Disasters and our safety (and deep snow)

Been a strange few days here in Hakuba. We were skiing up on Happo One on Friday when the first earthquake brought a low rumbling. I didn’t even mention it at the time, thinking I may have heard an avalanche up in the mountains. Not much later, as five of us were waiting to drop into a run, the first aftershock hit. We felt that one much more strongly. After the shaking stopped and we looked around for an avalanche, one in our group said, “That was an earthquake.”

It wasn’t until we made it back to the lodge that we found out the severity of the quake. Japanese television was showing images of the tsunami, and we began checking U.S. and international news outlets for updates. I’m sure everyone has seen the same images as us. The tsunami footage was horrible to watch, and the nuclear plant explosion was just scary.

Fortunately for us, we do seem to be in one of the safer spots of Japan at the moment. The affected nuclear plants are fairly far away, and the wind would blow any radiation away from us. We keep checking the news for updates, but all in all, we feel removed from the whole situation, physically and mentally. Quiet on the mountain and in town, somber but quiet in the lodge. We’ve had surreal blue skies the past two days, and with no one at the lodge affected by the disasters, we really have no connection to the situation other than what we’re reading online and seeing on TV. Barring some major development, we’ll be home in a week. Until then, give your thoughts to the Japanese who are actually suffering through all this destruction.

This will sound rather inconsequential after all the other news happening here, but the skiing had been amazing on Friday. Snow started falling Thursday night and came down heavily all day on Friday. We spent the day making laps through the woods, playing in the fresh snow that kept piling up between the trees. One of the more enjoyable ski days I’ve had on this trip (the mood changed quickly when we heard about the earthquake and tsunami).

Tom, above the powder

Jon, in the powder

Katja, above the powder

Katja, in the powder

Kirsti, through the powder

Saturday brought blue skies and a bright sun, which baked a lot of the south-facing terrain by early morning. After one trip to the top of the mountain (where we saw numerous avalanches crowns; we’re assuming the earthquake and aftershocks triggered the slides), we returned to the north-facing woods we had skied Friday to find plenty of deep, soft snow, which took our minds off the earthquake news. A few laps with Nick, then Tom, Jon and I went to the gondola station for a long lunch break at the bakery. Post-lunch we met up with Yoshi, an employee at Hakuba Powder Lodging who wanted us to take him snowboarding in the trees. Returned to the woods for a few more laps, and then we came upon a couple of other lodge guests building a backcountry kicker. Yoshi went big.

Yoshi, well above the powder

Yoshi, covered in powder

Jon, upside down above the powder and on the way to landing a backflip

Today we gave our bodies a much-needed rest, lounging around the lodge for most of the day.

One more update on our safety: sounds like some skiers were caught in a slide this weekend. I have no real details yet, but in case any news of a Hakuba avalanche makes it back home, just know it wasn’t us. Snow stability hasn’t been great in general, so we’re skiing trees and avoiding avalanche terrain.