A Visit to the Makino Ski Area, Part 2
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Plummeting At Breakneck Speed -- Makino Ski Area -- Takashima, Shiga, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/2000 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Plummeting At Breakneck Speed
The Joy of the Crash for Anthony, the whole point is to crash -- Makino Ski Area -- Takashima, Shiga, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/640 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
The Joy of the Crash
for Anthony, the whole point is to crash

The weather during our visit to the Makino Ski Area wasn't the only thing that was wild... some sledding was pretty wild, too.

Each run started with a long climb....

Clawing Up The Final Few Meters -- Makino Ski Area -- Takashima, Shiga, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 44 mm — 1/160 sec, f/16, ISO 320 — map & image datanearby photos
Clawing Up The Final Few Meters

It's difficult to show the steepness. It was pretty steep. Few people actually ventured all the way to the top of the groomed area, where we came a few times...

Vista from the Top -- Makino Ski Area -- Takashima, Shiga, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/160 sec, f/16, ISO 320 — map & image datanearby photos
Vista from the Top

It was exactly like the safe and wholesome summertime sledding I wrote about in “Slippery Green Slidy Day of Fun”, except for two little things: the cold, and the ever-present threat of a horrible and painful death.

If you started at the top and weren't careful, you'd be completely out of control before you got half way down, and even worse, there were some spine-compressing moguls hidden at the bottom, and if you hit them at speed, you were in for a world of hurt. So, like skiing, the ever-present danger of disfigurement or death added to, er, the thrill.

I could keep control fine, so Anthony and I went together sometimes from the top, but he never did by himself. He did go from lower down by himself plenty of times...

Not Sure What He's Gotten Himself Into he'd veered off course, to a much bumpier area near the edge -- Makino Ski Area -- Takashima, Shiga, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62 mm — 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Not Sure What He's Gotten Himself Into
he'd veered off course, to a much bumpier area near the edge
About To Catch Some Air -- Makino Ski Area -- Takashima, Shiga, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
About To Catch Some Air
The Only Possible Outcome wipeout -- Makino Ski Area -- Takashima, Shiga, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
The Only Possible Outcome
wipeout
Yup, Wiped Out -- Makino Ski Area -- Takashima, Shiga, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Yup, Wiped Out

Our first foray into sledding didn't last long, but it was really fun. Eventually we went back to skiing...

Practicing Control unlike sledding, crashing on skis not so fun -- Makino Ski Area -- Takashima, Shiga, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 56 mm — 1/160 sec, f/22, ISO 1000 — map & image datanearby photos
Practicing Control
unlike sledding, crashing on skis not so fun
Enter Exhibit A -- Makino Ski Area -- Takashima, Shiga, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/160 sec, f/13, ISO 360 — map & image datanearby photos
Enter Exhibit A

He was going fairly slowly and I was planning on taking a shot as he zipped by, but he suddenly crashed — the only time all day — and did not like the experience at all, especially the super-ouchie thumb that resulted. I worried that he'd seriously sprained it, so ran to the ski patrol to get some ice (just joking, I grabbed a handful of snow, silly) and he liked that even less. So, I thought it was a good time to break for lunch.

Kitsune Udon through the fog condensing on my cold lens -- Makino Ski Area -- Takashima, Shiga, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2200 — map & image datanearby photos
Kitsune Udon
through the fog condensing on my cold lens

He had trouble with the chopsticks at first because of his thumb, but by the time we were done, he'd forgotten about his injury. Refreshed and healed, we then went back for some real sledding....

Continued here...


One comment so far...

I want to sled down that hill!
That looked like a lot of fun. Anthony is now a much more experienced skier then I am. But it’s the sledding that I envy.
I hope you also took some time to make a snowman with him at some point in these last snow-related posts. We just had a surprise snowstorm that left the best possible quality of packing snow. The kids and I made the Best Snowman Ever (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkreta/4341243916/) which only lasted until a) it began to rain very hard and b) Josh had as much fun knocking him down as he did building him.
Had it not started raining, I was planning on waiting until the kids were taking naps and do some Calvin&Hobbes-esque snowmen out in the front yard. Oh well. Maybe next time.

— comment by Marcina, USA on February 10th, 2010 at 4:07am JST (14 years, 8 months ago) comment permalink
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