Two bluebird days in a row is really quite a kind reintroduction back to the ski hill for me. It means all I’ve had to worry about is the last two days is muscle fatigue, and knowing when to take a break. That’s a godsend. If I was adding that to foggy poor visibility, high winds, sleet and generally getting lost (that’s usually when you end up on a run that is beyond your capabilities!), I’d not be feeling so good about the world. Clearly, when I got up this morning I could still walk and I have finished the day the same way, the best outcome!
I found a shrine today, that I must have skied past many times and never noticed. So I clicked out of my skis and hiked up to it for a look (pics below), it makes me wonder how many more of these shrines I have missed, in an effort to concentrate on the next turn?
I was hitting my last run for the day today when I saw a big “mob” of people at the bottom on the run. This is unusual, Nozawa are usually pretty quick at moving people up the lifts. By the time I worked out what was going on, I wasn’t at the bottom, but definitely had overshot the last cat track out of that run. The lift had broken down and they weren’t going to get it fixed before the end of the day… boo. So I had a 200-300m hike back up an intermediate run, in ski boots, with skis and poles on shoulders to catch a track down to another functioning lift. That took me (and I presume most of us) much longer than you would have thought. I don’t recommend hiking in ski boots!
By the end of the day, I feel a bit like the tin man, in need of a good oiling. If I thought eating more fish would oil up my creaky joints, I’d get stuck in, but alas, I don’t think that would fix these creaks. I finished the day in the same way as yesterday, with a stinking hot onsen. Either the water was cooler, or I’m getting used to the crazy hot temperatures, but I didn’t get the head spins this time and I stayed in a lot longer. Such a great way to recover.
We are expecting a big snow tonight, 20-30cm’s, which started to puke down just as I came in from dinner. More interesting is the “Siberian Front” that is meant to come in on Monday. They are talking about -30 degs C and 50cm of snow. Given the spring conditions they’ve had here in the last few days, I’d say they need the top up. So, Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!
Dinner: Chicken Nabe Hotpot and a much smaller beer- 3,000 yen, $33.40
Temperature: -4 degrees Celsius (up top)
Snow depth: 1.4m
Snow Forecast: About 20cm of fresh snow expected tonight and into tomorrow with very cold temps down to -11 most of the day Saturday. Sunday and Monday will be mainly fine then looking like a Siberian storm from Monday night with over 50cm expected and very cold temps with wind chill down as low as -30 degrees.
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