Girls Snowboard Progression Camp & Retreat

What’s included?

Skill Level: Intermediate – Advanced Snowboarder
2012 Camp Dates: Sun 29 January – Sun 12 February 2012
Price: £2600 per person

Included:

• 14 Nights Luxury Accommodation (including breakfast)
• Coaching sessions from top professional snowboarder Vicci Miller
• Direct transfer from Tokyo Narita Airport to Hakuba
• Return transfer from Hakuba to Tokyo
• Lift Tickets
• Snow Monkey Onsen Day Trip
• Yoga Sessions with a professional instructor
• 1 Night in Tokyo & guided tour
• Goodie bag, Snow Season Japan t-shirt… and lots more!

Boutique accommodation on the doorstep of the resort

Our camp is based at the beautiful boutique Gakuto Villas, just a few minutes walk from the ski lifts of Happo One, Hakuba’s biggest resort (and also Japan’s biggest vertical drop). Relax and rejuvenate in this luxury accommodation. Explore the great selection of surrounding restaurants, bars and onsen hot springs. The chic two-story villas each have two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a fully equipped kitchen.

• Features: Fireplace, heated bamboo flooring, bath tub, ski rack at entrance, free wi-fi, LCD flat screen TV, DVD player, iPod dock, cable TV with Japanese and English channels, private karaoke room.
• Amenities: Towels, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, body cream.
• Services: Free daily shuttle to Hakuba town.
• Breakfast: In villa Western or Japanese style breakfast.

Meet your coach!

Say hello to British professional snowboarder Vicci Miller. A prominent figure in women’s snowboarding, Vicci is your coach for our 2012 camp in Hakuba. Inspirational and super fun to ride with, she’s officially our shredding hero. Vicci holds a wealth of experience in coaching all over Europe. Her freeride and freestyle focused coaching sessions will give you the confidence, skills and inspiration you need to improve your powder and terrain park riding technique over our two week camp in powder heaven Japan.

Vicci lives in Grenoble, France and rides, coaches and films throughout the European Alps during winter. She loves to travel to snowboard and winter 2012 will be her 4th trip to Japan! Competing twice in the Burton Asian Open and contributing to the award winning travel guide book ‘Snow-search Japan’ as a resort reviewer, Vicci loves it here. “Japan is unlike any terrain I have ever seen, the parks are progressive and the pistes edge out to endless trees and powder, with no one in them.”

Vicci is sponsored by: Oakley, Bataleon Snowboards, FST Gloves, 32 Boots. Vicci loves a good balance of freeriding and freestyle, pushing herself at every turn. Her snowboarding achievements to date include: TTR Candy Jam, TTR O’ Neill Pro, Queen of the Valpark 2010/2011, and Queen of the Mountain, Snowbombing. Her snowboard film appearances include: Harakiri Productions 10/11 and Lipstick Productions 2011.

Welcome to our powder playground

Hakuba
Our camp is located in the heart of the beautiful Japanese Alps mountain range, in the resort village of Hakuba, famous for hosting the 1998 Winter Olympics. Hakuba is home to 11 resorts, 130+ lifts, 13m annual snowfalls and some of the best variety of terrain in Japan. Sitting under 3000m peaks, the scenery will blow you away… and we haven’t even mentioned the deep powder yet. Hakuba commonly receives 1m+ dumps of fresh goodness overnight. We love waking up to that on our doorstep!

The Resorts
With so many resorts lining the valley, the terrain choices are endless. Our coaching days are based at Happo Resort, home to some incredible free-riding and the High Cascade Terrain Park (the lifts are just a few mins from your boutique accommodation) and Cortina Resort, located a little further up the valley which offers the best tree riding in Japan, if not the planet and legendary huge snowfalls! Trust us, it’s nothing short of epic. You’ll have 11 riding days – 9 of these days will include a coaching session with Vicci (lift tickets included) leaving 2 free days to explore any of the other Hakuba resorts… the choice is yours!

Eating, Drinking & Onsens
The Gakuto Villas are set in the beautiful upmarket Wadano forest area of Hakuba, at the foot of Happo One Resort. Just step out the door and you’ll discover a huge variety of bars, restaurants and party spots, all buried under metres of snow! Everything from traditional Japanese Izakaya bars serving up Yakitori (grilled chicken skewers) and Sake, and family run Soba (buckwheat noodles) restaurants to our favourite Mexican at the bottom of the gondola. Don’t speak a word of Japanese? Don’t worry, we’ll be there to show you all the best places and explain everything. There’s also the option to cook, as each villa has a fully equipped kitchen and shuttles to the supermarket are provided. Hakuba is home to one of the best apres-ski scenes in Japan, with plenty of events and DJ parties happening all over the village. Japan is also famous for it’s natural thermal onsen hot springs, which you’ll find no shortage of in Hakuba. An essential Japanese experience not to be missed! Soothe away the aches and pains of a long day riding powder in one of Hakuba’s many natural mineral onsen baths.

Girls Snowboard Progression Camp & Retreat
Sunday 29 January – Sunday 12 February 2012

Sunday 29 January – Arrival at Tokyo Narita International Airport. Direct transfer to Gakuto Villas in Hakuba.
Monday 30 January – Coaching session, Happo resort. Evening Yoga session.
Tuesday 31 January – Coaching session, Happo resort.
Wednesday 1 February – Coaching session, Happo resort. Evening Yoga session.
Thursday 2 February – Coaching session, Cortina resort.
Friday 3 February – Free day to ride anywhere and explore!
Saturday 4 February – Coaching session, Happo resort.
Sunday 5 February – Coaching session, Happo resort. Evening Yoga session.
Monday 6 February –  Coaching session, Cortina resort.
Tuesday 7 February – Snow Monkey Onsen Day Trip.
Wednesday 8 February – Coaching session, Happo resort. Evening Yoga session.
Thursday 9 February – Free day to ride anywhere and explore!
Friday 10 February – Coaching session, Cortina resort.
Saturday 11 February – Depart for Tokyo in the morning. Afternoon tour of Tokyo and group dinner at Izakaya restaurant which was the inspiration for the famous fight scene in Quentin Tarantino’s film, Kill Bill.
Sunday 12 February – Time to say farewell! Onwards travel in Japan or depart Tokyo Narita Airport for home countries.

What they say about us…

“Great people, great food, loved the onsens. And the snow… I’ve never seen anything like it! As a lone traveller booking with Snow Season Japan provided a nice little safety net of some friendly faces on the other side of the world. And very friendly they were! Sarah and Andy from Snow Season Japan were absolutely brilliant. So friendly, knowledgeable, organised and generous with their time.”
Lucie Crichlow, 2011 client

“I would highly recommend Snow Season Japan without a doubt. It’s a very unique experience, and Sarah and Andy were so on top of everything. They made the whole experience that little bit more incredible. My overall experience was something I will never forget. Apart from the insane powder everyday, Japan is such an interesting culture and I loved learning about it’s history and ways.”
Kate Merrall, 2011 client