Lemons

When life hands you shochu, make chu-hi.

Heavy wind and rain for a few days forced us to explore some new alpine climbing routes to find the goods. They were't for the faint of heart.

Matthias free solos the waterfall

Lee in the wind

When the weather finally settled, things got interesting as we found good, but confusing conditions. Sunny aspects had powder. Shady aspects, ice. About 5cm of surface hoar was on the normally wind hammered ridgelines. Blue ice was down low. Hakuba can be a weird place.

The Disco Fux finds good snow

Corn harvesting

Sometimes the mornings have been early with the sun. Sometimes we have been atrociously lazy, not skiing until 10. Fueled by sushi and chu-hi, things are getting tough, but we continue to do our best.

Lee and Matthias hiking towards alpenglow

Lee soaking in the onsen after another shitty day in paradise

The weather has repeated early February, and gotten crappy for early March. I'm now amongst my last few days here. The thought of leaving Japan soon is scary.

Powdermania working hard

Erik Arvidsson crashing hard