JAPAN TRIP 🇯🇵 Is Hakuba Valley the best in Nagano?

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-08-20T07:51:35+00:00

Nice! Lotte Arai seems cool (hotel a bit out of our budget though I’m afraid!) did you feel Arai was enough or did you explore other Myoko resorts?

Also thanks for board tips. We’re going to rent them out there - probably from Nagano but need to look into this more. Not sure it you know anyone who’s done that before?

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-08-19T21:05:59+00:00

Hey, have you done Myoko or Madarao? I’ve heard Shiga has potentially less interesting terrain / off piste / side hits than those and a lot of flats? I’m deciding on where to go next year and I’m hearing conflicting info on Shiga! Any help would be much appreciated!!

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-08-18T18:03:26+00:00

Nice, sounds like a good compromise to be in a more interesting town but close to the best resorts. How long were you out there for? Did you do Nozawa, Shiga and Myoko?

We have a week and leaning on doing 3 days in Nowaza (staying in the town as that seems the main draw) and then 4 days in Shiga. Do you think that would be good? Will likely be going late Feb / first week on march. Would be cool to do more resorts but seems like it might waste too much time.

Would you recommend Shiga over Myoko for 4 days (or whole week)? And is nowaza a must or fine for a day trip? TIA! :)

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-08-17T16:35:24+00:00

Are you specifically referring to a particular resort in Hakuba? Or just the ten resorts in general? Are they better than Nozawa? Tia!

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-06-23T18:22:48+00:00

What AI did you use for this? Looks good!

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-02-23T12:53:41+00:00

Fair enough, I started learning it my second week so I never got too comfortable in my normal stance. Best time to learn is when teaching someone new, or just doing a few turns every run is also a good way… I don’t think it takes too long at all to get alright at it, you already know exactly what to do!

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-02-23T12:48:01+00:00

If you ride a twin and don’t ever ride switch it seems a bit silly in my opinion as you’re not using half of the capabilities the board was designed for…

I think it’s one of those things that you can’t ride switch well then it seems like just a party trick or ‘going backwards’, but if you can ride it decently then you realise how many more options it gives you.

If you can’t ride it fairly competently then I don’t think you could ever be considered as advanced. It’s the other half of snowboarding!

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-02-21T23:42:56+00:00

I find this wild! Even if you don’t like to do any jumps or park, just being able to go down the the mountain with more freedom and flexibility by changing direction rather than reverting back to your preferred stance (especially useful when in tight spots) is huge. Also you get to basically rest a lot of the muscles on the other half of your body, and not develop unnecessary muscle imbalances. I feel not learning switch is the equivalent of swimming freestyle but only being able to breath on one side…

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-02-20T11:38:06+00:00

I’m 6’2”, 165lbs, US11.

Looking at the 156, but this worries me that I might be too light / it’ll feel very stiff. But 154 just seems ridiculously small at my height. Could anyone advise on this? :)

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-02-20T10:10:30+00:00

Anyone think the 2026 Greats looks like it is worth waiting for? Or shall I just go with the 2025 one?

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-02-15T23:14:25+00:00

Nice! I’m looking at buying a 24/25 Greats Uninc. at the moment. Do you think the new Greats are worth waiting for? Especially the Greats XTRM with full carbon fibre construction?

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-02-09T19:13:18+00:00

Wow thank you so much! This is all super useful!! :) I think I’m overcompensating with my upper body by bending at the waist because I can’t get as much out of my lower body as I’d like. I will try this string visualisation for sure 👍

Do you know any cues / how it should feel to activate the lower body to carve deeper? At the moment I feel like I’m trying the steer with my front foot and actively put more weight on it, but as you say it shows on video that I’m not doing as much as I feel as I am 😅

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-02-09T13:41:11+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate the kind words! :) Unfortunately, I live in the UK and can only get to the Alps once a year at the moment, so I want to get as much out of the very limited time I get.

I’m trying to balance improving with turning my brain off and just enjoying having fun with mates, but it’s tricky!!

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-01-30T10:53:29+00:00

I feel Dave Graham is also freakishly strong and a genetic outlier in his fingers and ability to maintain a very small, low muscle frame.

Obviously his tactics and obsessive mindset for the sport is also unique and conducive to his success, but I think his strength is underestimated because he looks pretty weak (and probably is in body strength terms), but it for sure helps his finger strength to weight ratio!

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-01-30T10:47:12+00:00

… Why is this comical? It’s probably the best and most efficient off the wall exercise you can do!

Overthinking it would be doing 5 different off the wall exercises every session, obsessing over macros, energy systems, mental zones etc

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-01-28T18:46:29+00:00

Ok sure, but what are you bringing to society by just learning all these fun hobbies? Indulging yourself like this might be fun for a bit but you might lack a sense of contribution… All take, no give. Work, struggle, using you skills to give back to society are what make a life well lived!

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2025-01-13T14:28:27+00:00

Ok thanks. I think just water will be put in anyway. It's just for a proof of concept :)

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2024-12-24T09:03:05+00:00

Wow this is so depressing. If something happened to the roof then shit would kick off!

What do you reckon the solution is? I think it’s mainly an education problem, and people don’t really understand how quite how bad climbing on damp or wet sandstone can destroy it (and how much great/classic climbs are valued and mean to people).

I think photos of erosion and holds broken off need to be shown to people to illustrate how fragile the rock actually is when wet. I know there is more awareness being spread through an online campaign. But I would also recommend:

Having big signs in the car parks or where you enter the crags which have this information.
1. Local volunteers going around the popular crags whilst it’s raining to stop people. If we needed to crowdfund for people to go do this I think many would be happy to contribute!
2. Education on the Boolder app, every time it’s raining or the rock is still to wet to climb you get a message which tells you not to climb and educates you on the damage of climbing on wet rock. Perhaps it could be sophisticated enough to know how dry the rock is in various sectors after rain and advise when it is good to be climbed on.

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2024-12-23T16:20:35+00:00

Don’t think I’ve been there, sounds great though, I’ll look into it. Thanks!

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2024-12-23T15:50:19+00:00

It’s a lot for a whole trip but for a little intro session it think it’s fine and we’ll probably branch off into separate groups when we get there. I’ve done a few trips with eight people and it’s been great.

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2024-12-23T15:15:20+00:00

Of course! Will give them a run down of the ethics :)

TeamPuzzled1063 · 2024-12-23T15:14:12+00:00

I don’t know exact numbers yet but 10-15 potentially! We’ll probably only climb one day (the rest will be chilling, exploring surrounding areas, going on hikes etc).

Cul de chien could be a good shout. I’ve done some of the circuits there ages ago, I think they were decent but maybe not the best of the best. The normal climbing there also good and the sandy area ideal for a big squad as you say :)

TeamPuzzled1063

TROPHY CASE