Kingofmyrrh 0 Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 After a failure to summit on a previous solo effort (http://www.snowjapanforums.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/268304#Post268304), I was determined to get to the top this time. To this end I recruited Dan and Tsondaboy as my companions for the second attempt. We also planned out a new route that would not involve the unnecessary 1,000m bonus vertical climb that I had taken on last time. Previous failed route New improved route We decided to leave the evening before in order to make as early a start as possible. Driving through Tokyo in the early evening was a pleasure, with Omotesando providing ample opportunities to view girls sporting the latest spring fashions. Sadly I was messing around with my camera and only ended up getting some random blurry shots. We hit the access road early and were ready to hike shortly after six. On the approach I took a fancy to the S-shaped gully on looker's left. I imagined it as a giant halfpipe but needless to say my sense of scale was completely out of whack with it being much larger when we finally got there. Peeping out of the forest From the trailhead: Traversing across we soon got to skinning, the icy surface providing some initial diffiulties before the morning sun did its good work. Knowing that Dan is a skinning and bootpacking machine, whenever we took a brief break I made sure to get going again a couple of minutes ahead of the others to give myself a little breathing room. I knew that I would be overtaken before long but it was a pretty good strategy for me to feel that I wasn't holding him up too badly. It was only Tsondaboy's second attempt at skinning (on a splitboard) but there was no hesitation in acknowledging that it was far superior to using snowshoes. Start of the journey Dan on my tail I'm overtaken already... Splitboard action Just above 3,000m we began to encounter more icy conditions with some tiresome switchbacking across a chute bordered by rocky ridges. At this point we decided to switch to bootpacking. Tsondaboy didn't fancy his chances of an enjoyable descent after lugging his board around on his back, and decided to head down. I guess skis do rule after all. Dan and I pressed on. I was a little unprepared for how tiring bootpacking would prove to be at elevation, to say the least. For the first hundred metres or so, it felt like my skis were being pulled towards the centre of the earth (well obviously they were thanks to our friend gravity, but you know what I mean), and I found myself scrambling on hands and knees more than a couple of times despite the relatively gentle gradient. Clouds close on our tails As the gradient began to gradually increase and the ice crust slickened, Dan attempted to buoy my spirits by informing me that the horizon ahead of us was the summit. I knew that this was not true, and he admitted that he had just been trying to encourage me later on, but I appreciated the gesture. There was no thought in my mind of turning around, but it's always nice to feel that you are actually getting close to the goal! At this point I was happy to be able to switch to boot crampons. The previous day I had wondered whether I really need buy them or if in fact I was just being a needless gear whore, but they turned out to be an excellent purchase. At points the ice became so sheer that I had to break trail for Dan (who had no crampons), although to be honest I'm not sure that the sparrow-like imprints left by my unsteady steps really provided much in the way of assistance. Anyway, we pressed on for the gap in the rock band that would be our next rest point. So far... Keep going! Almost there Upon arrival I was stunned to find out that we had both been wrong - it had in fact been the summit crater. I was pretty relieved as the almost 3,800m altitude was definitely starting to have an effect on my sea-level body, each step proving to be a serious effort. The last stretch had been much, much harder than aniticipated, but that just made the arrival all the more satisfying. Dan, fresh from a few weeks at altitude in Hakuba, didn't seem particularly bothered by the height and provided a further nice surprise by pulling out a summit beer. Made it! Cheers! Beer on altitude sickness... not as tasty as it should have been... As I really wasn't feeling so great we decided to head down sooner rather than later. It was amazing how quickly my vigour returned within a couple of minutes of starting the descent as we lost hard-earned altitude. The snow at the top was extremely icy and riding over the wind formations felt like taking a ride down a dirt road in a car with no suspension. Soon enough though things softened up with occasional pockets of wind-packed powder on the upper stretches and consistent perfect corn down below. The clouds that had been trailing us up the mountain had cleared as we summited, allowing continuous views of the distant Japan Alps as we descended. Submerged rocks provided a custom slalom course as we neared the end of the line, but serious damage was avoided. Launch Dan! Launch KOM! Doing what we came to do, with views of the Japan Alps! When we got to the bottom, we realised we had been making a huge mistake all along. Some people never learn. Although it isn't the toughest mountain in the world it was big achievement for me and I felt great all the way home. Dan's energy finally ran out and he was quieter than me for once! Thanks guys for a great trip! Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 thanks for the report, looks like a good day out, crampon-less Dan must have felt a tad vulnerable up there though. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 too bad he didnt grab mine from FTs last time he was in Haks, he coulda borrowed em. Thanks for the TR King Link to post Share on other sites
Rag-Doll 0 Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 WoooooHoooo! Well done. You guys walked up the same face that my mate and I rode down! The horizon photo shows our drop in point. That was fairly steepish in parts, it might have made your climb a little more difficult than it needed to be. Maybe. Well done though, and thanks for sharing. 3,800ish meters is fairly high and the alt does tend to kick a bit. For me, a quick 5 min recce for a drop in point left me lying on the snow with a splitting head ache Link to post Share on other sites
tsondaboy 0 Posted May 9, 2008 Share Posted May 9, 2008 It was a pleasure to do the trip with ya guys, I am the one now that still have scores to settle with the mountain. To be honest, although I was not that much tired when a decided to go down and although Dan did his best to convince me to keep on going, I took that decision because you guys would not have made it to the top in time. It was obvious I was slowing you down so I preferred to give you the chance to make it to the top since this was your second attempt and I will try again in the future. The split is great, I almost feel sorry for the guys that have to hike on snowshoes! First real ascent I did with it and made a 1000 vert on a constant 25~30 deg gradient. Great day guys. Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted May 9, 2008 Share Posted May 9, 2008 Good TR Glad you made it! Link to post Share on other sites
Mike Pow 52 Posted May 9, 2008 Share Posted May 9, 2008 Congratulations. Thanks for this. Looks very reminiscent of the slog up Mt Saint Helens in Washington State, USA. Link to post Share on other sites
Ewok 2 1 Posted May 9, 2008 Share Posted May 9, 2008 x 5 great to see this especially after seeing the failure one, good good king-san Link to post Share on other sites
ianbc 0 Posted May 10, 2008 Share Posted May 10, 2008 cool moves dudes, how long did it take to get up there? Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted May 11, 2008 Share Posted May 11, 2008 Good stuff! Link to post Share on other sites
sock_monkey 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Nice work, guys! Looks like the conditions were a lot better this time (and way better then when I did it). You guys took the opposite route from the one we took. We went up from the South. I'm really glad you were able to try it again and get that tick mark. Tsonda, I'll be looking forward to hearing about your 2nd attempt in the future. Link to post Share on other sites
lumiukko 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Omedetou!! A really big congrats to you guys!! What an inspiration! I just wish I had done it too..........the ski back down must have been immense! I remember climbing fuji in the summer and thought what a bitch to get back down, if only there was snow to snowboard down........next time I must try it in the winter!! How long was the climb up and did you start from the base or 5th station? Link to post Share on other sites
tsondaboy 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 We plan to try once more with the first snow in November. I am getting used more and more to skin up so by then I hope it wont be a problem. It took us 3.5 hours to skin up to about 3200 m from 5th station (2300 m), I am not sure how more it took the guys to reach the top from there, but from the communication we had I would say another 2.5-3 hours. Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Youll need a least a meter of snow before you can run Fuji in November. Link to post Share on other sites
tsondaboy 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Yeah, we have to keep an eye on the weather and conditions before we attempt to hike up again. Also we have to plan our route better and maybe start hiking up earlier. Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 You had better plan cause youll have to cross the slide paths Link to post Share on other sites
Kingofmyrrh 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Author Share Posted May 12, 2008 Originally Posted By: tsondaboy We plan to try once more with the first snow in November. I am getting used more and more to skin up so by then I hope it wont be a problem. It took us 3.5 hours to skin up to about 3200 m from 5th station (2300 m), I am not sure how more it took the guys to reach the top from there, but from the communication we had I would say another 2.5-3 hours. Oh my god am I featured in this "we"? It's going to be a while before I feel like taking on that mountain again, at least with my current setup. Since I realised that I do enjoy the big hike I think I might shift the dukes to the brockers and then get dynafits for this kind of thing next year. I think it took us roughly seven hours to get to the top, largely because my pace slowed quite a lot towards the end. Link to post Share on other sites
tsondaboy 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Sure mate if you want, why not. Dan popped the idea and I am keen. Still its just an idea for the time being not a plan or commitment. Link to post Share on other sites
Kingofmyrrh 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Author Share Posted May 12, 2008 Cool. I actually quite liked our route as we basically walked up the area we were going to ski so it was easy to check conditions. But it was probably one of the steeper approaches. Can you believe it, I do Fuji twice without any problem and then I get a blister on my heel doing a light jaunt at Kagura!?! I knew something felt a little sore but I never dreamed that the skin had actually ripped... hope it sorts itself out quickly! I was looking around for webcams... wonder how long this will last (taken now, may update itself every hour): Looks yummy. Link to post Share on other sites
tsondaboy 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Originally Posted By: Kingofmyrrh Can you believe it, I do Fuji twice without any problem and then I get a blister on my heel doing a light jaunt at Kagura!?! I knew something felt a little sore but I never dreamed that the skin had actually ripped... hope it sorts itself out quickly! Thats because we had a faster pace than Fuji last weekend. We did twice a 400 m vert hike in 45-60 mins when on Fuji it took us 3.5 hours to do 900 m. We had a far better pace last weekend. speaking of which, I am tempted to do 1 more day trip to kagura. It seems that its going to be pretty cool up there all week. Quote: Cool. I actually quite liked our route as we basically walked up the area we were going to ski so it was easy to check conditions. But it was probably one of the steeper approaches. Like Dan said about our route, we would not have taken that route in mid season and would be definitely skiing it down before 10-11 AM. We hiked straight up an avalanche path. In new snow I would prefer the Yasuda route. What webcam is that? Link to post Share on other sites
Kingofmyrrh 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Author Share Posted May 12, 2008 You could rephrase that to 2.5hrs to do 800m, as the first hour was so painfully slow... we were slipping around and I was a bit worried! I'm not that keen to hike Fuji outside of spring... I know it's unlikely to slide, but are there any safe zones on the other side? When I hiked it it was just basically one vast face. Also it would be a real slog to break trail in fresh snow, and the weather would be most unpleasant unless we got another sweet day like this time, although certainly not impossible. That webcam is Tateyama. I think I want to take things in that direction going forward, although it would take a lot of planning. Kagura was totally sweet on Saturday but I would normally prefer it as a light powder hike, I think spring may call for bigger things in the future. Am just checking out a great TR on Yarigatake (the one in Kamikochi, not the one next to Shirouma). Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Tateyama got new snow you can see the new slides. Kamikouchi is a debris mess this season, Heard from friends. Tateyama wouldnt take much planning if you stayed in a lodge there. Stay in the one in that saddle and you can be on the peak very quickly. I would carry crampons just in case. the little cheap 4 pin ones wounld be fine enough really. Fuji in November??? No mountians to shelter you usally means shear ice. My father inlaw spent 2 months in the hospital after death sliding down Fuji. Link to post Share on other sites
Stuntcok 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Yah king, Dukes on Gotes with Alpine boots are not for long hikes at all. I was most impressed that you even tried, to be honest. Dan did something like 20 tour days in a row this spring and sports touring boots with ultralight touring bindings and skis. The difference is massive. Link to post Share on other sites
Kingofmyrrh 0 Posted May 12, 2008 Author Share Posted May 12, 2008 I would probably stick with the gotes for the time being, they're not super heavy or anything and I quite like their shorter length specifically for picking my way through obstacle courses, and I'm just really comfortable on them in general, but I am 100% ready to swap the dukes and alpine boots for something a little sleeker, to say the least... Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts