Hokkaido Daze 2013

A bunch of us had an amazing couple of weeks skiing some of the resorts of Hokkaido Prefecture back in Feb. For this trip, my fourth, we hired a van, piled in each morning and hit the road. We ended up skiing 5 resort areas; Hanazono/Hirafu, Chisenupuri, Rusutsu, Moiwa and Kiroro. I still love Moiwa but can’t wait to get back to Kiroro. The snow was epic, the food cheap and delicious and the Japanese continue to be some of the most endearing people I have come across. Ill let the photos do the rest of the talking.

Our beast courtesy of the Black Diamond Tours

Um where are we?

On the road

The always photogenic Mt Yotei

Snowy road

The scenery is just beautiful

Pulled over for some more Mt Yotei action

Moiwa is a small resort next to the very busy Niseko United. It only has two lifts but you pretty much just hang out on the main quad. The skiing is incredible for how small it is.

The Moiwa quad

The ski outs take you through these incredible snowy meadows

I love Moiwa!

 The Moiwa public transport... not running

Moiwa avalanche rescue dog

We spent a day at Rusutsu where last year I skied incredibly deep snow. This year is wasn't quite so good but we still scored some nice snow in the trees. The hotel was a spin out as usual, the most amazing Japanese kitsch. Its kind of hard to describe, you really have to visit it to experience it for yourself.

Looking back to the hotel and beginner area from the main ski area,

The volcano behind the hotel, skiable but had gnarly cracks this year

Kiroro was a new resort for me this year, and what a hill! We spent the morning stuffing around in some tight  trees trying to work out the resort. I was skiing the 138mm wide DPS Spoons which were incredible in the knee deep powder on offer. Myself and my buddy Bruno had a moment where we ended up on top of a sinkhole into a creek on about a 50deg icey slope while exploring the off piste around Mt Asari. I safely traversed above the hole but it was petty scary. The Spoons with their full reverse camber and sidecut made it even more interesting.

After lunch we went to a run simply called "Powder Zone". Incredibly  it was waist deep an untracked! We lapped it four times until it got to dark to see (the lifts keep running as there is extensive night skiing) without seeing another person.

Beautiful snowy pines at Kiroro

Freecy in some off piste from Mt Asari

Bruno in the Powder Zone

Freecy

Pete the bastardo

More Pete, sometimes being short has its benefits

My turn in front of the lens on the Spoons but the light was crappy

DPS Spoons loving the soft stuff

Hirafu is the main resort of the four that make up Niseko United. Most of the accommodation and restaurants are within Hirafu Village, where we were based for our trip. We had a couple of days skiing Hirafu and Hanazono to the north.

Hirafu

One of the many amazing restaurants in Hirafu Village

Chisenupuri is a tiny resort west of Niseko United. Tiny in that the whole resort is a double chair which is operated by what looks like the local farmers. There is extensive lift accessible off piste terrain which we spent the day exploring. The touring looks phenomenal  unfortunately we had neither the gear or the time to head out safely. Hopefully next trip!

Chisen BC, spoke to the fellas who laid these tracks and they were pretty stoked

More BC action from Chisen

Looking east, back towards Mt Annupuri and Mt Yotei and the BC terrain of  Niseko United

The lift to the goods with Chisen peak beyond

Bruno went a bit low, haha

No trip to Japan would be complete without getting away from the resorts and experiencing some culture. I had planned to get to Sapporo but unfortunately my train was late so had to settle for Otaru, a small coastal city to the north of Hirafu.

Icey train to Otaru

Walking mall Otaru

That cold beach, one day I would love to surf it in the snow

A thing I love about Japan is the amazing kitsch. Every product service, message or whatever is accompanied by hilarious little designs.

Vegetable girl

Don't drink beer, your tummy will be upset

Hi guys!

Donkey

Hand drawn fat steam bun

Love no smoking?

The boys at Rhythm in Hirafu helped us put up a plaque in memory of Fitzy, who tragically passed away in Japan last year.

The boys went home while I stayed on a for a few more days as my parents, sister, her boyfriend and a bunch of family friends had also come over for a ski. I spent a the last days having a great time skiing around with the family. My parents were tearing up the pow!

Dad has to stop at every restaurant to read the menu

The crew and a massive snow bank 

Mum, my siser, a massage chair and a funny man who was staying at the pension and was the unofficial master of the chair

My favourite, big ramen

Stoked on an awesome trip

Massive thanks to the boys at Rhythm Niseko for letting us take all their best skis.

If you aren't already sick of ski edits, here is a little one I put together. Conscious of the copious POV clips around I made this one pretty quick fire and tried to include some different angles and other stuff to make it interesting. Some fireworks at the start before the tune kicks in, enjoy!

Rear View Mirror: 2012

Well, a new year and probably time for a bit of reflection on 2012 before the current year really takes off. 2012 was definitely a transitional year for me with some major experiences and changes occurring in my life. A warning, this post includes a bunch of disjointed and disconnected photos.

The year began with a fateful ski trip to Japan. We had enjoyed an amazing week of powder snow, food and good times before tragedy struck. While walking home after dinner, a member of our group fell down an embankment and struck his head on a concrete culvert. Tragically, he died from his injures. The incident was my first experience of death as an adult and it definitely took some time to get over. I will be returning to Japan Feb 2013 to mark Fitzy’s passing.

Otaru mall

The Japanese are so quirky

Festival of love Otaru, everyone was laughing at me wandering  around alone

Again, the quirkiness is awesome, Hirafu fire station

After Japan we knuckled down for a bit, working, saving money and doing the occasional hike and weekend at the beach. I did buy myself my first proper mountain bike and started to explore the local fire trails and single tracks. Our region also experienced a massive flood event with rivers bursting banks and Lake Jindabyne at full capacity.

New bikes and riding with my sister Dom and Holly

Coolamine homestead

Jindabyne sunset

Island Bend spilling during the big event of Feb 2012

Snowy River raging and flooded picnic area Thredbo River

In April, Holly and I visited Holly’s brother who lives with his wife in Chang Mai, northern Thailand. Her parents also flew over from the UK. We had an incredible time eating amazing food and hanging out with Holly’s family. I also snuck away for a few hikes. We were there for Thai new year, Songkran. For about 3 days everyone goes crazy throwing water at each other, it is a lot of fun. I am working on a blog post for this trip, but for now, here are some photos.

The country would not run without these

Hiking with Holly at Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest mountain

Wat at Doi Inthanon

Mountains of northern Thailand, Burma is over the valley

They are happy bunch in Northern Thailand, and they like to sit in the back of utes

Chang Rai and the Golden Triangle

Massive Buddha on the outskirts of Chang Mai

Songkran craziness, Chang Mai

We stopped in Singapore on the way home for a few days. We ate some delicious food, did some shopping and checked out the famous zoo.

Busy Singapore and tasty dumplings

Holly loves giraffes

Biggest nose in Borneo

Evil squirrel

Projectile

It was really nice eating ice cream watching the sun set

Arriving back in Australia after our trip to Asia we were excited for the snow to start falling and to be skiing again. An early snowfall presented an opportunity to ski the Main Range in May with buddy James.

One of my favourite places in Australia, the Main Range

I managed one last coastal weekend in June and scored some really nice waves. I tried surfing with my gopro camera for the first time and made a little clip.

I scored some nice waves around Shellharbour

After this we settled into the ski season, working all week and skiing all weekend. Work was challenging as we implemented some changes to our winter operations that required constant consultation with the local stakeholders. We had plenty of visitors and scored some great days out on the slopes with friends and family.

Another day skiing at Perisher with Holly

Holly is starting to get pretty good, some sidecountry powder

My Mum the ski instructor and Dad the lifty, classic!

Lunch ski break

Kate and Dane came to visit

Dad has still got it, Thredbo

We had a memorial day at Thredbo for Fitzy and Steff

Despite the great start, the 2012 season was kind of frustrating from a backcountry perspective. Early in the season we had a work overnight search and rescue BC training night. The evening corresponded with a full moon and we skied the dry powder past midnight. I had hilarious and sort of scary overnight BC trip with by buddy Matt where we nearly got blown off the mountain by a crazy storm that hit in the middle of the night. I had a day out with Damian who was out from Japan teaching avalanche courses. This was followed by a solo day trip out to Mt Twynam where I encountered bullet proof dangerous ice and gale forced winds. The following week I had another crack and again encountered ice this time at Mt Tate.

Training night, it got down to -12, pretty cold for Australia

Good food and chatter

Full moon turns

Our campsite

A day at Guthega Creek with Rohan

Crazy overnighter with Matty



Snowy conditions touring with Damian



Main Range view, very icy day

Nice pitch below Mt Tate

Despite the lack of action, my blog post on Mt Twynam was picked up by Mountainwatch, my first piece of published work! My edit from a day out around Guthega Creek also won clip of the week.

Amongst the action of winter I passed a milestone, I turned 30. I celebrated in Sydney with friends and family and scored some amazing presents. A beautiful Neal Purchase Jr. surfboards, an Atomic coffee maker, a kindle and a trip to Tasmania! Turning 30 was completely different to expectations. I had thought I would be apprehensive but in fact it is a really exciting time. I enjoyed my 20’s, sometimes a little to much, it feels good to be moving into the next phase of my life.

My beautiful new Neal Purchase Jr. quad

We went to Tasmania in October and did an amazing hike around Cradle Mountain. We encountered everything that Tassie could throw at us. The hike made us stronger and brought us closer together. After the hike we spent an incredible week exploring Tasmania.

Tassie, its all happening

Just another day driving around Tasmania

The snow storm we experienced at Cradle Mountain

Gordon River

The incredible MONA

Southern giant petrel, Bruny Island, incredibly rare apparently

Australian fur seals off Bruny Island

Baby fur seal, so cute!

Southern tip of Bruny Island, next stop Antarctica

Arriving back in the mountains after our Tassie trip there was still plenty of snow to be skied. I had a great boys weekend camping and skiing the spring slush. My season finished with a lovely morning ski to Carruthers with Holly who battled on despite some nasty blisters.

Boys camp out at Island Bend

Now that's a fire!

Transition at the top of Little Austria

Holly and I hiked up to Caruthers in late spring

Last turns of the season

It was a bit patchy at the end

Crazy stuff going on at the Snowy River crossing

My season in the backcountry, 23 days, 10,800m climbed, 12,800m skied and 170km travelled

As we enjoyed the spring skiing we were also in midst of house hunting, mortgage comparisons, lawyers and settlement. We bought a beautiful house in Berridale, close to the mountains and work. We are currently painting and doing some other minor work and hope to be in very soon.

Our new house!

As spring turned to summer we started visiting the coast again and some great weekends surfing, fishing and even got into some prawning.

The drive to the coast is spectacular

Nerriga church

Gerroa meat raffle, we have a winner!

Prawning at Gerroa

Some nice spring waves

The sunsets are amazing

Sunset skate session

Hello from Gerroa

Again, just beautiful

Found this guys driving home, not sure what's going on with Holly's glasses

Another friend on the road

The year concluded with a bang. I convinced Holly to ride up to Mt Kosciuszko with me one Saturday morning. Near the peak, and away from the tourists, I dropped to the knee and asked her to marry me. She said yes (of course!). Me being me, I filmed the whole thing on my gopro!

She said yes!

We got up to heaps of other stuff which I mostly covered on the blog. We are currently in the midst of renovating and moving so things have been a bit quiet on the adventure front. I have managed a few weekend surf trips and heaps of local mountain biking but nothing ‘blog worthy’ at this stage.

In addition to the house I am working on a few other projects, more to come on these once they are further developed. I have also started a new blog, ‘Wander Lost’, focused more on photography, travel, surfing and random thoughts that pop into my head, check it out! I'll still be posting to this blog with trip reports and other interesting outdoorsy stuff from the oceans to the mountains.

Cheers