The temperature plunged yesterday and dumping rain turned into dumping snow last night..The good news..15cm of fresh snow in the Morino Lodge car park which soon started melting as the day warmed up. Not sure how much fell up top but probably significantly more plus it looks like more snow is on its way by Tuesday/Wednesday. I’m tempted to break out the rock board and hike up a bit to see how much is rideable. Hopefully we won’t have to wait much longer until we can catch the lifts up instead!! On the left you can see the Lounge and on the right is Happo with quite a bit of snow. The bottom slopes were melting by afternoon but the upper slopes look like they got a good dump. Hakuba 47’s slopes looked inviting and Aokiko also got a coating too. Check back on Wednesday for an update on the next snowfall..

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves! After that it was off to Naughty’s in Tsugaike for the Dafunda 2007 DVD release party.

Its been raining in the village the last couple of days but awoke today to glorious weather and the first real dump of snow this season on the tops I walked down to the Matsukawa river and took some shots. Not long till winter now!!

David came around today after a bout of paragliding with some aerial shots he’d taken of the lodge. After taking off from the top of Happo he circled around for a while and took some great shots of the Hakuba valley. Above you can see the Wadano and Happo area with the Morino roof poking through the trees. The Happo runs are on the right hand side of the picture. Below is video footage of a 360 loop. First you can see Happo, followed by Iwatake, Hakuba 47 and then back to Happo again. Near the end David hits a thermal and suddenly rockets upwards!

We’d been itching to get a group together to go canyoning and now was our chance. Jack & Ayumi were up from Gifu prefecture and guests were still at the lodge recovering from all the partying. Add a few locals and we had a fifteen-man strong group to brave the rapids. First stop was Evergreen where everyone got suited up – Summer in Hakuba is pretty hot but the water in the canyon has its source high up in the mountains so a wetsuit helps delay the onset of hypothermia. It also helps you slither over the rocks as you make your way down the rapids like a seal. Then it was off to Ochikura, a canyon that drops down from high above Tsugaike. First obstacle after walking down into the gorge was a pretty scary flying fox death slide followed by a series of rapids and waterfalls. The highlight was probably the superman slide down the wall of a 10m waterfall into a deep plunge pool. Unfortunately the other group that day had the camera so we didn’t get any pics from within the canyon itself but here are some from another group that did it. Had a great half day and we’ll definitely be back again to do the full day course!

Obon week – A week long holiday in Japan where people traditionally return to their place of birth to visit the graves of ancestors… …Except for the thousands of people who flock to Hakuba to escape the heat and…PARTY!! Friends from Tokyo and Guests alike filled the lodge for Obon week. Just down the road from the lodge “Mother” , a four day party commenced at Tsugaike ski resort. Something told me we weren’t going to get much sleep this week. At least we had Aokiko lake to cool down in after.

This is the first Morino Blog post so I’ll make it brief. Quite a few customers were getting lost in the environs of Wadano last season trying to make their way back to the lodge – The reason, no sign!! I didn’t have time to make one in the winter but now its the off season the moment had finally arrived. Went round to Mitch’s place to see if he had any wood and he just happened to have procured a beautiful solid slab of cedar that very day. Fate was sealed..Thanks Mitch!! First I planed the wood down, before starting with the router and doing all the niggly bits. Finally I sanded it down…and…voila!   I bought a solar powered spotlight (dubious as to whether it will work or not) and then I’m going to stain the surrounding wood and paint the logo in the same colours as the website logo. We haven’t decided where to put it yet. Stuck to a tree will keep it above the snow but might not look too classy whilst sticking legs on it might make it into bulldozer fodder. Either way, hopefully not as many guests will get lost this coming season.