FEATURES - Boarding Fuji

[SnowJapan.Com#3 0]

A new feature - "Boarding Fuji" by Glen Falting - has been put online.

 

http://www.snowjapan.com/e/features/features-boarding-fuji.html

 

"It's 4:30 a.m. and none of the staff are awake when we unlock the front door of the hotel and load our gear into the rental van. I’m a bit worried that if someone wakes, they’ll think we’re skipping out without paying. But no one stirs, which is just as well. It would be difficult for us to explain in our broken Japanese that we're just on our way to climb and then snowboard down Mount Fuji and that we'll return later.

 

My friend Oli (a fellow rider who also moonlights as a lawyer) and I comprise the summit team, while our wives hold down base camp in a local town's cafe. Oli and I do a lot of snowboarding together. We work for the same law firm in Tokyo, and together we've explored many of the ski resorts around Japan. This past season, equipped with snowshoes and avalanche gear, we started to explore the hills and backcountry readily accessible from the local resorts. As they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and after a few days' worth of backcountry experience, Oli and I are both confident that we can take on Ol' Man Fuji."

 

http://www.snowjapan.com/e/features/features-boarding-fuji.html

 

Some extra photos as well:

http://www.snowjapan.com/e/features/features-boarding-fuji-photos.html

 

Please note that the views expressed in any Features on Snow Japan are not necessarily those of Snow Japan.

 

Discuss it here...

[brit-gob 9]

Fab! I'd like to do that one day

[minus 1]

Nice one Glen, enjoyed reading that and the pics

[Rag-Doll 0]

Thanks Guys. I wrote up the piece a while ago as a bit of fun. It’s a great memory to have of my time in Japan.

[grungy-gonads 54]

Thanks for that, interesting. Was it cold up there?

[Rag-Doll 0]

GG - it was pretty cold. We ended the climb wearing our gloves and most of our boarding gear. The wind across the top of the crater was pretty fierce. Getting caught on the mountain in bad weather would not be good for the health. If you could get good weather earlier in the season when the snow was still decent it would be a fantastic ride down but the avie danger and the possibility of the weather closing in are good enough reasons to put up with crap snow in May.

[scouser 4]

Sounds like fun.

 

Well, the down part anyway.......

[grungy-gonads 54]

Thanks rag-doll. I like the pics too, bet you took a lot of them!

[Curt 1]

You'd think NTT would have got a keitai tower going on up there by now....

[me jane 0]

Docomo works no probs up there. It's the other carriers that don't.

[Curt 1]

Silly me!

[Rag-Doll 0]

I was uing J-Phone..only slightly better than two tins and some string.

[Karnidge 2]

I really enjoyed that thanks Rag Doll. (Shame about the phone, hey?) Would like to do that myself.

[Rag-Doll 0]

Thanks Karnidge. It's actually not that hard to do. We hired a van, went up the day before to do a recce and climbed the next day.

 

The trick is getting the right weather.

[2pints-mate 0]

Does anyone attempt to do this in winter?

[echineko 1]

I tried to read it all but there is so much. The babel online translator made some strange things also! but it is very interesting thank you.

[Rag-Doll 0]

Thanks Echineko. I'm sure it will come back to haunt me when I'm telling my daughter not to ride out of bounds in a few years time, but it was fun to do and it's not everyone who can say they have snowboarded down a live volcano

 

2pints - mate, I have not heard of anybody doing it. There would be some pretty serious wind crust on the upper slopes and it would be bloody cold.

[SKI 15]

It sure would. I've not heard of it but I'm sure some people will try.

[damian 0]

Lucky bugger. I really regret never doing Fuji. I didn't know crap about mountaineering when I left Tokyo so probably best I didn't attempt it. Nice story though. What's up with the bit about the snow not being soft or deep enough to use snow shoes? What are you using, flatland Elma Fud duck hunting snow shoes?? I know I sound like a broken record, but I love my snow shoes on ice or packed snow and often walk on mixed snow and rock, so long as it isn't steep. MSR snow shoes are like all terrain vehicles, tough and lots of grip. Also very useful for wet slippery rock patches in the snow line when crampons would be over-kill.

 

Good on you for not giving up.

[Rag-Doll 0]

"What are you using, flatland Elma Fud duck hunting snow shoes??"

 

 

Kind of sounds that way doesn't it. We were carrying 1230 Atlas shoes. We were moving from rocks to snow to rocks and back again most of the way up. It was often a close call as to whether it was easier to use the shoes or keep to the rocks and existing tracks. With hindsight we should have at least tried them on the conditions – it might have saved some effort.

 

By the way, I’m very impressed with your recent efforts. Please do keep posting your TRs, it’s great to be able to share the adventure. What safety/first aid gear do you carry? Would your girlfriend be strong enough to get you off the mountain if you were incapacitated?

[damian 0]

It's good fun, hey! I am trying to arrange one more mountaineering/boarding trip next week but failing terribly at this stage. I also promised SJ.com a feature about Mont Blanc, but was to busy surfing to write.... perhaps soon.

 

Snowshoes: get yourself a pair of MSR Denali Ascents. They are as tough as buggery and really work well. Excellent equipment for snow and low angle mixed rock/snow/ice travel. I have my doubts about the very latest super light MSR shoes (orange ones). But that is another topic. None the less, good tough grippy snow shoes and poles are a vital combo in snowboard touring (if you dont split, that is)

 

As for our safety gear.... in addition to beacon, shovel and probe, mobile phone:

 

I have a little waterproof tough bag. It is called my 'emergency bag' and is surprisingly compact and holds the following.

- spare thermal base layer

- spare beanie

- spare thin gloves (basic woollen ones)

- small gas canister

- really tiny gas burner

- tea bags and sugar

- cig lighter

- mini head torch

- list of phone numbers incl. local rescue numbers

- spare beacon batteries

 

Most of that stuff is useful after you are rescued from an avalanche and are freezing cold, wet to the skin and in shock, or if you simply get caught is appalling weather and have to spend the night at 3000m in a snow cave. My girlfriend carries her own equivalent bag.

 

We also carry

- Emergency sleeping bag (vacuum packed so very small but warm. We have one each). http://www.blizzardprotectionsystems.com/acatalog/index.html#prod_bag

- metal hiking cup pushed onto the end of my PET water bottle (it is a perfect fit)

- one compass each, and I have an altimeter watch.

 

There is another smaller waterproof bag that carries the first aid stuff. We don't take much.

- mixed strong pain killers and anti-inflammatory

- a sling

- a long elastic bandage for splinting

- one SAM splint (light and very useful)

- bandaids for blisters.

 

Then I have a small bag with non-essentials:

- multi-tool

- duck tape

- 2 feet of bicycle inner tube (essential for snowboard binding strap replacement*)

- 1 foot of 1mm wire

 

>>Would your girlfriend be strong enough to get you off the mountain if you were incapacitated?

I have a lot of confidence and trust in my girlfriend. Se is level headed, immensely strong willed and independently capable. Once she gets a bit more alpine experience she would be able to assist me in nearly any accident that incapacitated me. She has undertaken her Level 1 avalanche course with me and we always talk through different scenarios of disaster in the car and as we tour. Her beacon search skills are excellent. She has performed really well in several multiple burial simulations (4 victims), including digging out 'victims' buried down to 1m. The only thing she cant do is set up a Z-pulley (or similar) required to pull me out of a crevasse. It works like a block-and-tackle ratio pulley. If I am unable to prussic out due to injury then she has to haul me out, and setting up the required system on your own is hard work. We very seldom tour unguided on glaciers, but when we do we are wearing harnesses and roped up to arrest the other person's fall (quite easy to do). Our crevasse exit strategy is to always stop the situation getting any worse and if the other can't climb out, we call for help. This is not uncommon in Chamonix. So long as you can contain the situation, have the correct equipment and call for help, yo are ok (alpine heli rescue is also free in the Haute Savoie region of France, so long as you were not taking stupid risks). Next season she will have to get ice screws, a camming device like a Ropeman, clips and slings etc (basic crevasse rescue kit) and do a course on how to use it. Having said that, I could do with a refresher myself. As for the basics, she has become a very competent navigator an can easily find our position using a topo map and physical features and/or compass. She actually gets a lot of satisfaction using map and compass, which is nice to see. In the frequent cases where we do not have two maps (one each), she knows all the required location info to call in a rescue in case I am buried with the map.

 

* inner tube works well: you take the binding off and loop the tube around the whole binding once or twice. Then screw the binding back on the board and tie you foot to the board. There are other useful techniques as well.

 

That was a Bloody long answer

[Rag-Doll 0]

Long but good, thanks. Does your GF have a sister?

[2pints-mate 0]

...who lives in London?

[Ocean11 0]

> Se is level headed, immensely strong willed and independently capable.

 

She also says 'Enjoy. Over' on the radio when you drop into your couloir.

 

We want to see boat pics to go with the 'Enjoy. Over' voice.

[damian 0]

hmmm, I agree. "enjooooy" and "over" are funny together. But I applaud her for sticking to procedure as requested (directed).

 

I have very strict requirements that correct RTP (radio telephone procedure) be adhered to at all times. A two way radio is not a device for idle shibuya keitai chatter. It is a tool for the efficient passage of information by questions, answers and statements. Disciplined RTP will always draw conclusion to a question, answer or statement wit the keyword 'OVER'. The other party may not speak until such time. Only with this discipline can efficient and accurate communication be maintained.

 

Care must also be taken with words that are used, eg:

 

'am I in the correct spot? over'

 

'you are in the right spot. over'

 

'do i need to go to the right??? How far to the right? over'

 

...and so the confusion goes on.

 

This is a real example with my girlfriend.

 

I have been described as a 'very strict' touring partner.

 

And don't tell me to 'relax a little'. I'll relax a little when people start doing what they are bloody well told

 

ps - she has a sister but not of the BC snowboard variety, or anything close. sorry

 

and sorry to rag doll for the diversion on his thread.