With the demise of the snowboard division at Island Snow, I had to resort to online ordering this season. My old blue Sessions Jamie Lynn pants are still somewhat functional, but my OD green Burton Ronin pants are torn at the vent and blown-up at the ass seams. My “Captain America” Sessions jacket is falling apart at the seams and the membrane has delaminated and is gone in most areas. Although still decent looking, my newest grey Sessions jacket is losing its Entrant membrane like dandruff from the stretch panels. All my outerwear was going bad two seasons ago, but I patched and stitched them back together and made it through last season. Not wanting to be “homeless boarder” again, I ordered a set of this year’s Volcom Omega Gore-Tex outerwear. The price was high, but having experienced the durability of Gore 3L ECWCS clothing, I figured this stuff would last the longest, and anything cheaper would be an investment in “false economy”. I managed to get sale pricing at Backcountry.com, so it didn’t hurt as much as I expected it to. Continue reading ‘New Volcom Omega Gore-Tex’
Archive for the 'Snow' Category
Page 14 of 14
Okay, to start, this isn’t an FTP thread…
Got back in to Sapporo last evening – just barely.
Friday was clear in Sapporo, but cold. We caught the highway bus to Niseko Annupuri Resort (2180 yen PP) via Otaru (not the Nakayama-touge route). The weather in Niseko was overcast with the portent of snowfall. After checking in to the Northern Resort Annupuri and attempting to find somewhere for lunch, we walked down to the ski center for lunch at the cafeteria. I had a Hamburger with pilaf for 1100 yen. The meat slab was good and big (A-), but the “pilaf” (C-) was just rice with a hint of butter and frozen mixed vegetables mixed in (peas, carrots, corn). Back at the hotel, we were picked up by Minami-san of Niseko Adventure Center for a snowshoe tour. He drove us over to the gondola in a Toyota Hiace and out came the poles and Atlas snowshoes. The poles were mystery ski poles, so were of a fixed length which I thought were too long, even if the session was to be all downhill. We caught the gondola up to the top station, where it was snowing nicely. Continue reading ‘White Hell’
Caught the bus out to Sapporo Kokusai yesterday. It was clear and sunny as was the day before. I still managed to find some untracked riding in the center bowl and in the secret trees, but it was settled, old powder – fun, but not wonderful. The sunny-side faces were windpacked and had a melt-crust, but the sheltered sides were fine. I took a break and had a “pizza-nan” and coffee set (750 yen) at the little snack shop at the top of the gondola (they used to be down midway by the slow old pair lifts, but moved to a more accessible location). I had a little incident with the paper tube of sugar for my coffee. While shaking it gently from the end to clear some air space to tear it, the paper disintegrated – sending granulated sugar everywhere. Darned those foreigners! Don’t they know how to open a paper tube of sugar? Lucily nobody saw me do this, and I managed to clean it all up. Food was more snack-sized. Probably a bit pricy for what I got. (B) The clear sky had turned a little hazy by the time I got done with lunch. A hint of snow began to fall. On the bus ride home, the haze in the sky was becoming more pronounced – snow was on the way. Dinner was sausage, kraut, some kind of gratin thing, and sauerbraten at a German restaurant. Had a good hefe-weisen too… can’t recall the name right now… Georg Someone & Sohn… All the food was really good (A, except the sauerbraten which was an A-). Around 7000 yen for everything including beer, dessert and coffee. Continue reading ‘Feast or Famine’
Got back in from Vancouver on Sunday night. Washed all my gear last night after work. I managed to get one set of outerwear last the 7 riding days. It was almost always below freezing except for a few times at the bottom of 7th Heaven, so the clothes didn’t get too funky.
My legs are fine – no muscle pain or burn. My rear-leg knee is a little sore though. It got a bit bad on about day 5, but tapered after that. I have a couple of bruised or cracked ribs on my back. They hurt when I cough of sneeze.
Just a couple of weeks until I’m off to hit the snow in Japan!
Last Day of Vancouver Trip. Root left ultra early at 0315 to make his 0839 flight, now Risu and I are at YVR waiting for the flight.
At the now relocated Voyages Bar.
Boarding conditions were okay, though we only caught one day of new fall, but the remaining days were jibtastic! Right up until I broke myself!
All packed up and ready to go to Vancouver tonight. I hope I didn’t forget anything. I noticed last night that I only had 3 gels, so I ran into McBike while stopping to pick up lunch at Yamagen and got several more. the Whistler weather report calls for some flurries tonight through tomorrow, but they predict sunny skies with an arctic outflow at the beginning of next week bringing F-ing cold temperatures. Fabio will recall the Thanksgiving trip last year when it got down to -25C in the village. Woo hoo! Party! Looks like the groomer board unless for some reason Ullr blesses us with a crazy dump later in the week.
Man, all my Snowboarding outerwear is trashed – especially my jackets. My newest jacket is suffering from dandruff – the semi-permeable laminate on certain colored panels is flaking off. Still looks nice and new on the outside, but when I take it off I’ll be covered in white flakes. I ran it through the dryer inside-out on “air only” a few times to try and shake as much out through the inner mesh liner, so hopefully it won’t be too bad. My “Captain America” jacket has a hole at a seam where the stitching has gone away and the taping and laminate is failing. I stitched up the hole and put some Gore repair tape on the inside, so it should last until the end of this season. Continue reading ‘Semi-Homeless Boarding’
Well, it’s almost three weeks since our Thanksgiving early season snowboard trip to Whistler so I guess i’ll start writing some stuff.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Started with a mad dash to get home from work, grab a bite to eat, jump in shower, grab gear, and drive with my mom to the airport. We’re on the earlier flight out, so don’t have luxury of taking as much time. Traffic is light and I arrive with plenty of time. The much warned about crowds at the airport were non-existant. The rest of the crew soon shows up and we are processed with utmost efficiency by the Chinese Air Canada agent. No idle chit chat, but damn she gets the job done fast and right!
We’ve got time to kill so we browse the usual newstands. I pick up a normal auto magazine, none of the import ones caught my eye this time, and Dave of course bought a gun magazine. Sorry, no Soldier of Fortune. And I grab a bottled water. How much for a pack of double A batteries? I still think the ban on liquids carried through security is a conspiracy with the concession vendors. We cruise over to the Duty Frees in search of a Tiki for Derek. After he finds one he’s happy with, we head to our gate.
Plane is being loaded, there’s a good number of people in the holding area. The same agent who processed our check in is now here and takes charge of the gate, and take charge she does. She announces the seats for boarding and she makes sure its done right. Your seat number not called yet? you aren’t going in, dufus! We don’t mind waiting. Better to cruise out here in the spacious lounge than stand in the narrow aisles waiting for the people up front to get out of the way.
We’re on the plane soon enough and seated. The seats aren’t luxury by any stretch, but at least I can’t feel the metal bars under my arse. Check out the movies. Ugh, they’re quite weak. Just as well, will attempt to sleep. Departure is uneventful. Beverage service starts. Damn, only Molson Canadian? Still good stuff, but was hoping for other selections too. Hitting some bumps, but got my beer, and food is coming soon. 
Dave raves about the beef, so we go for the beef instead of the lasgna selection. Smells pretty good. Beef stew with mash potatoes, steamed veggies, salad, dinner roll and guava cake. It is all actually quite good. I have to admit that this is probably one of the best airplane meals I’ve had. The salad greens were fresh and a nice assortment, not dessicated cut up squares of iceberg. Roll soft, the stew quite tasty, the carrots and string beans accompanying were not overcooked mush. And the guava cake was yummy.
The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. Managed to get some fitful sleep, but the seats were super uncomfortable for sleeping. I swear I was waking up every half hour shifting positions in a vain attempt at some comfort, but I must have dozed off some because the flight went by pretty fast. Being the early redeye flight, it was sometime after 0500 Vancouver time as we started our approach.
Just got back home. Yikes! The culture shock not so bad since buying the Angus combo meal with poutine upgrade at YVR airport Burger King (BTW, the most expensive lunch of our trip!) got me prepared for slow service shock, but this humidty and heat! Guaranteed if i had bought some Tim Horton’s doughnuts to bring back, they would have turned into a gooey mess by the time I reached the end of the jetway.
Anyway, it was a very good trip. Good way to start the season, with a trip just long enough to get the legs going, but not enough to burn them totally out. We were pretty hardcore flying the redeye on Wednesday, catching Whistler Taxi on arrival early Thursday morning, checking into hotel, and hitting the slopes right then. Come back for more details here later. In addition to Dave’s hints, watch for Fabio and Root, the “powder” poaching pirates, and dammit, why’s it start totally snowing when we’re leaving?! It’s sure to be a 10cm or more flu day tomorrow in Whistler! I’m sure 1cm accumulated during the time we waited for the Perimeter Express van.
I got back from Whistler last night from a long weekend of snowboarding. Root, Fabio, and myself flew up on Wednesday night and hit the slopes on Thursday morning. I rode on Friday and Saturday and flew back on Sunday in order to make it in to work this morning. Root and Fabio come back tonight.
Conditions were fairly good for opening week, with a little under a meter (39-inches) of accumulated snow. There were a few secret stashes here and there, but the marked runs were scraped down to the icy substrate by Saturday afternoon, especially toward the bottoms, or on the green runs back to the lifts. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Dining was good as usual, but the fall of the USD versus the CAD made things hurt a little all around. I got $0.93 CAD per $1 USD when I converted.
Expect more in future posts, like:
Los Luchadores!
“Viva La Mexico!” …(bam-bam-bam) “Security!”
Last Tracks
Jibtastic