A rollercoaster of weather in the last few days! 22 degrees C and sunbathing weather on Saturday, 90km/h Typhoon strength winds on Saturday night and dumping snow on Sunday! Fortunately, regular perusal of the Yahoo Japan zoom radar on through Sunday confirmed that the stiff north westerly was coating the north end of the valley with generous amounts of white gold! A Cortina stealth mission was called for and the elite squad of Morino staff and guests were deployed. 35cm of fresh lay in await. Darren prefers inhaling cold smoke to Tokyo smog. The Kids were having fun too!

Hit Cortina today after reports of 30cm of fresh started floating through the ether. Wasn’t 30, probably more like 20cm but on top of a soft buttery base so felt like 30! Had a great day ripping the trees in perfect spring weather. Here are some shots. At the end of the day a different view of familiar peaks. Happo on the right, looming over Iwatake.    

I ventured out with my camera the other day to see what captured my imagination.  The winner was this lovely pond at the base of Wadano, the dock still covered in new snow.  It  was so pristine and calm that it almost made me want to jump in… almost.

Just a few quirky moments from this week on the mountain…

Yes, there is still powder left to be had out there, and we were happy to go find it… everywhere!   Round 2 of winter has been an absolute blast.  Can’t wait til the skies unleash once again.

Winter has caught a second wind and blessed us with yet another bluebird powder day!  We did more riding than taking pictures yesterday.  It was too epic to stop!

It’s been snowing hard here in Hakuba, and the Morino crew all got on the slopes early to enjoy some fresh lines.   The 25 new centimeters came in a little heavy, but still heaps of fun to ride!  Keigo and I took a detour that had us crossing a river a few times and trudging through thigh-deep snow for ages. Well, knee-deep snow to  you non-midget types.   I suppose  you have to sweat a little for your powder every once in a while.  Whatever it takes to keep the powder gods happy! In the meantime, those dieties of frozen vapour  have us all looking skyward and returning those smiles.  The  snow is still coming down steadily, only lighter and fluffier now.  Another fresh 30 or 40 by tomorrow morning?  Fingers crossed.  I’m glad to see this season still has some goodies in store for us powder hounds.  Woo hoo!!!

March is here and the snow predictions for this week look sick!  Our home in Hakuba is as beautiful as ever with fresh snow on the ground and plenty  more  powder days to come!