After snowboarding Japan in January, we decided to explore yet another land blessed with snow and mountains. At the arrival in Buenos Aires we were quite disappointed by the lack of snow in the region of the great lakes, so we decided to head off for the end of the world, Ushuaia. The powder over there was soft and light, but unfortunately Cerro Castor was too flat.

After 3 days, one dedicated to climb the glacier El Martial, we were back in BA, and after an 18 hours bus trip, in Las Leñas. Supposed to be a top-notch resort, Las Leñas is in fact an average place to ski, but horribly expensive if you don’t know local people. Fortunately we were staying at José’s place, a former ski patrol member and a true argentine. At his place was also staying Yannick, a french multipurpose snowboarder who has been coming at Las Leñas for the last ten years.

The only real interest of Las Leñas is the chairlift called Marte, which takes you at 3400m high, where the whole mountain is offered to you, freeride style. Unfortunately Marte is opened only when the conditions are perfect: no wind, good snow, no risk of avalanche and top visibility. Conditions we did not have during our stay, thus we did not have the chance to ride Marte. That’s a big shame because we came especially for that, but hey, sometimes you just can’t force the luck !

Argentina was still a very good experience, the people over there are really kind and the meat is just the best in the world ! Definitely a place where i would like to come back some day.

I had a few weeks of holidays to use before the end of my VIE, and no friend available to tour Australia with me. My friend Jacques who works in Japan had told me a few months back that he had bought a brand new snowboard, and he was eager to try it on the japanese slopes, which are famous for the unbelievable amount of powder snow they get each year.

A simple phone call to Jacques made my mind, i booked a plane ticket to Japan and took 2 weeks of holidays in january. The program was pretty simple : head off to the best ski resort in Japan for a week, then explore some other part of Japan i hadn’t visited the other week.

Our ski destination was Niseko, located in far north Hokkaido, it gets an amazing 12m of snow each year. The best snow i’ve ever had for sure ! 1m of powder on the 3rd day left a grin on my face for the rest of the week.

On the second week i went to Kyushu in the south to seek higher temperatures. Nagasaki is the place i liked the most, full of history, it is a magnificent city.

This was my second time in Japan and i felt like coming back home. This amazing country will always surprise me in many forms, but i can’t deny i really love the place. I hope there will be a third time, for the snow again maybe…

As always the full album of photos is on Flickr.

I wanted to write this post earlier but i was pretty busy finding some new flatmates, and at work too.

The last time i went to the slopes was in January 2007, and my season was shortened because of my injury. When i knew i was going to work in Australia, i packed my snowboarding clothes, with the firm intention to try Australian or New Zealand ski resorts.

This winter i didn’t have time to go to NZ just for skiing, so we decided with some friends to give a try to the Snowy Mountains. Located south-east of Canberra, barely 5 hours drive from Sydney, the Snowy are the highest mountains in Australia. We went there twice, on the 15th and the 30th of August, with around 10 people each time. I was really surprised by the resorts, Thredbo and Perisher. They have numerous slopes, and some of them are pretty steep. And it’s strange to ski between Eucalyptus instead of Pine trees. Here are some pictures i took on the second week-end, as usual the whole album is on flickr.

Bien que le 15 août ne soit pas férié en Australie, nous avons joué la carte du chauvinisme pour partir en week-end entre français. Au ski !

Du ski en Australie me direz-vous ? Eh oui ! Direction : les Snowy Mountains, ou le plus grand domaine skiable du pays. Elles se situent a 5h de route de Sydney, au sud-ouest de Canberra.

Départ express vendredi après le travail pour un retour fatigué le dimanche soir a minuit, 2 voitures, 10 personnes. J’ai été assez surpris par la qualité de la neige, apparemment les australiens n’ont pas eu d’aussi bonne saison depuis 5 ans. Les domaines (au nombre de 2) sont assez grand, et on n’attend pas trop au remontées mécaniques. Par contre le forfait est hors de prix : 98$ la journée (58€) !

Je suis bien content d’avoir pu remonter sur un snow après mon accident, j’ai même pas eu peur !
Au final c’était un week-end génial, il ne manquait que la fondue du samedi soir…

Comme chaque hiver, les productions vidéos de snowboard pleuvent. Et comme j’ai pas grand chose d’autre à faire que regarder la téloche j’en ai profité pour en regarder un bon paquet, histoire de prendre des leçons pour la saison prochaine Je vous sers donc mes petites critiques, totalement subjectives.

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