Japan 2019 - Day 4

After a bright, sunny day yesterday, it ended with snow for most of the night. It snowed on us walking to dinner all the way through dinner and all the way back from dinner. That’s not a bad thing when you’re planning on skiing the next day.

Sure enough we woke to masses of fresh snow which helped ensure that everyone was up and ready for breakfast ahead of a day on the slopes. We even managed to get everyone outside before the bored boys ended up buried in snow again. Though I suspect it was a close thing.

To get to the ski area we have to travel about 100m down the road, cross over and we’re there. Then we have to ski down before catching a lift either back up to the side of the mountain we’re on or up the mountain on the other side of the valley. All this has been twice successfully navigated though it must be said that this morning with a good 20cm of snow having fallen over night there was a bit more powder about the place.

I managed to make it to the lift, up the lift off the lift and to the start of the first run without any issues. I then made it all of 10 metres of actual skiing before I managed to have my first fall of the trip. Turned sideways in the powder and simply went over. At least when it soft and fluffy it doesn’t hurt, especially at low speeds. Much better than my calf tear at Kicking Horse all those years ago.

My next fall was a little more embarrassing. I caught at end in line for the lift and down I went while everyone waited behind me. Always a good look.

My best fall of the day however was when I decided to cut down a little drop-off between some trees along a path that I’d taken the day before. Yesterday, it was all smoothed out and easy. No-one had been down it this morning and with all the powder I was expecting I wouldn’t be going as fast. If anything I was concerned I wouldn’t have enough momentum to get through to the actual run at the bottom. What I discovered though was that the top five metres wasn’t actually powder, but had a nice crust of ice on it. Instead of being slowed, I zipped down and accelerated. Until I hit the actual powder of course. That’s when I went all ends up. When you’re skis are buried in powder they can be quite heavy to lift up. What I discovered when I attempted to lift my legs was that one was much easier than the other because it had no ski attached. I unclipped the one that was and lay it safely aside where I could reach it and then started looking for the other. Well, after digging around in the snow for what seemed like forever, I was starting to get concerned. I dug, I poked with my poles, dragged the poles all without success. I looked around to see if there was help nearby only to see absolutely no-one. Taking a calming breath and not panicking at all, I started digging back up where I’d first come unstuck … and found my ski! That just left me working my way out of the powder and oh so slowly back to where I could join the family. All of this and no video or photos to show for it!

The next period of skiing was mainly focussed on Thomas and Michael doing some jumps with Michael wanting to land a 180 off one of them. Thomas was going for more air and attempting to cross his skis (excuse my ignorance, but it’s been too long since the last Olympics to remember what the trick is called). There were many stacks and thanks to Thomas’s Gopro there’s some good footage of some of them floating around. I just need to be able to get some of it.  And for the record, Michael did land a 180 and there’s video evidence to back it up. Thomas also successfully landed his jump.

My own personal quest was for speed while the snow was still friendly and hadn't been cut up too badly. Can't say I was disappointed with 91.4km/hr according to the Garmin!

With that jump landed and time marching on, attention turned to lunch. Caroline and Emily weren’t sure whether they’d be skiing after lunch and at the point in time that Emily discovered that she’d acquired built in air condition in her ski pants via the crotch area, she was pretty adamant that she wouldn’t be returning to the slopes. She and Caroline did however stop for photos with the Pikachu that had been carved near the sled course (though my camera battery died early in the day and I don't have as many photos today).

We went in search of and found the restaurant we’d intended to eat at yesterday with Michael and Sam having gone ahead while the rest of us travelled via our lodge. When we caught up with them they informed us that they were fully booked, but that we’d be allowed to squeeze in if a) we didn’t tell anyone and b) we all had the one meal that they were prepared to offer (which wasn’t the one that Michael had even picked the place out for. We opted to proceed and took our seats and were presented with menus which we assumed was so we could order drinks (otherwise it was clearly just to tease us with what we weren’t going to be allowed to order!) When we were actually asked what we’d like, we were delighted to find that we had choice of the full menu as the one item deal was if we’d been in there earlier when they were catering for a large group that was staying there. Talk about a win. That sent us scrambling back through the menu to order our lunch, which was delicious.

The afternoon’s skiing was slowly getting bumpier as the fresh snow was carved up. Michael and Thomas opted for exploring terrain well beyond my willingness to tackle – steep drops between trees into deep powder! 

Sam and I settled for the sensible route down the nice wide, groomed run instead. We all had plenty of fun.

All in all it was a great day’s skiing. Emily definitely did not crash, it did not end up on video and she is definitely happy for it to be shared with everyone! Not.

I'll leave this off today with a pic from yesterday when were all at the top of the mountain in the sunshine!

Michael’s dumpling count: 50