Thanks to Jeff and PM Gear I got hooked up!





I have now been touring the new Broker prototypes for about a month. As far as I know I am the only one consistently touring on these skis. The tours that I have done have varied from 30 minute quick accents, to full day, full on touring.



My set up
Broker carbon prototypes
Marker Duke Bindings
Skin Col Tex (they suck)
Boots Techica Diablo




This is not the lightest set-up. I prefer performance to climb ability when conditions are good enough to still get into the bigger lines.





The skis
The Broker Carbons are very light for an 110plus waist ski. So light in fact, that I only really feel the weight of the really heavy marker bindings. I quite enjoy the lightness of these skis. They are light, yet have lots of power and energy. The soft tip allows the ski to plow through soft snow with ease. The rest of the shape then takes over and drives the ski down the hill. Breakable crust is also very enjoyable, as this ski does not dive. Of course the lightness of the ski is not good in debris or super hard cruddy conditions, but that is survival skiing anyways. One thing that I have always found with rockered skis, is that you start to get into the back seat. This type of ski generally pushes you up and back. The Brocker skis ski more like a traditional ski and allows you to keep that traditional balance point. I feel this is very important, as we switch from rockered skis back to our traditional skis during the touring season, you don’t have to fight to regain your balance point.




Climbing with this fat rockered ski is much easier than climbing with other rockered skis that I have tired. Other rockers tend to have a bow shape vs. the Brocker only has the tip rockered, then light camber. This allows the skin to make maximum contact with the snow. This stops slipping and allows the skin to glide more naturally across the snow. I feel that this rocker ski is the best rockered ski for touring on the market today. I would love to have a second pair mounted with freerides!


If you have any questions about the skis please ask. Like I said I think I am the only one that has toured full time on these skis.

After many days and nights begging Dan to come ski with me, it finally happened!
We hiked above Happo and did 2 lines over 2 days. The first line was a 1300 meter decent. The second line was a 1100 meter run. A mixed bag of wet snow and spring the first day to light dry wind blown powder the second day!
Great day out there and I was very glad to be able to get Chuckles- AKA Gandalf
out there too. I really owed him from the week before. You see, he picked us up after every sick line we did that weekend and that just isnt fair. Had to be fair and show him a good run or 2.

You have to love spring when things get super stable!
You can run some of the bigger stuff and there is a ton
of sunshine. Went Skiing With Jer, Mark, Trent and Matt.
Got some really nice photos and the snow wasnt have bad
either!

Thought Id link a few pics up from my guests they took some great shot all week.
Thanks to mark, Hugh and Pat for the pics.

After sitting out Saturdays skiing to have an onsen with baby Hannah, I really wanted to go for a ski on Sunday. I met my good friend Janus on Saturday night and wanting to keep the group small we hatched the Happo plan.

The shock on Sunday morning in the lodge was that everyone was going to Happo too! Shocked really! Knowing that the mountain was only going to open up 1/3 of the terrain do to wind. We had to start thinking early. Top that off with every other mountain opening up almost nothing and you get a very busy Happo morning.
Ended up being me Janus and my old friend Damon today. I did ditch my SJ buddies (sorry guys, but heck you ditched me for a whole month!lol :laugh: :o :laugh:)

The plan was hatched and after a bit of stunt driving (thats a whole other TR) we made it to Sakka right at the opening. I felt like I was back in Canada on a Powder day! Locals and mates were everywhere! I turned to Janus and said man we are going to have to think fast today!
Got off at the top and headed into some great thigh deep trees! sick turns and considering Janus hadnt made a pow turn in more than a year he did well! (He is a ripper actually so when you are good it come back fast)

Then it was time to start thinking... Think about where to go to get fresh tracks. Also figure in the wind which people werent doing to which I say "thank you". After 6 runs of bottomless, uncrowded powder we met up with stunts and Dan to do a run. Great pillow line which to my surprise everyone let me do first! Sick I love going first! Pillows and face shots.

Got off the chair and went to a steep short line that had a few tracks, but heck it was a transfer line. See the key point of the day was to get in where the crowds were then get out! Had some pizza to recharge the engines and back out we went. I thought maybe my favorite trees in Happo had been hit, but nope, not at all. 1pm and not a f>>>>>>ing track period! Lets say that again, 1pm and no tracks. This on the day all the locals came out to play! The first line was insane pillows and an open gullie. The second line was as many pillows as you wanted! The third liene was really only pillows. Then a 4th was a long ridge to pillows and the last line was just a bunch of pillows. Never once crossed a track nor even saw an old track. Finally called it a day at 4:30 just spent and done riding sick pillows! My best day inbounds at Happo in a long, long time!

Well a great week just came and went with some of the sickest turns of the Season. Got to ski with so many people that I wanted to ski with too over the weekend.
Pat, Matt, Becka, Mark the list goes on. Got some great pictures of people all week too. Ill let the pictures do the talking this time!















I hope the pictures did the week justice!

Went riding with MAtt and his girl up into my favorite hiking trees. Stable snow meant that we could Ski some pretty sick lines. Did my favorite pillow line in trees and then hucked my favorite rock drop. Too bad I was only taking the pictures and not getting them taken this time!

Finally a few warm days brought a day of stability to Hakuba. We have been getting snow and super cold temps for about 3 weeks now. Avalanches all over the place with a few deaths had me running scared silly. Compound that with a faceting Ice layer and other faceting layers though-out the pack. It was high time to pray to the gods for some warmer weather so that we could run the bigger lines. Well after 2 days of warmish winds it was time to check the snow pack.

The Snow Pack had me running scared so I went up with db and his bro to check out some cool trees that I really like. The pack looked crap but it held fine. The next day however the pack was very unstable and sliding everywhere. Was a great day really and we got to understand the snow a bit better.

The lodge is really keeping me busy these days. I can hardly even find time to ski let alone post some pics. Over the new year we got hit hard by snow. So hard that my snowblower just died trying to keep up with the amount that was falling. The biggest storm in years and I was reduced to watching it from the sidelines!
Some shots pre storm and during the storm.

What can I say the season has had its ups and downs. The ups have been really good and the downs well they were icy and lets not talk about that 6 days.
Im going to let the pictures do the talking and hope they give you enough stoke!

All picture were taken by Marc Durand and are copyroght protected please.
Me Taking some air into Oshidashi bowl!
A fun deep chute!
Hauling as fast as I could!
Ian Miller loving Japan
Where is Ian Miller!
Biggest powder carve of my life!
Me loving my favorite backside trees!
Ben loving the BC of Happo!

After watching this Storm for a week as it built up power and began to come in, you just new it was going to be big! The moisture in the air was unreal. On Friday morning after a day of rain, on came the snow. The first 30 to 40 cms down low had no chance to stick. The ground was wetter than the rainy season. On the snow fell though and into Saturday the snow was trying to stick but was still fighting a losing battle.

The mountain on the other hand was winning and the turns were knee deep everywhere. Called it quits early to get some work done and to watch it keep snowing. By 9pm on Saturday I could have used the snow blower to clear off the roof fallen snow, I should have done that! Off to bed at 12 pm and the snow was still bucketing down,by this time the snow had won the battle with the ground, about 10cms was sticking. Woke up at 6am and my parking area was a mess! no less than 40 cms, over my gum boot height! rushed to clear some snow to let the cars out but, with a full lot you cant really clear snow.

Into the car and off to the hill. With conditions this deep you have to make it to the gondie on time. Everyone was there diz, kuma, wiggles, rye dog, jer and J mates everywhere. A look around and people where thinking top to bottom! How many storms can open a whole ski resort in 12 hours! This one did! Up the lift and the snow was actually too deep to ski. The pitch had to be at least 35 degrees or you had to follow someones tracks to get a run of speed.

On my first run I planned on haul ass speed and fly into the powder tips up! all was going well until the cat track lips got me. I lawn darted into the snow and was stuck for about 5 seconds not being able to breathe. Got my self righted and tried to make some turns. With the speed all gone and 100 or more cms of fresh I was beaten. waist deep on pontoons! that is very very rare that those skis can get waist deep, standing still. I got about 10 turns in and then got back to the lift. My 2 mates Jer and rye dog ran into trouble too, so lucky for me they waited. Rye dog said and I quote,
"Its going to have to be 50 degrees to ski this properly".

Another lap down this time watching the cat tracks a bit better, I got about 20 turns that blinded me every other second. Then near the lift I had to push downhill just to get to the lift. 20 degrees and I'm stopped dead trying to push down the hill!

Choose a steeper area this next lap and things are working better. a few more tracks means, that you can use someones tracks to get speed. Unreal waist deep pontoon powder "PONTOONS"WTF"!

So that's it, I need something steeper cause I want to eat this siht! On to Kurobishi and oh what a choice! 40 plus degree drop in means speed. I forget to close my mouth and that's it I'm choking, (no joke) In the white room, I don't see a thing until the pitch rolls to 35 degrees. I cant scream cause if I do Im going to eat the farking snow and choke again. bounce off of a few pillows sor t of but heck, I wasn't getting even 10 cms of air in this much snow.

Onto the Skyline. It took us 15 minutes to push into a ski able section. Man though it was sick when we got there. Enough pitch, Just under the waist which made for better speed. The lower steep section had us fall in love. Every turn a face shot every turn sicker than the one before. did another lap before heading to the bottom.

I had skied to the bottom the day before, 5 cm base and utter crap. I had expected to damage the pontoons but I didn't touch bottom once. Unreal run cause you always knew that you had enough speed to ski.
That is now 4 decents top to bottom for the season nabbing first tracks the whole way!

Get up to the bottom of Happo and park the car. Dan gets out and stands in line at the gondola while FT and I bring all gear up. The powder hounds were out in force. The 2 of them wait in line for the gondola while I wait in line for tixs. While waiting peeps in line started talking about what the conditions were gonna be like and everybody was in high spirits anticipating the upcoming turns. Met up with a few peeps from Shizuoka who left at 2am and another group from Niigata who came down for the day as well.

The only thing wrong with Friday, apart from FT sleeping in and making us get 2nd gondola, was FT’s arse! It freaking honked. I swear to god I almost gagged once we got in and he ripped one. It was the most horrendous stench my nose has had to endure…and he did it 3 different times. I was scuba diving for air hunched over in the gondola with my nose and mouth at the top vent trying to breathe…I thought Dan was going to pass out his face was so white.

The ride up offered us some nice views of Happo, 47, Iwatake, Tsugaike, and the Northern Alps.

The snowboarders ahead of us didn’t have a chance to get first tracks since they had to strap in…FT blew by everybody like a cheetah on the hunt getting to the goods that Usagidaira delivered. I don’t even think he turned going down it while Dan, on the other hand, was like a kid enjoying turn after turn to the bottom. After his 200th turn he finally got to the bottom by at which time he found FT and I to already be heading back up to the top. We took another run at Usagi before jetting over to the other side for some more bottomless turns before the masses headed there. We had 1st tracks on every course we hit and had, on the top half of the mountain, fresh, bottomless tracks all day.

Next we headed off to the right of the Virgin Café under the lift. FT was intent on getting the perfect fall line and suggested hiking but all I could think of was “F-That!!” and traversed as far over as possible before ripping it under the lift. I had the first track down and couldn’t stop heading over to the skyline that I just kept going not knowing whether Dan and FT where with me or not.

The first part of the Skyline was a bit windblown but after the hump it opened up to more bottomless turns. There’s nothing sexier than looking back at your lines when nobody else has been there…especially with the conditions we had Friday it was magic.

Only bad thing about getting down to the Skyline was that no lifts were running meaning we had to ski it all the way down. Some places were fine, some were epic, but the closer we got to the parking lot the more sasa grass and rocks we were hitting. We were giggle ling like a bunch of girls hitting rocks and getting knocked about at the bottom of Saka. We skied until we hit cement at the parking lot officially de-virginating our rock skis. We then walked back to the gondola and headed back up for some more lines.

<> You know the worst smell you have ever smelt? Times that by about 10 and that’s how FT’s arse was that day in the gondola…That Japanese bloke is going to go back and tell his friends how much gaijin really do stink after that episode…

Back to the top of Usagi and we meet up with Oyuki Kigan and Kumapix plus some of their J-mates for a few runs down Usagi and Virgin. Virgin Café run under the lift again I just couldn’t wait. FT and Dan unclicked and were bootpacking it up to the top of the run “cuz they didn’t wanna traverse” so I just said screw it and traversed over. I guess they thought the same thing cuz they ended up clicking in and dropped in just after me. Once again, only a few tracks down the Virgin and from the top of the Virgin to the bottom of the Skyline, I just let it rip. Didn’t stop, didn’t look back, and ripped it as fast as I could. Got 2 nice airs of the cat tracks on the Skyline and the 2nd hit was big enough for a grab. FT saw me fly on a different part of the skyline bout 3 meters or so but this hit was the one that I remember…just one of those days where everything clicks. And for me, it wasn’t my deepest or steepest day ever, but my form was on and I, for once, know I ripped it up and there’s nothing more satisfying than that.

We traversed around for some more untracked goods and were never disappointed. Dan was in the mood to take as many turns as possible, FT went over the handle bars several times while hitting pillows, flying up banks, and getting some sick airs. He also opted to join the Canadian Airforce by hitting the pillow just towards the bottom of skyline and launched over 6-7 meters I’m guessing. All in all, it was one of the best “First Day’s” I have ever had. Light, dry snow, powder whores out in force, some of my best mates to share it with, and a 3 day weekend made it magical. Not only that but also onsens, beers, food, Yanik’s Sayonara Party, etc… We did take some pics but many didn’t come out that well. And, besides, some days you just cant be bothered with it anyways.

My pics are at home so I’ll post them tomorrow.

Day 1 – epic







For more pics check out this album on my facebook account
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1738974&id=890405050

So my little girl has been negected lately. With all the work that we are doing to the lodge we just dont have the time to play with our little Banana. I decided to get her outside with me while I raked the front and backyards. She really liked it and loved riding in the wheel barel.

Lucky enough we had a good-bye party for a good friend Yanik. That menat that 18 people would be around the house. Hannah loves people so it was perfect for her and she was able to get alot of stress and energy out of her system. A few falls and bumps but she needed the play time. Thanks to everyone and to Yaniks wonderful food.

I had a good weekend thanks to friends helping us get some much needed work done in the lodge. Dan Risa and Laurence thanks heaps for everything. The up stairs bathroom is back together with a new paint job and a new floor. I really like it and it will be so easy to clean now. After this weekend I feel less tense cause I know we can get it all done.

The new lawnmower was a great investment! Picked up about 1 garbage bags full of leaves in less than an hour. I love easy clean ups I saved a day of raking I think. Still have to deep rake but it wont be nearly that hard now!

Also had some now take a look at this shot I took from my car this morning.