The ski safari reports from Japan and North America by Zurich freeskier Patrick Fux aka Paedde (powdermania.com) are hard for us to imagine life without, except perhaps if you were there yourself and ploughed the Japanese powder masses together with Patrick. Thanks to Patrick, you can now find out again how Japan dumps and powders or even rains. The only change compared to previous years' ski safari reports is that this year we have decided to let the pictures speak for themselves. Because photos sometimes, but by no means always, say more than many words.
I'm back in Japan after nine months in the office and enjoying the winter there. For the first two weeks, we had a wide variety of snow conditions - although unfortunately often rather untypical for this time of year and this region: there was even rain and thus an avalanche situation that is usually more common here in February. Various weak layers in the snowpack make it difficult to find the good descents and numerous avalanches promote distrust in the stability of the snowpack. No more long weekly reports! After several years, this year we have decided to switch to a photo album with some text instead of these reports: Here's a look back at the first two weeks. Have fun with it! Patrick Fux
