Snow, Snow and More Snow!
One of the most common comments I have heard both the boys and staff say today is “it just never stops snowing”. It’s a fair question too because since getting off the plane in Sapporo it has snowed every minute that we have been here … but no one is complaining!
Check out the video first to get a bit of a feel for what’s been going on here in Japan!
In yesterday’s write up I mentioned that the boys had been given guidelines for low visibility skiing. Well, today they needed this as the weather certainly closed in many times during the day. To put it bluntly, it was cold (steady -6 degrees), it was windy (blowing a gale and creating a wind-chill factor of -15 degrees) and it was awesome!
As we headed up the lifts early in the day the sun was doing its best to peek through the clouds and even some blue sky was spotted. It was short lived however and several times throughout the day we were hit with high blizzardy winds and very low visibility. The blue sky you see in the video was the first and last for the day!
Despite these tough conditions the boys stayed out on the mountain for the full day and over half of them headed back onto the slopes for night skiing as well. Seeing this was a true indication that the boys here are just loving the experience and making the most of every minute!
Powder was mentioned briefly yesterday … that was nothing compared to what we had today. In most ski resorts you dream of that first morning run with fresh powder … not here … because by the time you get back up to the top after skiing a run there is already a new layer of fresh snow! It is hard to explain until you are in it but it was just amazing!
This evening the boys headed out for their choice of dinner. The area surrounding our lodge as plenty of options available and the boys made the most of the diversity of these. Some headed into traditional Japanese establishments while others had … well … pizza!
There are many cultural experiences to be had here in Japan and we might give some more of these as the week goes on … but one that some of the boys made the most of tonight was a traditional Japanese Onsen. They weren’t super keen to give too many of the details except for saying that it was certainly an “experience”!
It was a tough day to get photos and video … if you pulled your hand out of your glove for more than ten seconds you were likely not to feel it again for several hours! Hopefully tomorrow we may get a slight break in the conditions in order to get some good shots of the boys in action. Although we don’t want too much of a break as after all – snow is why we are here!
Photo 1: A photo that gives some picture of the conditions today.
Photo 2: Andrew Mulligan (Year 10) checking out the snow depth.
