Grabbed a Gentem Big Fish for the day to check it out in the pow, I’d say about 50cm+ of fresh. We had a fun group of mates out cat skiing and this was my first run of the day…

Face Pow

After a couple of days of solid snow (maybe 50cm-60cm of fresh) I decided to grab a Gentem Big Fish for a day of Cat skiing in Niseko’s backcountry.. This was my first run of the day.

During a northbound descent from Niseko-Annupuri. Hokkaido, Japan.

Today I swore that I was going to sleep in. I was dedicated to it. I woke up to the call ‘…Az. It’s bluebird…’ So I didn’t sleep in – thank god. Heading a little further afield after some nice turns off the peak we scored fresh tracks all day and a good battering of dry snow and sun. Sitting here now in complete satisfaction, dragging my hangover up the peak this morning was nowhere near as bad as it seemed at the time. A day on snowshoes hiking the local backcountry peaks was perfect. Not to mention cold dry face shots of powder. Vapour trail. Super creative. Solitude. Backlit clouds. Tats - sliding into a fresh line. Green Domes. A sign post. Tracks. Cornice.

Here’s a video we made for the Martin Crew on a day of Cat Skiing – extended version to include some GoPro and additional footage.

Anyone keen to get on the cat for a day’s skiing, or interested in a HD Movie of your time in Niseko – get in touch with us http://www.nisekophotography.com

We scored some great conditions out on the cat with the Martin boys. Here is a video we cut together for them of their day. Our cat skiing tours head to some of the best available snow and terrain in the Niseko region. These guys were so stoked on it they booked us twice in a week! Here’s a good idea of what we get to ski from the cat!! Lucky enough to get blue bird sunshine this day as well! http://www.nisekophotography.com Chute pow turn.

Today was perfect weather for another little backcountry adventure. Still found some dry fresh and plenty of sun. These shots are from a photo shoot with the Martin family – cheers for an epic day guys!

Sneaky lines off the back. Nuclear Domes. Lines. Trekkers. Standing on the knoll. Trees and Light - for Yas. Fresh pow. Pow turn. Ocean Views.

One of those epic combos of blue bird and dry pow today. wow. Here’s a few pics from a day hiking around in Niseko’s back country. Standing on the road. Shred Crew. Youtei - always there. Gettin Pow. Beau - first turns of his Niseko trip. Joely-G. Yep - welcome to Niseko Beau. Joely G -snosurfstyle. pow.

Chasing powder turns in the back country and skiing good lines has got to be about the best thing you can do with your life… well, it’s up there for me anyway. That and a bit of AC/DC and you’re ticking a whole lot of boxes!

We’ve had the Martin family twice in the last week on the Cat doing just that. They loved it so much the first time they re-booked immediately for the next available day. They boys shredded it and were lucky enough to score one of the deepest days and then one of the sunniest. Here’s a quick video edit from yesterday and a few shots to show you just how good they got it! Niseko has turned it on this winter in the biggest way and we’re looking forward to plenty more of this delicious goodness in the weeks to come!

Neck deep. Powow. Cam Coppin' it creamy - again. Lovin it. Pow turn, complete with creative foreground. The final drop of a neat little triple mushy set up. Shooting the chute. Rock Pop. Copping a face full.

So yesterday was a pretty deep day, seriously, proper deep. We headed out on the cat for the 8th day in a row and rolled up to no tracks, 40cm of fresh on fresh and then copped another 40cm while we were out there… Yeah I’m kinda giggling while I write this. Here’s a few shots to show the folks at home of Dan, Craig, Marko, George and Josh absolutely coppin’ it in the face all day… We actually had to apologise at one point because the snow was ‘too deep’ – stepped up the gradient to maximum and all was well!! The best part of cat skiing, besides the super deep fresh delicious pow, is being able to choose the terrain to suit the conditions… never thought that depth would be a ‘problem’! Craig - Blessed in the face. Cam - coppin' it creamy! My Camera Bag - gettin' into the action! Misty facial. Layin it down (and pulled it back!) Uh Huh! Dan - in the juicy fresh. Peekin' through. Marko - I'd say medium deep...?

New years day was our first day of adventure on the cat. We went out to the skiing zone, dug a couple of pits to check the avalanche conditions and then snuck a couple of cheeky lines in ourselves before the first day of guests on the 2nd. Conditions were perfect and the boys from Niseko Pizza who booked the first cat of the season were in for a treat!! Her’s a few shots from the week so far. We have been booked out everyday and now looking a week in advance for customers hoping to score some fresh lines in some of Niseko’s most fun terrain! If you’re keen to cat ski be sure to contact us before you arrive and we’ll do our best to find a spot for you! You can book by emailing info@nisekophotography.com Day 1 – The Niskeo Pizza Boys – First lines of the season! About to drop the first line of the season. The very first turn of the year! Delicious Fresh in sunshine - Paddy - stoked! Pow wow. Good visibility - if you're the photographer. Timmy gettin' blessed. Sendin' it - yeah Paddy! Pow turns a plenty - Phil, layin' one down for the camera. Timmy - locked onto a grab.

The view back to Annupuri Ewan - doin' it for the head cam. Because one blessing is never enough... Coffee break Ski Bunny!

Check out this awesome film made by friends of ours to document the first few weeks of the 2011/12 season here in Niseko. Non-stop snow throughout December made it one of the best on record. Here’s the proof!

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ON SALES DECEMBER2011

starring Hayato “bubbles” Maruyama Tomoki Takaku Osamu “oum” Okada Kenichi Miyashita Tomomi “sheesa” Kuwahara Gaku Nagata Atsushi Gomyo Kazushi Yamauchi Kensuke Numano Haruna Kito Arata Suzumura Nobuyuki Ohe Rip Zinger Makoto Yamada Hiromi Tatsumi Hideki Takeda Taro Tamai & more

director Taro Tamai

camera Taro Tamai Masaki Sekiguchi

edit Taro Tamai

online edit Masaki Sekiguchi / ebis films

artwork Kimiyasu Sano / influenza55 Genta Inoue / influenza55

assistant director Toshiko Chiba

music "How you doin, here we go" "Yeppers" Performed by Ray Barbee & The Mattson 2 Used by permission of galaxia, Fuji Pacific

"First Brain" "Open Mouth" Performed by Kaki King Used by permission of Hotwire K.K, P-VINE, Inc.

"Rising sun" Performed by Natural Calamity Used by permission of file records

"Summer Song" Words & Music By James Yorkston Performed by James Yorkston Used by permission of The Domino Recording and Publishing Companies Ltd
Victor Music Arts. inc,

"ホルヘのサイケデリック・ブーガルー" Performed by The Corona Used by permission of wataridori records

“Anemone” Words & Music By Anton Newcombe Performed by The Brian Jonestown Massacre Courtesy of “a recording LTD” Tepid Peppermint Wonderland / ASCAP

supported by HESTRA HID poc patagonia THE NORTH FACE THE SNOWSURF GENTEMSTICK

1% for the planet

Watch this video on Vimeo. Video created by GENTEMSTICK / THE SNOWSURF.

ASK anyone in Niseko why they’re here and 99.9% will answer “the powder!” Yes, the powder here is amazing, but compared to some of the big mo ...

We just finished a 2-day avalanche course with Black Diamond Tours. Super informative and a fun 2 days with JS. I can say with certainty that the course is just the tip of the iceberg in understanding our winter playground and puts us on the path of forever learning more. A great 2 days and I’m looking forward to digging some more pits this week to learn more. Snow is in pretty good shape but has a couple of funky layers to be aware and cautious of – a nice 4m snow pack out there in places – and it’s still December! What we missed...ouch. The avvy god... be kind to Niseko this year. Run Gavin Run. Practice Searching. Found the bag - alive! Beacon, Shovel, Probe. BDL Tours new location - the peak in full sun... Day 2 - off to dig some pits! Split Boards - awesome. Measuring the slope gradient. Stoked on shoveling. Digging the pit to do a full snow profile. Checking the layers in the snow. Super Slab! Looking at the layers in the snow pack. Krusty won 'the nicest pit digging contest' - smooth edges! Searching (for beacons instead of freshies) All found, all safe - home time.

Today we fired up The Cat for the first time this season… It’s fair to say THE CAT IS BACK! We’ve been monitoring the area closely and with a ton more snow than last year we are ready to go 2 weeks earlier than last season!! Nick and I spent the day digging, pushing and pulling snow, trees and a few rogue tanuki’s out of the way to get the Cat 90% of the way to the drop off point for the ski zone. With a little more work we’ll have full access and be ready to drop customers into what I can only describe and delicious, tits deep pow. The area is untouched since the first snowfall of the season so today we had a bow wave of powder coming off the front of the cat as we put the track in. Here’s a few shots of the days events starting from finding the cat to copping snow mushrooms on the head as we released trees that had been dragged to the ground with all the snow. Our first tour runs on the 2nd of January and the boys from Niseko Pizza who’ve booked our first trip of the season are in for an treat – I hope you like it deep, really deep… don’t forget your snorkels! Snow fall at the base. First Tracks. What's that? Here kitty kitty kitty...? There you are! ひさしぶり！ Crew Cut Cat. Before and after... Red and Yellow. Giddy up. Bring on winter. Trail Blazin' A bit of art.

“Japan was one of the most amazing ski trips I’ve been on, perhaps the best … We arrived to find scratchy conditions, but the next morning we awoke to about a foot of new snow and it didn’t stop for four days.” This is a fantastic film featuring Jen Hudak and Julian Carr. “The trip definitely was magical, and Japan has a special place in my heart,”

Read the full story and check out the awesome photos on the ESPN website. •••••••

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Result movie by russian freeride project RideThePlanet, season 2011. It was shot in December 2010 - April 2011 in the mountains of Russian Caucasus, Japan, Kashmir, Norway and Kamchatka. Freeriders: Kirill Anisimov, Konstantin Galat, Anna Hankevich, Egor Sorokin, Alexander Baydaev, Egor Druzhinin, Veronika Sorokina, Ivan Malakhov.

Movie first-show was presented 10th of November 2011 as part of RideThePlanet-2011 exhibition project, Moscow, Russia.

Authors of the RTP project: Konstantin Galat and Daria Pudenko. Cameras: Konstantin Churakov, Konstantin Galat, Daria Pudenko. Project photographers: Konstantin Galat, Andrey Britanishsky, Daria Pudenko, Ivan Chudakov. Post-production: Konstantin Galat and Konstantin Churakov. Animation: Yulia Aronova. Music selection: Daria Pudenko and Konstantin Galat.

Music: Kuba, Mindex, Astra*, That Noise, On-The-Go, The Dirty Skirts, Robot Disaster, Flevans, M-Seven, The Hype, Mochipet, NOjoMOreno, Quantic, Alexandr Bochagov, The Dirty Skirts, Alim Gazaev.

Результирующий фильм российского фрирайд-проекта RideThePlanet, сезон 2011. Фильм снимался с декабря 2010 по апрель 2011 в пяти горных регионах планеты: на российском Кавказе, в Японии, Кашмире, Норвегии и Камчатке. В съемках приняли участие лучшие российские фрирайдеры: Кирилл Анисимов, Константин Галат, Анна Ханкевич, Егор Сорокин, Александр Байдаев, Егор Дружинин, Вероника Сорокина, Иван Малахов.

Премьера фильма состоялась 10 ноября 2011 в ККЗ "Космос" в рамках Выставочного проекта RideThePlanet-2011 (9-13 ноября, Москва, Россия).

Операторы: Константин Чураков, Константин Галат, Дарья Пуденко. Фотографы проекта: Константин Галат, Андрей Британишский, Дарья Пуденко, Иван Чудаков. Монтаж & post production: Константин Чураков, Константин Галат. Анимация: Юлия Аронова. Подбор музыки: Константин Галат, Дарья Пуденко.

Музыка: Kuba, Mindex, Astra*, That Noise, On-The-Go, The Dirty Skirts, Robot Disaster, Flevans, M-Seven, The Hype, Mochipet, NOjoMOreno, Quantic, Александр Бочагов, The Dirty Skirts, Алим Газаев.

Movie total time: 1:03:43

(c)RideThePlanet ridetheplanet.ru

Watch this video on Vimeo. Video created by Konstantin Galat.

It’s been a great week for snow in Japan and many resorts in the northern half of the country are now open and have lifts turning. We were out riding in Niseko today and, after a metre of fresh over the last 48 hours, the snow was fresh & deep and everyone had a big smile on their faces. We’ll be bringing you videos and snow reports with more frequency as the season progresses to make sure you’re kept fully up to date with how much snow is falling here in Snow Country. In the meantime, we’d recommend watching this trailer for the upcoming Japanese snowboard film “S”Trippers & Powder Junkies to get you in the mood for winter. Featuring a host of talented and well known Japanese riders, everyone looks like they’re having a great time smashing park and powder all across the world and, of course, back in Japan. Be safe and have fun :D

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With a lot of snow falling across the country this week and some resorts opening as early as next week, Japan is a very exciting place to be right now! Due to the popularity of last week’s Friday Film we have more for you from the guys at Powder Detours. Check out their recent promo video which showcases a lot of the fantastic lift-accessible terrain across Hokkaido resorts. Light, fresh powder comes as standard.

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Awesome new video from our friends at Niseko Academy & Powder Detours. Check out the sublime conditions and gloriously deep powder. All scenes filmed in Niseko in March 2011.

The Powder Detours guys can help you maximize the amazing terrain & snow in Japan with techniques and tactics from their highly experienced coaches. Get in touch with us if you’d like to find out more.

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Some spring 2011 footage here giving you an idea how good conditions are in Niseko at the end of March. A one take wonder down a choice line. Check out rooster tails, jumps, bumps and high fives as the untracked powder gets smashed. Warning: Contains excitement induced whoops & bad language

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