Japanese Envy
In the midst of the craziest contest season of my life last year, I managed to escape to Japan for an epic adventure. Accompanied by my good friend Julian Carr, founder of Discrete Headwear, we met up with filmer/editor John Roderick of Neu Productions, photographer Erik Seo, and our guide Nobu Murai. We were headed to experience the isolated parts of the northern mountains of Japan, near Furano.
With a 5 a.m. wake-up call our first morning, we loaded our van and made the venture north. By 9:20 a.m. we were on the tram. By 10 a.m. we were about ready to throw in the towel. Conditions were about as bad as they could have been for Japan. There was nothing to do but laugh.
After a few more hours, Julian managed to find a few airs to get off of, and he convinced me to ski a small line and drop into snow that resembled conditions I skied when I blew my right knee. By the end of the day, we were feeling a bit more comfortable with the conditions. But we were all wondering what we would do in the coming days. We needed snow -- a lot of snow.
Apparently the snow gods were listening and they blessed us with a storm. When we woke the following morning and looked outside, it was clear that there would be some fresh snow, about 6-10 inches, we figured.
It didn't us take long to realize that it had in fact snowed about half a meter up top. Right away we were getting face shots. The new snow was deep and it didn't seem to be letting up. From run to run, our bootpack would be filled with new snow. This went on all day. I skied some of the deepest snow of my life and got to do it with one of my favorite people. As you can see by this edit, we got it good for the next few days.
