Sapporo – Niseko
Got into Sapporo late last night to meet up with Sean Pettit and Guillame, and get a hotel room. Before going to bed we decided to check out the annual Snow festival that goes down in town, with a bunch of ice and snow sculptures:
Mattias ready to get the shot
car of the year. sure.
this girl played all alone all night, in front of hundreds of people. too bad she could barely hold a note.
this snow sculpture is about 50 ft (17 m) tall. impressive shit.
Sapporo time square
After waking up this morning we all got in the car and headed over to Teine, a ski resort about 45 minutes from the city, to warm up for the following weeks. It had snowed all night, but unfortunately the wind had turned most big faces into crud so we could not really get much done. Felt good to get the pow skis back under my feet though:
Teine
Sean Pettit getting ready to shred
good thing they put that sign there.
view over Sapporo from the top.
one of the zones we never skied because of the snow being wind blown.
typical japanese middle-aged lady.
sean was not scared to deliver, as usual.
me after a close encounter with a tree branch, good times.
After skiing we headed back in the vans and drove up to Niseko, where we will be based for the coming days. I’ve never seen this much snow in my life and I can’t wait to put some sweet tracks in it!
I know this picture doesnt say much about the snow depth, since sean is like two apples tall. but it’s still a lot of snow.
Black Diamond Lodge, Niseko
In other news, the heel feels OK and I feel confident on the skis, so it should be a good two weeks. Probably going to be pretty hectic here so the blog posts might be sporadic, but keep checking back for more straight from Nippon!
Jacob
Looks insane – ice car, ice mickey mouse, japanese middle aged lady!!! Absolutely mad! Mr. Wester, If you have a moment I would like to ask you for your advice. I have just been given my first ‘career’ job starting 1 March! Consequently I have 3 weeks to go bananas before lock down!! Where in the world would you recommend going as a European skier? BD lodge, Breckenridge, Whistler, Gulmarg?!! Would really appreciate your thoughts!!
Haha gotta love that japanese lady!
Niseko is insane!!!!!!!! You have too go nightskiing, its absolutely the best feeling, skiing at night as the snow pours down under the stadium lights, better than sex!!
In some ways Japan seems a little bipolar. Parts of it are very Zen like and other parts are about as hectic as can be, but I guess that is Japan, and part of what makes it’s culture so interesting. Have a great time.
haha some friends from engadin (david, daniel and roman) are in the damn same lodge right now
greet them …