actually i found it easier to just:
1.)when riding on the snowboard, you eventually reach a fork. take the right. you pass the kamikaze snowmen and take another right. you will land somewhere(i forgot). keep going northeast if possible, and when you reach a T-junction (that doesn't look like a T-junction, it only looks like a one-way path), take a right.eventually you will be at the hot springs....
2.)yes, the best place to train is the north crater. when you reach the fork, tell everyone to go left. then you reach another fork: up or down. down leads to some good materia and items, but up leads to a HELL of a lot better training place. You can fight magic pots that will give you a LOT of exp, and sometimes you will run into a fight with "Movers" (which is also in FFVI). They will give no exp but about 9000 AP!