Still Life new story online

In February I had the chance to stay at the Onsen House in Chisei and shoot with HF and crew for a few days! Amazing snow, perfect lodging, nice food, and a hot spring that empowers the body! Check out the double slide show of photos from the trip after the link!

http://www.honeyee.com/feature/2013/stilllife/

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Kyashar Expedition movie!

A movie I produced recently for THE NORTH FACE Japan, check out the amazing story of the teams climb as told by Hiroyoshi Manome!

Expedition to Kyashar South Pillar First Ascent
“The Nima Line”
Climbing team: Yasuhiro Hanatani, Hiroyoshi Manome, Tatsuya Aoki
Kyashar Expedition dates: 2012/11/6~12

The Japanese climbing team including THE NORTH FACE alpine climber Hiroyoshi Manome succeeded in summiting Kyashar (6760m) in the Khumbu region of Nepal on the previously unclimbed south pillar. Leaving base camp on the 6th of November they climbed for five days to reach the peak on the 11th at 4pm. Hiroyoshi Manome describes the climb in detail in this in-depth interview. Photos and video from the climb show the simplicity of the alpine style with which they climbed. The first in a new series from THE NORTH FACE Japan “The Climbers Story” “The Nima Line”

“The Nima Line”
キャシャール峰(6760m)南ピラー 初登攀
Date:2012.11/6~12
Member:花谷泰広/Yasuhiro Hanatani(36歳)、馬目弘仁/Hiroyoshi Manome(43歳)、青木達哉/Tatsuya Aoki(28歳)

ネパールヒマラヤ・クーンブ山群にあるキャシャ―ル峰(6760m)アルパインスタイルによる南リッジのピラー初登攀に成功しました。
2012年10月14日に日本を出発した一行は現地到着後、高度順化のためにメラピーク(6,654m)でプレ登山を行いました。その後3日間の休養を挟んだ後、目指すキ­ャシャ―ル峰にアタックを開始しました。11月6日から行動を開始し、脆い岩や不安定な雪、傾斜の強い壁に登攀は困難を極めましたが11月11日午後4時頃登頂。
登りでは5回ビバーク、下りは1回のビバークを余儀なくされました、翌12日午前9時30分頃、視界が悪く何度かルートを見失いながらもふもとのロッジに到着し、登山が無­事終わりました。

UK Snow Film Festival is back

Just agreed to have the new Car Danchi NO.5 shown in the UK at the next edition of “Snow Films Festival” If you are in the UK please check out the movie on the big screen there. We will be showing with Tanner Halls new film “Retallack the movie! An honor for sure!

Check out their website for more details etc.,

UK Snow Films Festival

Major Charity auction going on

A major gathering of the Surf, Skate, Snow, art and music cultures for this great charity Auction. All proceeds to go to the victims of the 3/11 Great Tohoku Earthquake.

Just follow the link below to check it out. Find a name of an athlete you like and click it. You will then be shown what they have donated and have the chance to make a bid. There is tons of great stuff, alot of it very rare one of a kind items.

Glycogen web site is here.

Check out what Masa Takeuchi has put up for bid!

And the present big price is.

There are so many people donating that they divided the auction into groups. Each group goes for about two weeks. So keep checking back every now and then and spend as much as you possibly can! Thanks for the support!

Happy New year

Happy New Year everyone!  Hope you all had a successful 2008 and wishing you an even better 2009.  My New Year has started off with a bang, in the form of a big low pressure bringing over a meter of snow in the last two days.  It is quite warm, with rain in the city, but here in the mountains it has been non-stop snow, a wet heavy snow that piles up really fast.  Spent over three hours working together with my neighbor to clear the yard.  Here is a look at what I had to deal with the first day of 2009!

New Years Eve, it starts dumping.

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Clearing the yard before dinner and drinks.  My neighbor gave me some Japanese sake called “Doboroku.”  That stuff knocked me out, so I was asleep on the living room floor by 11:30pm, missed the countdown, woke up after midnight and crawled to my bed.

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Somehow the photos don’t do the amount of snow justice.  It is actually worse then it looks.

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Cleaning off the roof of the storage shed.

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Almost can’t get out of the house.

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Where did my sled go?

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Mt Everest in the backyard.

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… and there is more on the way.

Santa arrived

Santa decided to show up a little late with this years present! Woke up to 35 cm of powder in the front yard this morning! Was planning to go riding, but decided to cancel, too much snow!  The roads are going to be crazy, will wait for the night riding or tomorrow.
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Before shoveling
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After shoveling…. not much change, it just keeps snowing!

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Nature this morning

Damn it was cold this morning.  I am still keeping with my running program, so this morning when I walked out the door at 6:30 am to take my jog, it was like walking into a massive freezer.  -12 degrees, but felt even colder.  My lips felt like they were going to fall off after about two kilometers!  The weather was perfect today, not a cloud in the sky, so decided to shoot a few nature shots before working in the office.

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Its dumping!

Woke up a little late this morning, walked to the living room and was treated to a view of white mountains all around. The freezing level came down to our house sometime during the night as the cars were covered with a thin layer of snow!


Oh man just a few more weeks and Hokkaido will be open for riding! Check out the Nakayama web cam for live update on the snow.