Patrick Fux

A storm was forecast for Monday night, which should have ended our boredom. Unfortunately, once again nothing came of it. Far too warm and only 1 cm of fresh snow - and windy to boot. This would be the fifth day without skiing and somehow it feels more like spring than winter outside. The forecasts from Wednesday onwards are still excellent, so we'll just have to be patient for a few more days. The weather service is talking about a storm of the decade. But it's going to feel like a long time: if you're not much of a piste skier, you won't have much to do here in Hakuba when it gets warm.

Hakuba has many beautiful sides and unfortunately also a few dark sides: A glance at the globe shows that southern Spain is at the same latitude as Hakuba, so it is not surprising that the sun is already quite strong in January. Many a European has wondered how impressive a Japanese sunburn can be in January. As soon as we see the blue sky here, the southern slopes are usually already unrideable, as the snow is literally baked by the sun.

Fortunately, there was no rain and the week started with a forecast of 1 cm of fresh snow overnight. The joy of waking up to 50 cm of fresh snow was immense. The day could easily be described as heliskiing for the price of a day ticket, although it would be more accurate to say heliskiing-for-the-price-of-two-day-tickets.

At the beginning of the week, I was still a little skeptical as the weather forecast was anything but rosy, i.e. snowy. With one eye on the precipitation radar, it took a few early morning online studies to decide where to go. The differences in terms of fresh snow and weather were pretty extreme, even in this relatively small region.

It was that time again a week ago. The last working day for the next three months. The most beautiful time of the year has begun and with it another snow adventure in Japan. I will be traveling in Japan until the beginning of March, mainly in Hakuba but also in regions such as Myoko, Nagano and the northern island of Niseko. The weather and especially the annual rain will determine when and where we will be.

The last part of Patrick Fux's 12-week powder trip begins in Red Mountain in Canada and leads via a cat-skiing detour in deep powder to Beijing and from there back to the Swiss Alps, where there is very little snow.

We spent the Monday of my penultimate week of skiing in Mount Washington, where we had driven into the area the evening before and once again treated ourselves to the luxury of ski-in/ski-out accommodation so that we could safely catch the first lift. We were worried that the predicted large amounts of snow could block the access road and we didn't want to risk that.

Patrick Fux, who has provided us with great powder pictures from Japan over the past few weeks, had left Japan for British Columbia, Canada, shortly before the dramatic earthquake and subsequent tsunami and the nuclear disaster that was omnipresent in the media. None of Patrick's friends or the Hakuba Powder crew were injured. Nevertheless, the reports from the news naturally make all the powder experiences and problems that you can have as a freerider much less important. Nevertheless, we have decided to bring you the last three episodes of the Japan-Canada winter trip.

Some fresh snow had fallen on Monday, but not enough to get me seriously excited. Time to write down the last few days and prepare for the first few days in Canada.

The first impression of the Ortovox 3+ is appealing and the device makes a handy impression. The positive first impression is also confirmed in practical use. With a total weight of 315 grams including the carrying system and battery, the 3+ is about as heavy as the old M2 from Ortovox, which accompanied me for 10 years, and is therefore slightly heavier than stated by the manufacturer.

"La Grave" is the name of the men's model in Ortovox's new hardshell clothing line. We became aware of the jacket because, according to the manufacturer, it combines the function of a three-layer hardshell jacket with the warmth and comfort of merino wool. To find out what the top jacket can really do, we put it to an extensive test in the powder snow of the still young winter of 2010/11.