My last post started with the line "Maybe I do this too much". In fact, I realized that I've been getting out every weekend, and have a couple more planned. How much have I been skiing Japan?

My Weekends

Past Ski Trips

• December 18th - First backcountry
• December 25th - Zhao
• December 28th, 29th - Zhao again
• January 8th -Eboshi Zhao (it only gets a passing mention)
• January 15th - Some moutain with a whole lot of people
• January 22nd - Ubagatake (winner)
• January 28th, 29th - Zhao for the third time
• February 4th, 5th - By the time this post goes up, I'll be up in Aomori prefecture. It's the the farthest North I've gone in Japan. The trip is being led by Hikichi-san again (see the first Zhao post above). Should be two great days of backcountry. [Update: Blog entry here The pin furthest north on the main island on the map below is Hakkouda]

Coming Up

• February 11th, 12th - I'll be doing an overnight ski trip in a cabin, BYOB+SB (sleeping bag). Fun fun fun. [Update: Blog entry here]
• February 18th - Oh no! No ski trip planned! Anyone want to fix that?
• February 25th - Meet Jenn in Tokyo (it'll be like skiing)
• March 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th - Ski Niseko!

So, right around 20 days of skiing in Japan, about two thirds of which are out-of-bounds fun. A good year! Thanks to everyone who has gone out with me, it's been a blast every time.

Skiing here, particularly backcountry, continues into April just fine. If you saw my pictures of the ski lift at Gassan you won't be surprised to hear that they're open well into June; they can't even open until April or May.

Still, at that point I think I'd rather spend my weekends camping, climbing, and biking. With that in mind, I'm going to try and ship off my ski gear with my parents when they head back stateside from Japan.