Japan Powder Camps

The transfer to the airport was due to leave at 11.45am.  I was happy for a long lie, long shower, slow pack and a big breakfast before leaving.  However, Warren had different things on his mind.  Powder skiing and photography.  We passed others in the group who had cleverly packed the night before and were having a leisurely last mornings skiing.  Whilst we were about to head out on a photo shoot which usually takes up a whole day and a lot of energy. 

We popped our head in the Patrol hut and let the guys know we were heading off limits and patrol man Yoshimi Saito very kindly escorted us. For some silly reason, I took the lead and started the boot pack.  Nobody complained!  However, after a bit of time, I stopped and gave the signs that I wasn’t up for taking the front and Warren overtook and then Yoshomi overtook Warren.  We kept stopping and with our best sign language hinting that we were going to immediately use the area below to shoot photos. However, he wasn’t having any of it.  He kept pointing over the mountain, obviously trying to tell us he knew of a better place.  We followed him further, keeping an eye on the time as we couldn’t explain to him that we had very little time to explore.

-

However, we arrived at where he wanted to show us, and it was great.  I tried very hard to contain my excitement.  It was absolutely beautiful and the snow was deep and soft.  It was perfect shooting conditions.  We shot and shot and got deeper and deeper.  We were both in our element and completely forgot about time.

It was getting dangerously close to the time our bus leaving for the airport and there wasn’t another one that day!  However, we kept saying, ‘just one more’.  Near the end, before the long traverse out, we knew we had overshot our safe time and we were dangerously close to missing the bus.  We hadn’t even packed!  We followed Yoshimi who made the boot pack all the way out.  At the end he laughed with relief at finishing the long and tiring climb out of the deep snow.  We wanted to tell him how happy we were with him.  We tried to offer him money but I think he took offence.  In the end Warren just hugged him!  I thought it quite funny because it wasn’t something I had ever seen Warren do before, and the patrol hugged him right back laughing heartily. So I joined in and gave him a huge hug too.  No words were needed.

Then panic set in as the moment of exhilaration was over.  It was 11.30am, the bus was at 11.45am and we had to get on the lift to the 8^th floor and pack.  Warren ran to reception with the skis and poles and I went up to the room and started throwing everything into the bags with no order whatsoever.  What a mess!  Jon came up to the room with Warren and we all ran to the bus with the bags.  We got on the bus in a shambles! 

We had an hour to the airport and no way of getting to our clothes to change.   It was hysterical on arrival at the airport in Sapporo.  We got into departures and everyone looked in amazement at Warren who was fully kitted out in his ski kit, including his ski boots which I at least managed to get out of.  Warren headed through the airport in his ski boots to the toilets to get changed, whilst I unpacked the mess and started to pack our bags.  I could feel all the staring eyes on us.  It was priceless!  We got on the flight sweaty, smelly and wiped out. Got to Osaka where we had a hotel booked for the night and went for Japanese food for yet another final time. 

That was the real end of our trip.  First thing in the morning we were flying back to Heathrow.  Roll on next year!!  Due to the success of this year and an amazing achievement with our Japanese relations, we have already set dates for next year’s course.  10^th – 21^st February 2010.  Hope you can join us!

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 at 11:19 pm and is filed under Japan powder Camps 09. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.