Having watched the Warren Miller movies for the last 15 years or so I was thrilled to be able to have the team stay here for the filming of a segment for their next movie. It is the tenth anniversary of Johnny Mosely’s gold medal win at the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998 and to celebrate he brought his whole family out to enjoy Hakuba without the stress of competition.

He joined up with one of his competitors, Takehiro Sakamoto to shoot some great freeriding in the Hakuba backcountry and I had the privilege of being able to join them out on the mountain and get some fresh lines with these two exceptional skiers. It was also great to head out to dinner with the crew and listen to their stories of traveling around the globe working with the Warren Miller film company.

Thanks guys for a week to remember!

Don't forget your camera. Everywhere you look in Hakuba there are photo opportunities. Powder days showing plumes of snow on every turn or blue sky days showing off the massive mountain range they call the Japanese Alps.

So many great days of powder already this season. Too many in fact to choose a favourite day however when we took the whole hotel up to Cortina on a bluebird powder day it was good to see everybody having such a great time. Lots of great people coming through as guests and leaving as friends.

A great day up at Iwatake. The New Year crowds had gone home and the boys hit the cruisey runs of Iwatake and then off to the onsen to stew in a pot for a while.

A great night had by all at the White Horse Bar. Everybody had a great powder day up on the hill and were very happy to see the New Year in over a few drinks and knowing that the first day of 2008 was going to offer up more fresh tracks.

The snow started to fall on the 30th and decided to absolutely dump down for the next three days. Over 2 meters fell which was one of the biggest snow events to hit Hakuba in 10 years. Lots of digging and clearing to do to ensure everyone was able to get up on the mountain and enjoy the powder.

If you are driving to Hakuba just remember you may have to shift a bit of snow just to get to your car. We eventually got Jack and Tanya's car out.