Hellz yeah!!

So we woke to darkness again. With us getting to bed fairly earlyish most nights, my body seems to want to wake up at 5.30, well before my usual alarm time. At least it gives me time to blog and stuff.

Fernando, the Brazilian help was up already, and the local weather forecast was for snow all day long. And it wasn't wrong. When the sun got  up, it showed that it had snowed well overnight, and it didn't stop. While it made visibility poor and temperature cold, it made conditions awesome.

The plan was to meet Tim and Kerry at the Ichinose Diamond lift to go exploring the areas they had found yesterday. After the short day we had yesterday, I was keen to get going as my ankle was feeling better. Dean and I did a few laps of Diamond while we were waiting to get warmed up, then when the guys arrived, we headed over the back to Yakebitai. Some runs through some flat sections, and we made it to the first gondola. We got it up to the top, and headed down a section before Tim and Kerry duck off into the bushes. We followed before they realised they had entered in a lot earlier than they had the day before. With all the fresh snow, it was hard going, as if you slowed or stopped, you fell over and with a stack of snow on your board and bindings, it made it hard to get up. We went a fair way before the guys darted off and I couldn't follow, due to lack of speed or space. I started to head down a gully before I finally caught sight of the guys on the ridge about 30 metres above me. What ensued was about a 20 minute hike up the hill with about 70 degree angle. My lungs were burning, goggles were covered in powder and so foggy I couldn't see out of them, and my energy was all burned up, so my muscles ached. There was only one thing for that. When we got down the bottom we stopped, and grabbed a beer.

After our duck into the woods, the black run we alighted on had some of terrain park on it, and Kerry and Tim were keen to go on again. With me being out of energy, it would have been foolish to try anything, but after a beer and some chocolate, Dean and I caught the gondola to the top of the mountain, while Kerry and Tim caught the short hooded quad to the top of the terrain area. At the top of the 2km gondola, Dean and I headed down, and there was some ungroomed section. Usually I'd be all over it, but with my goggles still a little foggy, and the snow starting to mogul, it was hard going, but it was teaching me to be looser in the legs, so I just rolled with the bumps. We made it down to the terrain section, and Kerry and Tim said they had already gone through once, and caught the lift up again.

This time, I gave it a go. There was a smaller box at the start, which I got some air over. Not massive, but when you are still hurting a little from collisions and muscles are a little tired from hiking, going big probably isn't the best idea anyway. After that, there was a second box with a steeper kicker, and I only had enough speed to make it up, while Tim behind me, after bailing on the first jump had to commando it up the box. Next up there was some box rails which I tried without stacking before the last one was a jump with a gap behind it. I probably didn't have enough speed but I still landed it, before going to the bottom of the lift to give it another shot.

Turns out Tim had over/under rotated on the first jump and landed flat, which hurt his knee. So after another run through the park, we got on the gondola, and started to head back towards Ichinose Diamond.

It was still puking with snow, but with it being close to 1pm and Dean and I not having a proper meal, we were starting to get low on reserves. Tim was also needing to change his goggles and pants, so while they did that, Dean and I headed to the soba place under the right quad lift at Ichinose family. It may sound strange, but in the 4 times we've been to Japan, I've never tried soba. I always thought it would be something I wouldn't like, but I was determined to give it a go. Turns out it's actually rather nice. I got some with an egg cracked into it and just some soy based stock, vegetables and mushrooms, but it was quite tasty. I wouldn't say it was my favourite or anything, but it's not foul and I'd eat it again.

Dean and I sat there for nearly half an hour, before we got tired of waiting. We didn't know whether Tim and Kerry had piked it for the afternoon, but as it was now nearly 2.30pm, we decided to use what time we had left. We caught the lower quad lift up to the top of Ichinose, before skating around the back to Terakoya. With all the snow and the lower visibility, it seemed like a totally different run, but it was harder going, as the powder slowed you down, meaning areas where my girth usually helps me to carry speed without stopping, I slowed down and had to skate or unstrap and walk. Dean also found it harder to keep speed, so he took a little longer to reach the Terakoya quad.

We had planned to do a few runs on Terakoya, as the extra powder would have made it fun, but the wind had started to pick up and with Terakoya exposed to the wind in this instance, we didn't want to risk them shutting the lift down early, so we headed for the Higashi run. It was again really different. On the way down Terakoya, there was a huge gust of wind which whipped up the powder in a flurry and made visibility drop to about a foot in front of you. I was able to keep plowing, but the wind almost stopped Dean dead, which meant he had to try hard to keep his speed for the next bit.

I had never seem Shiga so snowy. The flat run section that links Terakoya to the Higashidate green run was totally different. Although it was groomed that morning, the wind had blown powder over the run, so now there was something akin to a sand dune on the right hand side, (where it drops off) and only a little sliver of flat section. This meant that an area where I would usually cruise through, I was unstrapping and skating. I let Dean get ahead of me, as if it was like this, then he would also need to unstrap at the next section at the top of the green run. I soon caught up and even though I slowed down, nearly to a stop, I was able to hop to where the run starts to drop/slope down and soon, Dean and I were off. Generally, this section is no bother, but with conditions changing on quite a few of the runs, we decided to play it safe and not cut through the trees as much as we normally would. We were still slashing and sending rooster tails up as we flicked on the edges of the runs, but with the run nearly bare (especially compared to the day before), we could take it as fast as we wanted. There were a couple of noob snowboarders that decided to stop right on the corner of a hairpin, which meant Dean and I had to wash off a lot of speed and go around them, but at least they weren't criss-crossing and causing accidents.

We made it down to the bottom of the Higashidate gondola, but the wind seemed to be picking up on this side of the mountain, meaning that the gondola would pause for a few seconds with particularly heavy gusts. With it getting colder and closer to 4pm, we decided to head back towards Ichinose Family.

This was our 4th time in Shiga Kogen, and there was a couple of lift lines either side that were begging to be done. For the past 2 times, I'd been saying to Dean "We have to bomb those lines on the last day", but it hadn't happened. So after heading down the straight down black bit at the top of Ichinose (which was very pillowy, despite being mogulled), we ducked into the trees and found the lift line. It was pretty awesome. On the south/right/Khuls side of Ichinose, it was around knee height in sections. Every flick of the tail caused you to get a face full of powder, but it made it brilliant. We got to the bottom of the main section we wanted to bomb, then we decided to head across to the north side to do Conrad's training run. With the area open for the taking, any little shortcut was taken. We cud the first corner and bounded through the powder. We were slashing the banks at the sides of the run send rooster tails of powder into the air, and generally having a ball. We got the bottom of the green run, where there is a section through the trees that I like to play in. Dean followed me through some of them, but on the second to last one, he missed the needed turn and lost speed. This meant he had to hop a lot to get out/moving again, and he was quickly running out of energy. We sat at the side of the run while he caught his breath, but he only had another run in him. I still had energy for a few more, but Dean and I don't snowboard alone. Especially with conditions the way they were, it wouldn't have been safe. So to finish the day, we decided to catch the lift back up, and bomb the north side lift line. This was the one I especially wanted to do, so after a quick jaunt down the curving black run (which had tons of powder on it), we ducked the rope and headed down.

This one was even better! In sections the powder was thigh high, and although I bailed once at the top, I kept going and got face-fulls of powder with every turn of the board. Dean bailed once, on a steep section and I went passed him, but as we got to the bottom of the line, near where the red run pokes out, I didn't see the drop and took a big bail. I sent so much snow up that I couldn't tell which way was up, but when I got my bearings, I had landed in the only flat section. Dean was coming down, so I warned him to keep to the other side which he did and went around me. I had to commando crawl up (I seemed to be doing a lot of that this day) and started moving with my board on Dean's line.

We met up on the main slope, but with that last bail sucking every last bit of energy out of me, we knew we were done for the afternoon. The first time we've been at Shiga, and not stayed out til last lift on our last day... But what a day.

We flowed past Khuls down the street towards the hotel, but with the cars, we had to unstrap and walk the rest of the way. Stopping out side, we brushed off our boards as best we could before heading in. With our gloves and balaclava's frozen, we sat around outside the lockers letting them thaw near the heaters and enjoyed a well deserved beer. My hood was full of snow from the last bail, so after I had taken my helmet off, Dean grabbed a handful and rubbed it on my head... BRAIN FREEZE. We sat around for a while more, when Paul came down. As this was our last day in Shiga Kogen, we needed to pack the boards up for the bus/train trip to Yuzawa the next day. Dean quickly darted upstairs to let Mum know we were still alive, while I started taking my bindings off my board and put on my apres boots that I had stashed in the locker. By now, every muscled had cooled down and started to ache, so naked men or not, I was going in the onsen.

Dean had arrived ahead of me and was rinsing off as I was lathering up. There was another guy in there, but he was rinsing off as well, so I basically had it to myself. After sitting for about 10 mins, stretching my legs and arms, I hopped out and had a shave as well. I hadn't shaven since last Tuesday, so I was well hairy, but tonight we were heading back to the Nepalese curry house (at Paul's suggestion!), which meant I could place the Nepalese bT I had brought along.

After heading out, we were greeted friendly again, and sat down at the same place as last time, then order our meal. I just had a single curry and naan, which was plenty, seeing it had only been about 3.5hours since my big bowl of soba. The others ordered 2 person feasts and a chicken curry gratin, and after being packed to the gills, we headed back.

It was only 7.30, but with the exhausting day Dean and I had, we couldn't even be bothered packing. So we had some ice cream and fell asleep. At 7.30.... that's crazy.