AsahiDake

What a weekend yet again, up in the 'Kawa.

After lugging my boarding gear and avy gear through two subways and a mob of muppets to get to the bus stop at Sapporo station.... I missed it by 10 seconds.
I rushed up to the vending machine to buy my bus ticket (yes, everything you must buy at a vending machine, dont ask questions, this is good system yes?), and it took awhile to process, causing me to miss it by seconds. The next one isnt for 30 minutes. Well, the Bus Helper Man agreed to let me leave my gear nearby while I fetched some food.

As I get back up for the 630 bus, I realize that I have no idea where that bus ticket went after I purchased it. Its gone, vanished. I question whether or not I actually pulled it out of the machine in my haste. So I pleaded my case to deaf ears, first to the Bus Helper Guy, then to the Robotic Window Mic Lady. The Guy told me just get on the bus and look for it on there. I took his advice, but when I got to the Kawa 2hrs later, I still hadnt found it. I fair and square paid for that ticket, and was ripping NOBODY off, but the bus driver and his offloader chased me down and demanded an extra $20. I objected, bowed, bowed deeper, apologized, and believed that by being honest I would be ok. After a tense 10 minutes where I pretended to have no idea what they were saying in Japanese and pleading, they grunted and turned away.

The rest of the evening turned into a blur, booze and catching up with the rest of the BK. We entered the twilight zone though later on, around 1am when walking to the Den. A random drunk(was he?) disturbed man was yelling obscenities to us in Japanese, then mumbling, then blocking our path even. In the end a soft shove dropped him and we ignored him the rest of the walk down the center street. We could hear him yelling still.... it turns out though, that the yells were actually at our other friend who was walking 2 blocks behind us, and the disturbed man actually pulled a pocket knife out on our friend! Thankfully he was ok and escaped..

Well onto the riding. We got out to Asahidake by 9 or 10, but the ropeway was closed due to high winds. Adake is the highest mountain (and an active volcano) in all of Hokkaido. It gets some very harsh weather. We hiked up a ridge to play a little, then checked in again... by noon the ropeway opened and we were on our way. From the top, we hiked up and to the right to get to one of a few great (but dangerous) avalanche bowls. Most of us were at least equipped with the gear, and had transceivers all on and working. The ride was amazing, deep turns, soft, and lots of room to open it up a bit. We rode the lift up one more time and hiked up to the next bowl for our last run, and it didnt disappoint either.

The afternoon I had planned to rip back to the city for hockey, but instead ended up visiting my buddy with a busted femur for 5 hrs or so, then caught the train back, home by 11pm. Even the train ride was a pain, with old couples sprawled out taking up double the seats until I dropped the hammer on that plan.

Unfortunately had to cancel on my Monday plans with some friends, but I was mentally and physically tired and starting to get sick... full on weekend.

Kiroros stash

Kiroro is usually known as being 'flat', but this season it's been one of my favourites. Took the great bus deal out there (includes the bus there, full day lift ticket, onsen after, and bus ride home where you can fal asleep) a few mondays this season with JJ and Hardcore. HC provided some classic falls and turtle like stuck moments, while JJ did his best tree dodging impressions.

We did find one amazing stash of powder (am I going to reveal it here? hell no) that we repeatedly raped (its just a phrase) over and over. Amazing snow, great tree run galore. For the final run of the day JJ and I pulled a traverse over to some uncharted territory and found THE exit run of the year.

All told, amazing days out there and a great onsen to top it off every time!

Kamui Shiri Dake

FEBRUARY 4th, 2007

KAMUI SHIRI DAKE

Today was a day out with the "hard core old timers" hiking group in Asahikawa. They're a group of very active 40-60 somethings who are weekend warriors, regardless of the challenge or the weather. Some of my trips with them the past 3 years have been up Tomuraushi Dake, Asahidake, SandanYama, Tokachi Dake, Yotei Zan, and today we were slated to go up a lesser "hill", Kamui Shiri Dake.

The group was HUGE today, 17 in all I think. I was the only foreigner again, but its good practice for Japanese. Its also good practice for my second hand smoking, since most puff on 3 dollar packs of Lucky Strike at any break or slowdown. The hike up wasnt bad, only about 2 hours (less). I hiked near the back with the other snowshoers, Yokota-san and Yamaguchi-san.. It seems the 3 of us end up hiking together whether its summer or winter.

Once we reached the summit (I think it was a paltry 600m), we all set to work on a massive bench/long table for the lunch break. Its almost comical how much food they always bring, as well as sake and beers. Today though the other 'younger' guy An-chan invited me to do some avalanche tests for practice. We dug a few snow pits and it seemed not bad, as far as stability goes. Anchan, myself, and 3 others boarded down that back valley, foregoing on the lunch. There were a few decent turns there, then we had to hike back. I went ahead then stopped, thinking they could easily see my prints in the deep snow on a clear day like today. But it took awhile before Anchan showed. While we waited for the group, he hid his avalanche transceiver and then yelled "go!" so I could perform a few mock searches with my own. I was pretty lucky today and had them out in 30s or less.

Just as we were about to reap the benefits of our climb up in the nice untouched powder, the roar of 10 snowmobiles overtook us and in an instant they were next to us, as we strapped in preparing to go. Without even a nod, bow, hello, or anything, they tore off ruining our one powder line that we had HIKED up! Poor etiquette... as they had been flying around the other mountain sides all day (we could hear it, noise pollution). There was plenty of snow for them, but they decided to shred ours up without a hint of concern.

The ride down then was less than thrilling, but not bad. Our mini groups stubborn leader, the Keebler Elf, took us down too far and almost got us lost by following those same snowmobilers tracks. Thankfully we turned back when we did...and then I saw the proper trail after about 25 minutes of hiking.

Afterwards a nice long onsen, then over to the house for some beers and photo exchanges..

Throwing Peanuts at the Devil

SetsuBun

February 3rd, 2007

They call it "Setsu-bun". By "they", I mean Japanese folk. It's a tradition, like so many others, that has a few strict rituals.

The word actually means "the division of the seasons", but it generally refers to this day, the "coming of spring", although I see a LOT of snow on the ground and ice on the steets, leading me to believe its not quite spring yet.

Around this time you can see many bags of peanuts, adorned with an Oni Mask (devil / demon). This being the year of the Pig (or boar), 2007, the person who is born of the same sign is the designated Oni that day, and had to face the others while wearing the devils mask. The rest of the group then starts throwing peanuts (the kind in the shell by the way) at the Devil, ridding the evils of last year, as well as the disease-bringing evils of the coming year. This can go on for quite awhile (the peanut throwing) depending on how much was purchased... I can only imagine this back in Canada, people would be getting bruised up and losing eyes. It doesnt have to be peanuts, traditionally I think that it was beans/mame. While throwing at the Devil/Demon/Ogre/Evil Spirit, everyone chants Go Away Evil Spirit, Come in Happiness (in Japanese).

Teine

January 3rd, 2007.

TEINE Highland.

Hit up Teine with Jim, he just got back from Hong Kong late last night but was primed to hit the slopes. The conditions are still pretty choppy with not alot of new powder. Add to the fact that the locals have managed to gouge out the main bowls in the out-of-bounds area, there wasn't alot left. Either way it wasn't too icy and good to get out for 5hrs of riding.