japan!

konnichiwa!

having the last issue of the season finished, its time to hit the road again. destination: hokkaido/japan! as none of our crew (peter könig, kevin bäckström, fips strauss, alex schiller, öfi and myself) has ever been to japan, we are of course all super excited.


arriving late night in our first hotel in sapporo, the first action was of course to check out the infamous japanese 'full service' toilets with integrated 'ass shower'...

japanese toilet experience: fun for the whole family :)

alex didn't dare to sit on it for the first try. result was a wet, curious öfi who though he was watching from a safe distance. being a polite guy, alex of course did clean up the mess.

toyota hiace '10 seater'... 

next morning, it was time to pick up the rental car and i got the first impression, how much fun it is to make a phonecall. the guy from the rental didn't speak english at all, but after a few 'mushi mushi's, we somehow managed to get a pickup from the hotel to the rental car place. i had reserved a 'rearry rearry big car', a toyota hiace 10 seater. turned out, we barely were able to get all the gear in. all the guys in the back had to climb over the driver's seat to the rear.

finding to niseko, especially navigating through sapporo was also quite a mission, but we had the route on google earth and we managed to get through smooth. so after 2 days of traveling, we finally made it to niseko! 

mt. yotei

so stoked to be here! as soon as this first facebook/blog nerd session is done, we gonna go for a ride in the resort. night skiing!

stay tuned!

one week at monashee powder snowcats - a recap (part II)

peter, cruising down to the lodge on the ÄSMO...

what can i say about one week at one of the best places on earth? two-and-a-half meters of powder, 17.000 acres of rideable terrain, 29 drop off points with countless runs... a bunch of good riders and friends... excellent food... what else can you ask for?

the daily schedule was getting up at seven (it was still pitch dark at that time), breakfast at half past seven, the cat waiting for us at a quarter past 8! we had our own cat for the whole week with two guides (one driving the cat, the other one guiding us)... we were really stoked to have a guide with us at all time, as we didn't know the terrain at all and most important, these guys are experts when it comes to snow conditions. they were doing everything to keep the whole shoot perfectly safe: from digging snowpits at the dedicated spots (especially the landings of the jumps) to proposing special shots that suited our movie and photo ideas. i can't thank these guys enough, especially lead guide mark!

lead guide mark, checking the snowpack near the landing of our first jump

basically, we were riding/shooting every day from half past 8 till 4 p.m., no problem having our lunch sandwiches, salads and cookies with us. the average cat day ends by 4.30 latest, followed by a brief visit at the bar and discussing the day's events with some brewskies... dinner was at half past 7 sharp... did i mention before, that tommy, the chef is a god? :D

the crew, unloading the cat at one of the first drop-off points 

so the first day went by with scouting basically, but we already did shoot some drops and sprays. for the second day, we had already spotted a nice kicker spot... quite easy to build, as the takeoff came off a cat track, traversing the slope. but first off, we wanted to get some fresh tracks, as the weather had cleared up. perfect sunshine made everyone smile on the way up. 

what a view, when we reached the drop-off point! slightly on the edge of the treeline, endless powder all around. i had to gather the group, before everybody was peacing out towards the pow pow to get one special shot i had in mind all the days before: a panorama shot with the three riders in it. 

worked out perfectly as you can see below. come and check it out in almost life size at our ISPO booth, hall A1, booth 514!

as the weather was getting more and more cloudy again, we decided to build the jump at the dedicated spot. turned out to be one of the easiest kicker setups ever, as the cat pushed up some snow right on the cat track, so all we had to do was shaping it. the jump worked good and the landing was pretty safe, exactly as mark had predicted.

freddy, hitting 'sunrise booter'...

after the session (with some nice backlight shots), it was still time for some riding, and we checked a different zone to get some sprays and just ride a bit and get the feet warm again.

öfi, getting some! life as an editor can be really, really tough!

stay tuned for part III ;)