Nozawa Onsen is a magical ski area, blessed by around 10-12 meters of snowfall annually. It's got about 750 Acres of inbounds terrain, making it a large resort by Japanese Standards, but its real strength is the lift accessible side country and "closed" tree areas which sit in-between the pistes. These tree zones are really part of the resort, and when you include them it's total size jumps up to around 2,500 acres. Still small by North American standards, but combine that w

I promised everyone that I would post a little bit about our trip to Japan, and since we've returned -I guess that its now or never! In summary, we basically had the dirtbag dream tour of Honshu (Japan's main island). Three of us spent two and a half weeks in a camper van, traversing some of the country's best offerings, and exploring fantastic new zones almost every day. As might have been expected, we enjoyed a ton of powder skiing -but we also skied some gnarlier lines, sw

Just a short little discussion about powder skiing in the land of the rising sun, and why I decided that I needed to go back! They don't call it JaPOW for nothing. The majestic Japanese Alps as seen from Hakuba Some of you may know that I am headed to Japan tomorrow, in search of the ubiquitous funPOW, JaPOW, Japanuary goods, Japillow lines, etc... This is my second trip, as I decided that last year was simply too good. I know that flying across the world in search of the