RogueTrader
02-14-2001, 06:49 PM
For any and all snowboarders.....
You have got to get your ass over here for some boarding. I have just come back from a company trip to Nisekko (2 hours from Sapporo on Hokkaido, the Northern island of Japan) and it was awesome. It was made better by the fact that the company paid for it (accomodation and airfaire).
Admittedly it was cold.....damn cold...-18c at the bottom of the runs and about -25c at the top with the wind chill, but the entire time I was there, there was always a light snow falling and the powder was about 10 - 15 centremeters thick all the time. It was totally groomed and never icey. The husband of our HR Manager had spent two winters there and assures us that from about Early Dec to Mid March, the situation is static. Up till the point we were there, they had received 3m of snow for the season with little melting. So it was a little colder than this boy from Brisbane is used to, but that's what it's all about.
The mountain is small but very high. You can ski both sides, but the southern is the best. They have a good mix of difficulties but off piste is strictly out. If they catch you, you loose your pass. That's not to say that you can't but it's better not to. The mountain is also steep. Top to bottom it would be about 2.5 kms of Blue (Blue is hardest, Red next, Greem easiest) run at an average gradient of about 60 degrees. There is is a pretty steep green run from the top to the bottom which cuts laterally across most of the mountain.
It was to this green run that I went at the start of my second day. The first I had spent getting reacquainted with the boarding I had done in France with some friends two years before. I must say that i was really nervous at first but I had been smoking some of Morroccos finest that morning after breakfast with my boss, and so I didn't really care. That was the key i think. i stopped worrying about falling over and just did it. i had a great day on the 'family' slope which had a gradient of about 17 degrees. I had mastered the edge to edge I needed to master but stopping was still a bit of an issue. Luckily there were plenty of deep snow drifts to crash into.
Day two took me to the top of the mountain. The finance of our Recruitment Manager told me about a green run that went to the bottom.....what he didn't tell me is that 'green' run is a bit of a loose term in Japan. The gradient was 26 degrees at the top, evening out to 17 degrees at the bottom. I didn't find this out until I was at the top. i did as much of it as i could, but the closer to the bottom I got, the more I fell over on my ass and the tireder I got. I ended up walking the last 500 meters of the run because I wasjust so sick of falling and having to get up again.
When I was up though, I was pretty good. There were a couple of times when I got to the stage of really getting the stopping thing down but muscle fatigue pushed me over the edge and onto my ass. If I was a little fitter It wouldn't have been a problem.
So I am definately going to gear up again. I now realise that I can do this and I have the motivation to get it down. Plus, a couple of people in the office are boarders. Nagano is only 2 hours from Tokyo on the Bullet Train, so I think I will do some day trips.
And just to drag this back to relevance to Pearl Jam, i had two lines from God's Dice running through my head the entire 4 days: "My will is crashing synapses flashing....." I know the lyrics are out of context, but it worked for me.
Get boarding people!!
M
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25 in 30 Days, Makes this room feel like home
You have got to get your ass over here for some boarding. I have just come back from a company trip to Nisekko (2 hours from Sapporo on Hokkaido, the Northern island of Japan) and it was awesome. It was made better by the fact that the company paid for it (accomodation and airfaire).
Admittedly it was cold.....damn cold...-18c at the bottom of the runs and about -25c at the top with the wind chill, but the entire time I was there, there was always a light snow falling and the powder was about 10 - 15 centremeters thick all the time. It was totally groomed and never icey. The husband of our HR Manager had spent two winters there and assures us that from about Early Dec to Mid March, the situation is static. Up till the point we were there, they had received 3m of snow for the season with little melting. So it was a little colder than this boy from Brisbane is used to, but that's what it's all about.
The mountain is small but very high. You can ski both sides, but the southern is the best. They have a good mix of difficulties but off piste is strictly out. If they catch you, you loose your pass. That's not to say that you can't but it's better not to. The mountain is also steep. Top to bottom it would be about 2.5 kms of Blue (Blue is hardest, Red next, Greem easiest) run at an average gradient of about 60 degrees. There is is a pretty steep green run from the top to the bottom which cuts laterally across most of the mountain.
It was to this green run that I went at the start of my second day. The first I had spent getting reacquainted with the boarding I had done in France with some friends two years before. I must say that i was really nervous at first but I had been smoking some of Morroccos finest that morning after breakfast with my boss, and so I didn't really care. That was the key i think. i stopped worrying about falling over and just did it. i had a great day on the 'family' slope which had a gradient of about 17 degrees. I had mastered the edge to edge I needed to master but stopping was still a bit of an issue. Luckily there were plenty of deep snow drifts to crash into.
Day two took me to the top of the mountain. The finance of our Recruitment Manager told me about a green run that went to the bottom.....what he didn't tell me is that 'green' run is a bit of a loose term in Japan. The gradient was 26 degrees at the top, evening out to 17 degrees at the bottom. I didn't find this out until I was at the top. i did as much of it as i could, but the closer to the bottom I got, the more I fell over on my ass and the tireder I got. I ended up walking the last 500 meters of the run because I wasjust so sick of falling and having to get up again.
When I was up though, I was pretty good. There were a couple of times when I got to the stage of really getting the stopping thing down but muscle fatigue pushed me over the edge and onto my ass. If I was a little fitter It wouldn't have been a problem.
So I am definately going to gear up again. I now realise that I can do this and I have the motivation to get it down. Plus, a couple of people in the office are boarders. Nagano is only 2 hours from Tokyo on the Bullet Train, so I think I will do some day trips.
And just to drag this back to relevance to Pearl Jam, i had two lines from God's Dice running through my head the entire 4 days: "My will is crashing synapses flashing....." I know the lyrics are out of context, but it worked for me.
Get boarding people!!
M
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25 in 30 Days, Makes this room feel like home