Goodbye Fernie

In my first season in Canada the end of the season came far too fast and left everyone wanting more. I was dreading the end of this season, well I needn’t have worried - Fernie let me down gently…

Long before the season finished the snow stopped falling and the slopes went hard as rock. Even that was short lived. Yup, spring happened and it was sloppy city. I did make one nice discovery though; big fat powder skis make short work of the worst pug. They’re also brilliant for water skiing! The highlight was the 10m pond that formed by one of the main lifts.

After months of awesome powder it all come as a bit of a shock.

After a few more hostel parties it was time to move on. The car had sprouted an alarming amount of rust so it was time that moved on as well. I thought I’d lose an awful amount on the car with the amount of rust it had – so instead of trying to sell in the end of season buyers market it in Fernie, I visited some friends in Calgary to try my luck there.

The first few people who looked at the car weren’t interested, they said it had way too much rust and was too expensive, it wasn’t looking good. So I was amazed when a dealer turned up and paid the asking price after barely looking at it – it seems that Accord Wagons are something of a rarity, even if rusty bits are falling off them! The following day I got told off by another dealer who said I had way under priced it and he was annoyed that I hadn’t given him a chance by under pricing it! All very bizarre.

Flatmate and I enjoying the more serious side of Brighton!

The Summer

After all the visa hassles I had last summer with Her Majesties Imperial Immigration (dis)Service I decided I’d better get it sorted and get legal. The authorities did their best to dissuade me and encourage me to work under the table again. I had to jump through so many hoops that I considered turning pro. A bunch of the hoops were located in New Zealand so my “cheap” flight across the Atlantic turned into two one way flights via New Zealand… Still it was good to visit everyone again, even though I’d only been there a few months prior!

I finally arrived in London a month later than planned to take up reins of the project I’d been working on the previous year. It was a mess, they guy who had been entrusted with looking after it hadn’t and had even managed to get himself sacked. So all the traction that had been gained the previous year had been lost and my plans of further developing a system that had been working for many months were dashed. It was going to be an interesting summer…

My home life was far more interesting, I found myself a room in a massive three story flat in North London in one of the more arty areas. My flatmates were an eclectic mix and it was in a constant state of flux. While I was there I lived with a fringe theatre producer, a performance artist,

It’s hard to get a good shot of a BBQ, but you get the idea!

two video editors, a landscape architect, a web developer, an electrical engineer and a cricket journalist. The nationalities were even more diverse: Serbians, Italians, Spanish from the Bask Country, French, Greek and briefly an Englishman and an Australian! During the heat of summer it meant that there was a continuous series of BBQ’s and parties.

Unfortunately for the 9 to 5ers (mainly me) most of the other flatmates worked irregular hours and irregular days, it was not unusual for a Wednesday BBQ to finish in the wee hours – or daylight. For the first time in my life I was one of those people who were first in bed.

One of the Serbian flatmates was invaded by a contingent of relatives and friends from the Motherland and I was fortunate to spend a lot of time in their company. It was fascinating to learn about the recent history of Serbia from an entirely different perspective. Suffice to say I’m going to visit in the near future! Exit Festival here I come!

It was a wonderful summer and all too soon it came to an end. As I type this it is Boxing Day, it is cold, damp and slate grey outside. Cue my next adventure!

The Orient

Wile in Canada I had seen a number of ski and boarding DVD’s that raved about a country that was supposed to have snow that even the gods were envious of. I was aware that this country had snow but no idea that they had a snow industry. It had all the hallmarks of a well kept secret. Unfortunately it is a secret no longer. The word is out and Japan is now a ski destination, the 06-07 season is the first time that ski package holidays to Japan have been available from the UK. I figure that if the snow is so good then I’d better get there before the place gets completely overrun. So in two days I’m off to find out how good the snow really is and how to say Happy New Year in Japanese!

I hope you all had an awesome Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year!

Take care,

Mark

Ripping in the Rockies - 12 March 2006

2007-06-02T17:13:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone!

Yup I am still alive. The season has been a ripper so far, waaay better than last year. Yay! I’m currently in Fernie with about six weeks of the season left to go. I can’t believe how fast the past ten weeks has disappeared. I must have done a lot of skiing as I have managed to clock up 55 days of skiing. What have I been doing all this time? Well:

Nice in New Zealand

It was really nice to get back to New Zealand and catch up with family and friends. Unfortunately I had a bunch of chores to do which seriously ate into my time for catching up with people!

Two major chores were getting divorced and applying for a Canadian work visa. Both involved finding paperwork in my stored goods. This was no small task. It took four people, one forklift, three crates and three hours solid searching. Eventually all the required bits of paper were found and the crates could be nailed back together and put back into the stack.

Getting divorced was bizarre. I wandered into the family court office armed with the wedding certificate and the ex, filled out a form, signed on the dotted line a couple of times and that was it! 12 years gone in 60 seconds.

With the chores out of the way it was off to Nelson for a family Xmas. Unusually for December the weather was fantastic and I picked up a tan

White in Whistler


New Years Eve in Whistler This was the base for our snowman. It was so heavy that four people couldn’t move it.

With Xmas over it was time to head back to Canada. The first job was to go to Vancouver to pick up the car.

I don’t know what it is about vehicles, it seems that if I put them into containers or storage they get the sulks. So it was with a little trepidation I picked up the car. Sure enough the front right was flat! Even worse when I went to fix it the tyre wasn’t repairable. Damn. The other tyres weren’t in great shape so I decided to bite the bullet and buy a set of winter tyres. It turns out this was a very good decision. The difference on snow and ice is huge and with the amount of snow driving I have done they were worth the price.

However the surprises weren’t all bad. A friend had borrowed the car while I was away and not only was the tank full but there was a bottle of Jack hidden behind the front seat… Thanks Bec!

The Hostel I stayed in was in a beautiful setting on the shores of Alta Lake, well away from the bustle of the main Whistler area – with 160 acres of hotels it was always going to busy, and the Xmas - New Year period was peak season

The next decision was where to go for New Years. The reports said Whistler had good snow and it was a short drive so I headed on up. In contrast with last year where Whistler was barely operating, they had some of the best snow for a number of years. I hadn’t ever skied in such great powder and it was an awesome experience. It was so good that I even got a full day in on New Year’s Day!

The Road to Fernie

I was very tempted to stay in Whistler and enjoy the snow – the forecast said there was heaps of snow on the way, but I had a season’s pass waiting for me in Fernie so it didn’t make sense to pay to ski when I could ski for free.

Whistler is in a difficult spot to get out of, unless you want to go to Vancouver. So I only managed to get as far as Kamloops, which was the perfect excuse to visit Sun Peaks. I’d heard a lot about Sun Peaks last year, it seemed to be one destination that everyone visited. While it is a great resort it was disappointing after Whistler as it didn’t have piles of fresh snow. A serious addiction to powder was beginning…

While I was at Sun Peaks I did a little computer work for the hostel setting up their WiFi so they could charge for its use and cleaning their computers of viruses and spyware. The owner was so appreciative that I stayed for free and have been invited to go back any time! Another theme is born!

I was going to be going past Big White so I decided to drop in and say hi to my mates. Since I was there it would have been rude not to ski for at least a day. And what a day it was – super deep powder and a complete and utter white out. I’m sooo glad I knew my way around from last year! It was fantastic to finally see the snow that Big White is famous for. I was very tempted to stay a while – but the thought of skiing for free kept my on the road.

Fernie

View of the ski field from my bedroom…

23cm of snow fell during the day one Friday.
Freshies all day!

What a welcome Fernie put on for me! It was simply dumping down with powder. We got 1.4 metres of snow in the first week I was there! That is a stunning amount of snow…

There was a downside though.

Cannon for launching snow bombs. I want to play…

Because this field is so steep and has a massive head wall above the bowls, avalanches are a real problem. When it’s snowing there are continuous avalanches, both natural and triggered. And some of them are massive. If you wake up to the boom of the snow bombs going off you know it snowed over night…The upshot of all this avalanche activity is that large portions of the field are frequently closed when it’s snowing. To make it worse the only way to clear the snow off the head wall is by bombs dropped by helicopter.

If they can’t get one up there due to cloud, three of the five bowls don’t open…

Steep and Deep is the resort slogan and is it ever steep! With fresh snow you can launch yourself down the most vertical slope you dare and the skiing is so easy, the powder so easily controls the speed while you plummet down the slope. The feeling is something else. Looking back up some insane slope at your fresh tracks and saying, “I did those”, is a buzz! My powder addiction was growing.

Unfortunately the snow doesn’t always come when you want it. After a number of weeks of almost continuous powder days the snow stopped. Faces got long, people cried and cats hid under couches. I had to drag my skinny skis out from under the bed and evict some spiders. Hard pack snow is so wrong. It should not be allowed. It took two Swedish chicks and a Kiwi bloke to arrive in Fernie, go skiing for a day and come back raving about the great snow. We thought they were nuts, in fact we knew they were nuts. They pointed out that most fields in NZ and Europe would kill for the base and the great snow. I could dimly remember what “snow” in NZ was like and grudgingly had to admit they were right. I didn’t have to like it though. I wanted my powder back.

Ghostriders

A feature of small town Canada is the hockey rink – to be a real town you need a hockey rink and a team to go with it. Fernie is no exception and the Ghostriders are their team. What is different is the Ghostriders are at the top of the league and the fans are rabid. It makes for very exciting games. It’s safe to say I’ve become a Ghostrider fan… As I write the Ghostriders have made it through to the second round of the play offs. It’s going to be an exciting end to the season.

Golden

Living in Fernie is like living in a small town anywhere – you have to go somewhere else on a regular basis! Golden – believe it or not, this is the name of another small town. It seems like an odd name and the residents must agree as they want to change it. However their planned replacement is worse. They want to rename their town to “Hockey”. Bizarre. Especially as they aren’t hockey mad. I went to a Ghostriders away game in Golden and I, the lone Ghostriders fan, made more noise than all the Golden Extreme supporters put together. I did have plenty to cheer about – we beat them 8 – 2. Hehehe

Top of the Gondola at Kicking Horse.

There is only one easy route down from here.

However Golden does have a large claim to fame. If their local hockey team doesn’t really set hearts afire, their local mountain does. Kicking Horse Resort kicks butt! It has more steep terrain than Fernie and also attracts lots of really great powder. In my two visits there I’ve had great snow. I NEVER want to come here when the snow is bad… It would be ugly!

It’s not all super difficult terrain, they do have green (easy) runs here – they are used to connect the Black runs… Not a place to learn to ski for the faint hearted!

The downside: The bottom of the mountain is as horrible as the top is awesome. There are endless runs that are carpeted with moguls, most of them monsters. And there is no way to avoid them…

Lake Louise Revisited

One thing hadn’t changed. It was still damn cold in Banff!

A couple of guys at the hostel are competing in a Big Mountain Challenge Ski series so it was another opportunity to go on another road trip. The Big Mountain competition is where they take a bunch of insane skiers to the top of ridiculous terrain full of rocks, cliffs and incredibly steep slopes. The person who takes the most idiotic line down the slope wins! Cliff drops, 360’s and back flips are all part of it. One of the rounds was at Lake Louise so it was an ideal chance to go back and see if I still loved the place and also to see a Big Mountain event up close and personal.

Lake Louise had a heap more snow this year compared to last year and a lot of it was fresh. Unfortunately Lake Louise is very well known and close to Calgary, so it gets hammered. The front side of the resort was as hard as last year but the fresher snow in the back bowls was great. Lake Louise is still one of my favourite places – however it has a lot of serious competition!

The Big Mountain Challenge was the best skiing I’ve seen outside of a DVD. You can see a video of the competition here.

Learn to Ski!

Last year I was disappointed at my lack of skiing improvement, so this year I decided I would do something about it and signed up for two courses. One was a ten week course with a three hour lesson every Thursday. It was brilliant value at $250. It was slightly different to the usual CSIA fare as the instructor taught the Harb method of skiing. Quite a different theory but works really well.

The other course I took was the CSIA Stage I Ski Instructors course. A number of people had told me that it was a great way of improving your skiing. It works too! I have never done so many snow plows in my life! Skiing slowly and “perfectly” is extremely difficult. I hadn’t realised how much easier skiing is with a little speed.

Finally…

It’s hard to believe, but spring skiing is rearing it’s ugly head and the end of the season is not far off. My plans for working in London are starting to take shape and I’m starting my research of where to ski in South America. Las Leñas looks like a possibility.

If anyone has any recommendations let me know!

Cheers

Mark

Enjoyment in Europe - 25 December 2005

2007-05-27T21:33:00.000+01:00

It has been a while since I sent out one of these ePostcards so this one is long. I have so many cool photos that I want to include. It’s been quite an effort to cull them out!

Oh Italy

San Michael Angelo Piazza, Florence

How could I top the experience of the wedding? It’s simple really, you can’t. However there was plenty more of Italy to experience. Daniela, one of the guests at the wedding invited me to come and visit her city, Turin, the host of the next Winter Olympics.

I was tempted to head straight to Turin but couldn’t leave Tuscany without seeing Florence. Making the effort was so worth it! It is typical of other Tuscan towns in that it is gorgeous, but because it is a city it simply goes on. You could easily spend days indulging your favourite Italian passion, architecture, museums, people watching, eating, the list goes on… My highlight was the walk up to San Michael Angelo Piazza to watch the sun set.

Turin is better known as an industrial town and not a tourist destination, however its proximity to Courmayeur and Monte Bianco make it a great place for the Olympics. Daniela was great and I got to meet a lot of her friends. This was awesome as they were real Italians. Up to now the only Italians I had dealt with were in the tourist industry and had a somewhat jaded view of the average tourist. So I enjoyed hanging out with some genuine, friendly Italians.

Turin may be regarded as an industrial town, however there is still plenty to admire

A walk in the mountains behind Coumayer. Monte Bianco range is in the background. I can’t believe I’m not skiing here!

I had spent nearly a month in Italy and it was time to move in. I love this place and want to spend some serious time here sometime, so it was with some regret I boarded a train to Switzerland.

In 1997 I did a two year overland trip from the UK to NZ and in the process made a lot of new friends. For some reason many of them were Swiss! So I was looking forward to spending time catching up with many old friends.

Bern was the first destination and it was great to stop travelling for a while.

HEAVY METAL!!!!

The stage started up at about 10am and went through til about 1am. Lower piccy is the permanently attached wrist entry pass. The diehards were sporting many years worth.

However the guys in Bern had other ideas and before long we were off to Balingen in Germany for the “Bang Your Head” Heavy Metal Festival.

Yup, you read right, Heavy Metal. Me. Actually it was a great time. While I’m not vaguely a Heavy Metal fan, seeing it live is something else.

A large part of the entertainment is visual. It’s serious stuff. The stage has a vast array of techno lighting complete with giant metal hands and plenty of smoke and flames. The clothing is an art form and both performers and punters take it very seriously. Start with basic black and decorate! Tattoos, scarves, bright t-shirts, anything – as long as it has the look. Add copious amounts of alcohol and you have the recipe for an entertaining time. Surprisingly (to me) the crowd was very mellow and over the four days I didn’t see any aggression. Well not from the humans anyway. The weather, on the other hand, was a different story.

For most of the time we were in 38 degree heat which was really nice, however it did brew up an awesome summer storm one night. One of the five campsites was completely flattened. Ours fared a little better with only some tents destroyed. However we did end up with four ambulances in our campsite. I never found out why but I suspect the number of shredded trees may provide a clue.

From Bern I was off to Seegräben to check out a bit of Swiss family life then it was on to Zurich to help a mate shift house.

The Swiss are renown for their intense attitude towards cleanliness and I guess there is always an exception to every rule. Well I guess I found their cleanliness exception. The house we were to shift into was absolutely filthy! It took me a whole day just to clean the bathroom. Ick. We celebrated moving in by going out for a wee drink in Zurich. After missing the two night busses I caught the 6:30am train home. Gotta love bars being open all night!

While having fun in Switzerland I was actually looking for work and had possibilities in London, Zurich and Valencia. Finally one firmed up and I was off to London.

Yuk, work…

View from the London Eye. Surprisingly underwhelming!

While I was partying up in Switzerland the 7^th July bombings had occurred in London and unsurprisingly they had beefed up their boarder security somewhat. Unfortunately my number must have come up and I got put through the mill. I didn’t end up walking with a mince, however everything else got thoroughly searched! Spending four hours at Stansted Airport isn’t my idea of fun.

I spent a number of years in London in the 90’s and was really looking forward to being back. I guess I’d forgotten how polluted, difficult and expensive living in the UK is. I never managed to open a bank account but did succeed in getting an eye infection from cycling in the polluted air.

However it wasn’t all bad, the great things about the place were still there, the theatre, the pubs, superb restaurants, good pay rates and the ability to visit other places.

Such as Paris and Turkey…


The Eiffel Tower still rocks!	Ephesus in Turkey

Back Home!

There isn’t much else to say about London except work, work, work! Definitely a major shock to the system! Eventually that too came to an end and it was time to head back to NZ to apply for visas, sort out a divorce, do Xmas and prepare for the coming year.

What a year it is going to be too! First I am back off to Canada to do another ski season but based in Fernie this time. After the snow I am off to London for some more work and then I plan to go to South America for another season in the snow! Wohoo, I am soooo looking forward to it all.

All there is left to say is:

Merry Christmas!!!!

Yippee in Europe! - 13 June 2005

2007-05-27T21:20:00.000+01:00

Once again it’s been a while since I did one of these things! I must do them more often…

It doesn’t take too long to read, but if you’re in a hurry, look at the pictures!

I didn’t drive my car for a week… Somewhere under here is an Accord Wagon. It took an hour to dig it out!

Powder, powder every where and not a season in sight…

When I last sent an ePostcard it looked like snowing again. Well it did. And did. It snowed every 2 – 3 days until the end of the season. Mostly just top ups, with the occasional bigger fall of about 10 – 15 cms.

Not the huge amounts of snow that Canada if famous for but enough to put a serious smile on everyone’s face! Enough for some of us to hire powder skis for a few days… I went as far as getting some demo powder skis from the Prior stable (boutique board & ski makers) and headed for my fav trees. Uncompromising powder boards make a huge difference in the soft deep stuff. Just don’t try and use them on groomers…

Would you believe it? This is the day after the season closed.

There was one last huge dump on its way, not that we got to enjoy it. We got 40cms of fresh powder the day AFTER the season closed.

Oh cruel fate, what have you done!

The bitching, moaning and complaining could be heard in the Southern Hemisphere… Even worse, because the season had closed they didn’t clear the road so we had to drive down in deep snow. Exciting without chains or snow tyres!

Banff, again

What was the Okanogan’s loss was Banff’s gain. Many of British Colombia’s ski fields closed on the same day and most got the big dump. This left many skiers and boarders hankering for more. The Banff season went for another month so a heap of us headed off there. Unfortunately Lake Louise was well into spring skiing and I got to watch boarders wake board up to the lift across a 5m pond. Predictably some didn’t go fast enough :-) Sunshine, while still very cold, was hard and icy. After the awesome skiing we had just had most of us were over skiing in “unfriendly” snow. Banff itself was warming up and most days were about16 degrees, so we broke out the hiking boots and did a bunch of walks. In summer the place is a hikers paradise. There are trails everywhere.

58 days skiing in a season, not bad! Nearly the 60 I was aiming for. It wasn’t worth spending the money to achieve a number on snow I didn’t like! What a contrast from my last New Zealand season: if it was snow you skied it and enjoyed doing so.

In hindsight Banff was only an interlude before we had to move into the new real world - summer. I guess many of us simply weren’t ready for the ski season to end. While some headed off to Jasper to explore the Icefields Parkway I headed to Vancouver to get ready to leave.

I decided then that I was coming back for the next season so hanging on to the car was a good idea and backpacking many kilos of ski gear around Europe was a bad idea. Suitable homes were found for the ski gear and car and I was ready for the reason that kicked off this trip.

A trip to Tuscany for the week long wedding of a great friend.

If I was to go to Europe then I really had to look up some old friends along the way.

So London then?

An old haunt. Hands up who has been here?

After all the glorious clear cool weather of Canada I wasn’t looking forward to the cold, damp and grey reception that is London in May.

The sun was out and it was 20 degrees when I arrived! Maybe miracles still occur! Maybe this was an English summer come early…

I had quite a bit to do in London. My laptop was ailing and it made sense to get it fixed in the UK. Be warned, going on a trip with a laptop is addictive – I felt naked and out of touch without it!

Because of my decision to do another season in Canada I had started looking for work. My lack of work visa was putting people off in Canada so I decided I would work in the UK for the summer. Not the same environment as Canada but much better money.

Her Majesties Immigration Service had other ideas. My “Indefinite leave to remain in the UK” visa was anything but. It was completely definite, they cancelled it and gave me a six month visitors visa. Damn. Not good. Very bad even.

Something else to sort out during my two weeks in London. So much for a cruisey visit.

Tuscany, Italy

Finally something went right, my laptop came back before I left for Italy, even if it was only 1/3 fixed.

It had to be done…
I liked the Japanese who were trying to push the tower down!

Time to head off to Stansted to catch a £29 flight to Pisa with Ryan Air. Something made me check the baggage weight limits, sure enough 15kg checked and 10kg carry on, damn, glad I checked. Time to shed more weight and find somewhere to leave it. I now have little dumps of stuff stashed in Auckland, Oxford and Vancouver. Collecting it all up could be fun.

Stansted and I’m 4kg over for my checked luggage. They even insisted on weighing my carry on luggage. 2kg under, great. I was first in the queue, which is good, as it enables you to score a decent seat during the boarding free for all. Unfortunately the Nazi on check in decided to mess with me. She says that I can be a total of 2kg over provided I move 2kg from my checked luggage into my carry on… Please leave the queue, repack then rejoin the now one hour long queue. Nice. Not sure what it achieved except perhaps some vicious pleasure on her part.

The tower area of Pisa is beautiful and the whole of Pisa is quite small. You can walk from the airport to the centre in about 30 minutes. For a change I’m visiting a “destination” out of the main tourist season and I almost had the place to myself. The tower is quite bent, the photos really don’t do it justice. Only in Italy…

I was recommended a Pizzeria by the campground staff and apart from fantastic food their claim to fame was 1 metre pizzas! Do not attempt on your own…

Siena is my destination and I have been talked into getting a hire car by the bride and groom to be.

One wing of Villa Catignano

Driving in Italy isn’t as bad as some would have you believe, but the signage is seriously dodgy. Siena took this concept to new heights then dashed it to the ground. I arrived in Siena early so I decided to do some exploring… After pointlessly driving around for about 30 minutes I gave up when I found an open shop – fortunately one that sold maps.

Once I figured that North wasn’t “up” on the map (a small detail they left out) I headed for “Villa Catignano”. Comparing war stories I found out that only one group managed to get to the villa without getting lost. The girlie swats had cheated and printed out the detailed instructions that had been provided on the wedding web site.

Villa Catignano is a restored Italian country side residence that sleeps about 80 people about 10km out of Siena. Historically it was the residence of the Sergardi family, one of the local names. While it is still in their ownership it is now used for upmarket accommodation. It is booked up for weddings over a year in advance.

Our setup was to be a week long party at the villa with a wedding in Siena sandwiched in the middle. Suffice to say it was an awesome week, helped in no small part by the endless supply of tap beer. I’m embarrassed to say that the Irish contingent made far more use of this service than did the Kiwi crowd!

Marriage Ceremony Room – El Campo

The wedding itself was impressive. We were bussed to the edge of the walled part of Siena and walked from there to El Campo, in the centre of town. 50 odd people walking through Siena in 30 degree heat in their Sunday best made for quite a sight. The tourists, Italian and foreign, stopped, stepped aside and watched in amazement as we trooped past. Fortunately the streets are quite narrow so we weren’t walking in direct sunlight.

The wedding was held in the Civic centre in El Campo in a room set aside for weddings. Unfortunately no one had a wide angle lens with their camera so it wasn’t possible to get a picture that did this amazing room justice. You’ll have to cope with a shot of the ceiling!

I give you …. Graham and Caroline Cluley!!!

There was no music, the congregation had to “sing” the wedding march and departure song (help, I don’t know what this is called). To my surprise the congregation rose to the occasion and the music was very moving. Caroline (the bride) obviously wasn’t expecting the singing and was quite blown away. She wasn’t the only one.

The ceremony was short and in Italian. Fortunately there was an English translation, which gave me some idea of what was happening! It was still typically Italian, which just added to the occasion.

Ok, I’m having difficulty here – I’m trying to put into words something that was an amazing experience, with quite a bit of emotion thrown in. It’s cliché time – It really is impossible to put into words. Nuff said.

Leaving Villa Catignano was quite sad, it had been an intense week of partying, visiting amazing Tuscan villages, making new friends and doing the wedding thing.

This wasn’t the end of my Italian experience, there is more to come! However this ePostcard is finished, so you will have to wait until the next instalment…

Take care, have fun!

Cheers

Mark

Ski or Die - 24 March 2005

2007-05-27T20:47:00.000+01:00

Yo!

The last ePostcard was a wee while ago so this one is a bit of a summary. I’ve been a little busy skiing to manage small details like ePostcards…

Super at Silver Star

The village is very cute.
The snow sculpture competition was incredible.

So where to after Big White? It ended up being an easy choice. Silver Star is Big White’s sister resort and it had reasonable snow, even better it was fairly close. Silver Star is owned by the same Aussie that owns Big White and the resort is very similar, except in some indefinable way it is better. Perhaps they did Big White first and learnt some lessons. The resort is smaller, steeper, the village works better and is much friendlier.

I so got it right. The night I arrived it dumped 35cm of new snow. I must have the snow Midas touch. The first two resorts I visit get new snow when I arrive, what more could you want?

They don’t muck around at Silver Star. The “CAUTION” signs are everywhere…

Yep, that’s me on the left.

The day started with me turning up to the main lift 10 minutes early to catch “First Tracks”. The queue was already 10 minutes long! While in the queue I was lucky enough to hook up with a Snow Host on her day off (60 year old snowboarder) and she showed me and a bunch of her mates where the best snow was to be found. She took us straight “over the back”. When we arrived at the back runs they were still closed – there were 50 people lined up along a tape waiting. Ski Patrol gave the Ok and everyone was off. Skiers were still skating at 25 km/h in an effort to get to the new snow first! I’ve never seen anything like it. Fortunately our guide knew a few tricks and we got plenty of first tracks. There were a bunch of double black diamond runs that were closed that she knew would be Ok – we even beat the Ski Patrol down them!

Unfortunately that was the only snow and it wasn’t long before I was back to slumming it on packed powder. Enter Chris the Craigieburn man. Chris has his Stage I Ski Instructors ticket and as part of his Canadian holiday was doing some training towards his Stage II. He was looking for a guinea pig, so what was I to do ;-> Score! He was quite good and I learnt a lot.

Getting air and doing a trick is the “easy” part. Landing in the middle of a nasty mogul field is something else.

In this part of the world there are heaps of competitions and the Boogie in the Bumps was one of them. It is an insane mix of a steep slope, very short, sharp man made moguls and a couple of big kickers for good luck.

It didn’t take long before the week was up and the snow was getting decidedly firm. Where would be next?

Beautiful Banff

Once again I was on the hunt for good snow. Where to this time? The snow reports were still quite dismal and deciding from reports on the web was dodgy, what resort web site was going to tell it like it is? Talking to recent arrivals in the hostel had to be a safer bet.

With three ski fields and mostly Ok references Banff looked like being the place to go. The Banff township is in the middle of the Banff National Park and almost all the accommodation is off mountain, thanks to the Parks Board (I wonder if DOC talks to them, some of the attitudes seem very similar…). Banff is probably the best known ski town in Canada, there are a huge number of beds and heaps of different things to do. It is similar to Queenstown in many ways - when Queenstown grows up it will be just like Banff. ;-)

The nutters climbing the waterfall made it look easy.

Johnsons Canyon is one of the myriad of winter walks that can be done. It is a canyon that pretty much freezes over but the water keeps flowing behind the scenes. This leads to some amazing formations. The more amazing are the waterfalls.

Seriously cold at Sunshine

Sunshine’s claim to fame is that they have no artificial snow making. Most years they simply get stupid amounts of snow so this is not an issue. This year… well lets say some snow making would have been useful.

The nutters climbing the waterfall made it look easy.

They love moguls in Canada. They’re everywhere and some of them are the size of a small elephant.

Sunshine lived up to it’s name and it was always sunny – this didn’t help with the temperature! It was always freezing cold. Typically it was well under minus 20. Brrrrrr. Two pairs of socks, glove liners, lots of wool and covering the face as much as possible. Even then you still got cold on the lifts, especially if the wind was blowing. Then any exposed skin felt like it was being surgically removed. The cold also stopped the sun warming the snow. The result was that in high traffic areas the snow got very hard and highly polished. You could almost comb your hair in it. The trick was to head to the low traffic areas, mainly double black runs and anything you had to hike to get to. There the cold kept the snow on these runs in good condition and the skiing was quite pleasant. Unfortunately the steep runs tended to have the most rocks.

Lake Louise – Living the Life

Then there was Lake Louise. This is my favourite mountain for its varied runs over three separate ski areas. It also did the most damage to my skis! There were lurking rocks everywhere! The “Front Side” was not a happy place to ski. I want to come back here sometime when there is heaps of snow.

Yehar! You had to ski over this drop to get into this run. Excellent planning, it kept most of the punters away! Shame you can’t see the actual drop…

Like Sunshine the best snow was to be found on the low traffic areas – once again these were mainly double black diamond runs. The “Back Side” had a whole series of very steep runs with drops to get into them. Marvellous skiing, albeit standing at the top of each run was somewhat scary!

The last week I had in Banff I stayed with a friend in the staff accommodation at the Lake Louise Chateau. While the staff accommodation was quite basic it was a whole lot better than the hostel. Every morning I had to walk through the Chateau proper to get to the shuttle bus, it was nice being treated like one of the “other half”. And how the other half pay. Rooms start at CAD400 a night!

Calgary Cars

Using busses is a pain, but up to now, bearable. Banff had shown me just how much you miss out by having to rely on public transport. The Johnson Canyon walk wasn’t cheap but could have been done for free, if you could only get there. I decided it was time to find some wheels. Some of the boys wanted a break and had heard that Calgary was a fun town, so off to Calgary it was. While I bought Car Trader magazines and trudged around bookshops and the library looking for “Lemon Aid” (2^nd hand car guide) the boys sampled the pubs. Calgary really is a party town and I was more than a little envious of the fine time they were having while I was working my way through the mire that is buying a 2^nd hand car.

I ended up with a reddish brown 1992 Honda Accord Wagon with a maroon interior. Those of you with any fashion sense should avoid looking at any photos of it! It is a desirable but rare car so hopefully easy to re sell (in spite of the colour scheme).

Back at Big White

Now I was mobile it was time to hot foot it back to Big White to meet up with some friends who had hired a condo for a couple of weeks. What a condo it was too! Complete with hot tub and I had whole floor to myself! Excellent!

Spring conditions create some mad “G” tans

While there was more snow than in Banff, there was far less than when I was last here. However while the conditions were firm they weren’t nearly as polished as Banff and playing in the trees was where the good snow was.

Then the spring conditions arrived. It was almost t-shirt skiing and the snow disappeared rapidly. One major lift closed and it looked like there wasn’t much season left. Damn.

Then it snowed, not a lot but it went on every day for four days. Much rejoicing was had! Then it dumped! Heaven will be like this. The closed lift turned out to be a blessing. A bunch of us hiked from one lift across to the top of the closed lift and had access to acres of 30cm of untracked powder. Wohoo!

Today it dumped again…

Gotta go, tomorrow will be awesome! ;->

Mark

Wohoo at Big White - 8 Feb 2005

2007-05-27T20:35:00.000+01:00

Big White got the nod.

I arrived at 8:30am expecting to find icy hard packed snow. To my surprise I found that there had been an “official” 3cm of snow overnight. Up the top this translated to about 10cm.

First tracks started in fifteen minutes so I needed to hustle.

View from the top of Big White. Its nick name is Big White Out. Every day had fog on the mountain somewhere.

I had to stash vast amounts of luggage, find a ticket and get onto the slopes. 15 minutes was a big ask. I did it in 60 and resigned my self to finding all the fresh snow being carved up. I was wrong. The dump had been unexpected and there was untracked powder everywhere. Light and fluffy, this is what I had come for. What a welcome to North American skiing!

The next week was an orgy of snowy exploration and partying. Big White is huge and a week isn’t nearly enough time to explore it all. To make your exploration more challenging there are celebrations every night for nearly anything.

One of my favourite areas is “The Cliff”. Most of it is double diamond scary with a long, soft run out down to the chair. The rest, well lets just say it is “steep”. Check out the photo. Yup, I did do it. It wasn’t pretty, but I did stay upright. The hardest bit is to drop into it over the lip.

A very steep entry into “The Cliff”. Those people are up there pumping up their courage. Some turn away.

There are a surprising amount of Aussies and Kiwis. 70% of the people working and playing on the mountain are from Oz. 70% - how did that happen? Ask for a Long Black in Vancouver and you got a blank stare, at Big White, no problem. Out of the remaining 30% about 15% are Kiwis. Where are all the Canadians? The Americans? The anyone else? Maybe it is all a cunning plot.

After six days of solid skiing I had run out of food. It was time to get off the hill and buy some more. Seemed like a good time to try another mountain. Big White still had good snow, so where else would measure up?

Cheers

Mark

Vacation in Vancouver - 7 Feb 2005

2007-05-27T17:59:00.000+01:00

It looked like being a vacation instead of a ski trip.

I got into Vancouver and had a vague feeling of disquiet - it was as warm as Auckland and hosing down rain. (At least I felt at home). In my rush to get away I hadn’t been checking the ski reports in Canada. I figured I was going anyway. I’m glad I hadn’t checked, the entire Rockies was reeling under the assault from a tropical high that had popped up from the Pacific for a visit. Unfortunately it didn’t want to go home and snow up and down the Rockies was melting fast.

It doesn’t rain in Vancouver all the time. This was as good as it got and it only lasted an hour…

For Vancouver this meant endless rain and very mild temperatures. A few days after I arrived all the local ski fields closed for the season due to lack of snow. However this was wasn’t terminal, the big ski fields further east were still open and I had come to Vancouver to shop!

My list was fairly short, but not too cheap. Skis, poles, ski bag, laptop, an MP3 player and a digital camera. Surprisingly the skis were the quickest purchase. The end of season specials had started and the shop staff had very definite views on what the season winners were.

Next easiest was a laptop, the portability/price requirements eliminated most.

Buying a Digital camera was a mission. The choice was huge but the amount of useful information to help you choose was abysmal. Sure there was a heap of info on features, but virtually none on quality and usability. NZ Consumer came to the rescue and hopefully I’ve bought something useful.

An MP3 player was next on the list. I quickly decided that the iPods were out due to their difficulty to use with multiple computers. There were a few other contenders but for the amount of space I wanted they were verrrrry expensive and from what other travellers were saying, somewhat fragile. I decided to save my money. I don’t need the “in pocket” portability so music from the laptop was the way to go.

While all this intensive shopping was going on I discovered that Vancouver was a music lover’s paradise with many good acts on each night. There was even a Jazz/Blues venue that compared favourably with Ronnie Scotts! The SameSun hostel was in the middle of venue land and this led to some bizarre behaviour. Most people went to bed between 1 and 4am, those few who had jobs/interviews going earlier. Breakfast started at about 8am and stretched out to about 2pm! Before about 11am the place was like a morgue.

Finally I had sorted myself out and checked out what ski field to head off to. It was a dismal list to choose from: My original plan was to go to Whistler but its season was in trouble with closed runs and wet snow. Some of the other choices were Kicking Horse, Fernie, Silver Star, Banff, Big White and Red Mountain. All were short of snow and the reports on snow conditions varied wildly. It was time to take a stab and go for it…

Mark