DAYS 5 & 6
Okay so we've pretty much wrapped up our Tomamu trip and it's been nothing short of amazing to say the least. Everyday we have been blessed with fresh pow.
I've mentioned working with windows of light quite a bit and this is the typical weather scenario we have been dealing with. You almost watch the window as it moves across the resort and try and time it with whatever feature you are shooting at the time which can prove both frustrating and amusing at the same time.
Another example of the sun trying to co-operate.
This was one of the last set ups we sessioned. A really cool mushroomy pillow jump into some nice deep fresh pow. Thats Benny hiking the in run in the background.
This is Jake after coming un-stuck on the run out of a sweet frontside seven.
This is the view out of our hotel window of the set up for night riding. In the background you can see Benny probably watching This Video Sucks for the tenth time
Kit Kat comes in all sorts of strange flavours over here. So far we've sampled Sweet Potato, Wasabi, Strawberry Cheesecake and in the hotel lobby giftshop they had corn and grapefruit flavours. Grapefruit looks like the more popular of the two. Benny's sweet tooth has been running on overdrive here.
Sadly we had to leave today. This is Benny taking one last look at our hotel as we head to the train station. As fate would have it there was plenty of fresh around and the sun was out.
About to board our flight out of Sapporo, always a scenic airport to be at as its constantly surrounded by snow.
DAYS 3 & 4
Been pretty flat out the last two days putting in some long hours in the pow. The weather seems to be in a repeat groundhog day pattern of two hours of the odd window of sunshine in the morning before it decides to dump like crazy again for two hours, then if were lucky maybe a final hour of light again later in the arvo.
We found this cool mushroom feature and as you can see from the pic it was nice and sunny when we built the jump. Again building is tedious work as the snow is so dry. We've developed a system of shovelling a layer, stomping it down, spraying it with water, letting it set then adding another layer and so on.
Come time to shoot the mushroom and the weather closes in right on cue..
We've been eating at this really cool restaurant that has trees all lit up around it making for quite the tranquil meal.
Its connected to our hotel by a series of tunnels that are quite the hike. Here Jake and Benny take a rest mid way.
No shortage of fresh pow to be had as the weather pattern tops up the hill on a nightly basis. Jake lets one rip...
DAY 2
Today broke to grey stormy skies as it puked its head off. This was the morning view out of our other hotel window at the Tower next to us. Our tower is similar but with green bits instead of red.
It was a bit of a slow start to the day given the weather so we all took our sweet time getting ready
Once we got out there we decided to ride the lift directly underneath our hotel window as it looked the clearest in terms of visibility and was loaded with 50 cms of fresh pow. As you can see from the pic we were the only ones on the chair and it took a good part of the morning to track it out.
Once we tore the main run to shreds we took to the snow under the lifts. Here Benny and Jake enjoy some tandem shredding
We even found an even better tree gap at the top of the chair. You'll have to wait for the mag to drop to see what went down.
DAY 1
Hey we are currently in Tomamu a resort on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. Joining us are Ben Fawcett and Jake McCarthy.
We arrived yesterday afternoon and this was the view of out of our 35th floor hotel window which has a 180 degree view of the mountain
Benny got a little over excited on our first runs of night riding yesterday and managed to get snagged by a covert tree branch. Luckily it was only a flesh wound and didnt do any real damage
Today the sun broke through for a few hours and there were some epic powder to be ridden. Tomamu has some really good open terrain up top and plenty of rippable pow to be had.
Jake found this cool little tree gap to hit. Pretty hard work trying to build a jump out of such dry blower snow though
Jake decided to celebrate with a few visits to the lobby vending machine. Ahh Japan and their love of beer..
Meanwhile the local band played through the night.
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