And It Snowed

Enough of the negative. This season had above average snowfall and the off piste was more skiable than I can remember. Gullies were filled in, cornices were bigger, more trees were covered and there was hardly any sign of the bamboo. Despite the high winds and upper mountain closures I managed to find untracked snow every day. Rarely did I get first tracks but when the storms were dumping we found our tracks disappearing every second run.

Below: A common site on many mornings were the numerous big-boys' toys used to clear the village roads for the shuttle bus and other traffic.		Below: A snow groomer at the bottom of Hanazono that just continued to disappear over the days under the continual snowfalls.
	Above: "Another Komatsu day" It snowed so much that property owners were having to get their car parks and entrances cleared almost daily. We soon called these days after their favourite weapons of choice.

If you go down to the woods today ...

Linda waist deep in the trees

Mary in over her waist in the trees

And it snowed ...

Buried hut at the bottom of Higashiyama

Excavating Northpoint pension

Rusutsu was not the same as in previous years. Instead of only having groups of Australians visit the resort (45minutes from Niseko) on day trips a couple of times a week, this year saw tour group day trips almost every day as well as a considerable number of Australians actually staying at Rusutsu. The result was that after any dump the off piste was tracked out much faster than in previous years.

Chris - boarder dude - in new black parka

It was even deep for boarders

Although many visitors to the Japanese slopes just go the once to experience the culture, food and totally different feeling to Europe or Nth America, most return again and again. Consequently there are more familiar faces each year. Hard core off-piste riders continue to put up with the ever-increasing prices and numbers of Australians to get that powder experience.

Prayers before lessons or the 'last rights' for a snowboard?