Turning Japanese TR (pics galore)

**subtle plague** · 01-09-2006, 10:20 AM

Japan seems to be place for pow right now, but we managed to find a decent amount of it right in the eastern alps for the new year. We went to Bovec and to my favourite resort in the northeastern Alps.

Some photos are not by me but by a Slovenian pro named Mac from www.freakoutdoor.com If you ever get to Bovec, be sure to check out his shop(you can rent wateas or im103s) and hook up with him. He is is the one of the nicest guys i ever met and a superb guide through the dangerous ski area.(it is a "karst" area and there are holes in the ground everywhere you can ski. some of them are up to 150m deep. it is even worse than at the kripp). The locals pulled out an Australian who literally stuck in the snow edge above such a hole.(he overshot the path and flew over the hole right into the corniche on the other side). Later that day someone fell into a hole 3m near an open piste and got severly injured.(they had put up a net and a sign before it, but still he managed to get into it

)

And even more important: Mac is the only sane slovenian out there ! i made a list for the others:
Skiing down a loaded lee slope 5 at a time when avalanche danger is at level 4(high)? check. crashing into each other and tumbling down that slope? check. not wearing ANY equipement when skiing off piste? check. skiing full speed on one ski without any control 2m next to a 30m deep hole? check.
The same day when the "hole incidents" occurred, a slovenian got buried up to his breast wen he triggered a slide.
Another downside is the gondola which is easily wind affected and tends to run pretty unregulary when the weather is slightly bad. The area itself is high alpine and needs lots and lots of snow before you can ski.The 3m up high, when we were there, are the absolute minimum. And still i got more core shots in two days than in 2 seasons before.
Nevertheless my weather geek skills were rewarded with quite deep powder and we met new friends along the way.
When the gondola closed again and the maps looked interesting for the north side, we decided to leave and hit the kripp. The masses had left and in my "home resort" i know where to get my faceshots. The camera collapsed and thus you don't get any action shots from there.

On the third the rest ofthe crew arrived andwe had 2 typical kripp days. One weather day becase of too much snow

and one memorable deep day in reward.

Ok. Since im not bad roo and my writing is rather semientertaining i'll let the pics do the rest of the talking.

Already pretty much snow on the way to the pass that connects italy and slovenia...

things got interesting once we reached the pass...

it got worse onthe slovenian side...usuallythis road has two lanes....

but we made it. i never saw such dumping before.this place is only 460m above sea level ! it pounded 20cm of fresh in 3 hours.

of course the gondola was closed...

so we tested our avalungs

when we woke up the next day things looked promising

the ski area(find the gondola station

) seemed to have gotten some pow.

this is what we came for......

come to daddy.....

continued in next post.

**subtle plague** · 01-09-2006, 10:27 AM

a local enjoying the fresh

me getting some.

girlfriend in the deep.

local "orton" enjoys thesame line

deep pow in the open woods

this is why we did not ski any interesting lines.....one ski cut and my little line slid.

the rest of the line

continued in next post.

**vinzclortho** · 01-09-2006, 10:28 AM

is this the new time-displacement ava-lung that allows you to go back in time to search for yourself after an avy?

way to git some though! solid pics.

**marshalolson** · 01-09-2006, 10:29 AM

lookws rad considering the "play it safe" attitude.

goods got gotten

**Dr. Gaper** · 01-09-2006, 10:30 AM

MMmmmmmm, good thing I had some kleenex nearby.

**bad_roo** · 01-09-2006, 10:33 AM

Freaky snow conditions! What car did you have?

**subtle plague** · 01-09-2006, 10:39 AM

first thingto do at the kripp: getting those bovec meories from the skis.

the next day therest ofthe crew showed up

but the tram didn't open. the result was a typical weather day. rescuing the buried backpack....

into the white

ok it's not japan, but 150cm of snow at 600m above sea level ain't to bad either. the krippenstein, kicking global warmings ass since 2001

a japanese parking lot

girlfriend inserted for scale

the end.
i hope you enjoyed our little TR

**backpack** · 01-09-2006, 10:42 AM

Good Stuff

**Free Range Lobster** · 01-09-2006, 10:43 AM

fkna.

7890

**subtle plague** · 01-09-2006, 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by bad_roo

Freaky snow conditions! What car did you have?

the red 10 year old mitsubishi colt in post 3

and vinz: yes i killed my own grandfather with the help of the new avalung !

(well actually im more of a photshop jong and my 2 photos didn't blend that well

)

edit for hallucinations. it's vinzclortho and not gincognito.

**iskibc** · 01-09-2006, 10:45 AM

You are getting after it lately! Lot's of travelling too. Nice job. Love the "after the storm" type pics. Good stuff.

**Meathelmet** · 01-09-2006, 10:48 AM

Haah-aah!

Niiice looking there in bovec!

It came as a suprise to us too,when we asked our italian friends about bovec...

-"How much does Kirin have snow?"
-"About 2 meters"
-"woow! thats much!"
-"noo,nooo!You need more,2 meters more to cover the rocks and holes in earth!"
-"holes in earth? what...ah...never mind.."

And nice pics there too,plague!

**Franz Klammer** · 01-09-2006, 10:53 AM

Awesome stuff.

You can bet on my making a trip up to the Kripp from Graz after January 20.

**climb2ski** · 01-09-2006, 10:54 AM

How much is airfare?

**INDY GS** · 01-09-2006, 11:01 AM

Sweet stuff, I was in Slovenia one year ago this week, and damn did I miss this kind of weather. Looks sweet and even more promising for me to return in the near future. The skiing there is great, but i agree, alot of people skiing w/o regard to saftey in many places.

Such a beautiful area. Thanks for the pics.

**greg** · 01-09-2006, 11:07 AM

the next day therest ofthe crew showed up

first picture of me on the net. I feel soooo.... used.

well before sp lured us into the krippenstein region where we planed on skiing just for one day but got traped due to road and resort closure, chris and I - the 2 in the middle - spent a couple of days in the gastein valley.

yeah, I know we're a little lazy on taking pictures especially when conditions are good enough for skiing. so we left with just two skiing shots out of the total number of five pictures we took.

sebastian opening up a bit on the south face of hirschkarspitze.

phillip tanning on the eastface of siebenspitze. (both photos by christian rudig)

**tuffy109** · 01-09-2006, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by subtle plague

girlfriend inserted for scale

baddum-bumm

**subtle plague** · 01-09-2006, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by Meathelmet

Haah-aah!

Niiice looking there in bovec!

It came as a suprise to us too,when we asked our italian friends about bovec...

-"How much does Kirin have snow?"
-"About 2 meters"
-"woow! thats much!"
-"noo,nooo!You need more,2 meters more to cover the rocks and holes in earth!"
-"holes in earth? what...ah...never mind.."

And nice pics there too,plague!

yeah Kanin needs quite a lot of snow. and im a bit sad that we could not ski down into the other valley, because that run would have been 1300m of pure goodness (and without holes). but it is really really exposed and steep from either side.
on the afternoon of the second day some locals did it, but we missed the chance because when we checked there had been no tracks. i inserted lines in the two pics.
the red is the long descent behind the ridge and the green ones we did more or less.

edit: greg your pics aren't showing. and get your own TR !

except you have pics from the kripp.

**shirk** · 01-09-2006, 11:19 AM

Wow thats some sweet pow. Nice timing on the storm.

How far from Ljubljana to Bovec? Sadly my Slovenia connections are gone with the ex. It's still on the list of places to adventure.

**subtle plague** · 01-09-2006, 11:22 AM

put them in the gallery and link them like i did. those are too sweet for an attachment. and then edit your post.
but they are not from the kripp

edit: shirk i think it is not that far if the roads are clean. 1-2 hour drive i'd guess. maybe less.

**greg** · 01-09-2006, 11:29 AM

heh it's a trip report. not a krip report. otherwise i ve got to kindly ask you to remove your pics from bovec..

anyway - for me it's the same trip..

edit: I give up on those pictures. can't figure out how to do it.

**mrryde** · 01-09-2006, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by subtle plague

COOOOOOOOL PIC!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Franz Klammer** · 01-09-2006, 11:36 AM

Greg, here's a better way to display your awesome pics

**str8line** · 01-09-2006, 12:01 PM

Those pics really evoke the Euro stoke. Love this one for its beauty:

http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...ec%20Trip6.jpg

Thanks for the excellent TR.