damian 0 Posted August 16, 2006 Share Posted August 16, 2006 From another thread I just noticed that the very left hand side of this picture show a close up full frontal of the Sock Monkey line (purple route). More beta. Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 db you got me thinking and we will do it if things are right. there are some other lines on that face that i want namely the middle. Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 Good to hear! Green line, purple line... I dont mind. See you in mid Jan, I'll be armed with skis and snowboards. Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 Slow on this thread but which mountain is sockmonkey standing on in that photo? Happo? Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 2 hours above happo near happo oike Link to post Share on other sites
Kumapix 0 Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 man, those lines are mouth-watering! Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 huh? I thought it was in 'siko, you know, the Nes. N to teh siko. Kuma - I'll meet you there (Hakuba) in late Jan and we can put the banana to it! [so long as the snow is sticking. After a period of no fresh snow and no wind, we be wanting a mild day followed by a cold night. Or we can risk it in 1 week old cold powder(!). This is all uninformed guessing] FT - how much snow settles on there? Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 never been over there but the high alpine gets massive falls and then massive slides. i reckon a protected area for snow study would be over 500 inches Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 I don't like to look of the green line upper section. Too much snow, looks like it rolls over. If it only takes 2 hours the you could bag two lines on one day with an early start, perhaps a slightly shorter second line. Link to post Share on other sites
mattlucas 0 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 You are looking at about 4 hours to the top of the SM line The exit takes a bit of time as well Especially if you are snowboarding and aren't very good at traversing Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 that makes it sound more like a day out, rather than a mornings effort. cheers Link to post Share on other sites
Kumapix 0 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 Spud, let's putting the banana to it Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 that direction tends to wind load so it will all be loaded i think. its a one day thing spud. i figure we camp up on happo then we stash our gear there and go. that way we give ourselves lots of time to figure things out. Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 I was silly to suggest two lines in a day. Still had my long spring day head on and dispensed with the spare hour or two for margin of error. Camping up there in the vicinity of the line sounds good. Gives time to poke around and also an early start directly into the hike. I am biased towards climbing up the line from the bottom rather than approaching from another direction. If you come in from another route then you tend to waste half a line working out how to ride it, getting a feel for the snow and risk only to reach the bottom and wish you rode it differently. If you climb up the line of descent then you know a whole lot more about how to tackle it on the way down, letting you go for it a bit more. kuma - you in? Link to post Share on other sites
eskimobasecamp 0 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 looks sick boys, i'll take your photos or something so don't shout at me people and say i'm wrong, but ehhh spud believe me you'll want to take the ridge (tho it's pretty feckin skinny i think) to those lines rather than get yourself to the base of that and then climb up it. you coming to jp this season? Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 Hey, Eskimofaceplant, nice to hear from you. At the very real risk of sounding like a tosser, if I can ride down it then I can climb up it and I have certainly climbed up higher faces than that (5 hours directly up at 50 degrees is my longest effort, taking in about 900m of vert). If the snow is super soft then you are right, I don’t want to boot pack the face directly. But I also don’t really want to ride it in super soft conditions either. But only an idiot like me would sit in another country in an office looking at a photo making decisions. I’ll trust your better local judgement. Yep, I will be in Japan for a quick visit this season. Link to post Share on other sites
Kumapix 0 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 yup i'm in. just make sure you're wearing your arcteryx jacket so that when I take a picture of you I can sell it to them and then they'll give me a pro deal on their clothes Link to post Share on other sites
dizzy 0 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 spud, do u mean straight up the line your gonna ride/ski? if not, then completely ignore my post. but if so: yeah, climbing direct route straight up is better for scooping out your riding line. but there's tons of avie lines at karamatsu. but i'm just erring on the side or caution like i always do. one suggestion is if you climb up sugoi "dairekuto ru-to" is staying on the ridges. you've always gotta have an escape route Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 That's what I am talking about. Directly up the purple line. Lots of av exposure, but part of me would rather learn about that slowly on the way up than find out about it for the first time on half way down the descent. The mental notes and you make on the way up are so helpful on the way back down. On the flip side, climbing the thing increases your time in the exposure zone. So best get up the safest way possible (ridge) and minimise the exposure time in the line. On the flip side: if it is not safe enough to climb then it is not safe enough to ride and without a bomb or a cornice to drop it is kind of hard to tell whats going on below you when you approach from an indirect route. Perhaps FT wants to rope up and jump around on it a bit on his skis. To be honest, one of the biggest benefits of climbing a line of decent is sussing out areas of (glacier) ice that are hidden by only a few inches of snow. You really want to know where the ice is on steeps. Perhaps this is not such an issue. hmmmm. An indirect approach via the ridge followed by a very gentle descent consisting of quickly sliding between safety zones is the best way to go about it. And if that reveals a good safe ride then go back the next day and straight line it Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 Please be careful out there! These lines are very phenomenal-looking but the configuration mostly looks like death funnels with not much escape choices and some small cliff bands thrown in just to bang you up pretty good (best case scenario) in case you fall n can't get up or get caught in even a small slide that takes you over. Do these slopes release naturally fairly easily during the season? I think we all have a tendency to fantasize sick lines during the off-season but my guess is that you may second-guess your willingness to do it once you start climbing that ridge, and there is nothing wrong with this, fear is a natural mechanism of self-preservation. Bottom line is you need to be a very very good skier/rider + climber to do these lines and accept a decent amount of risk. You also need a very good understanding of the snow conditions before you go ahead. You'd better have a worse case scenario contingent plan ready, especially in terms of rescue. I know Spud & FT have all the skills and knowledge, but it will still be quite a challenge. Also, you sure you wanna camp overnight at the top of happo in the middle of the winter? Weather can be brutal out there. How about warming-up with some of the easier lines nearby before you do the SM or another similar one? Then you can assess the harder ones. One of the easier lines that FT mentionned earlier looks nice. Did I just sound like an old man? Probably 'cos I am a member of Gamera's SJ's Oyaji club. Link to post Share on other sites
dizzy 0 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 Quote: Originally posted by le spud: To be honest, one of the biggest benefits of climbing a line of decent is sussing out areas of (glacier) ice that are hidden by only a few inches of snow. You really want to know where the ice is on steeps. Perhaps this is not such an issue. yeah, on a glacier that makes sense. but underneath the SM line, it's all rocks and sassa grass below the apline line. senario: you're climbing straight up the blue/purple line on a bluebird day after 10cm of fresh three days ago, w/ temperatures going from -5 to +8 degrees over night every night and considerable wind. right at about the level of sock monkey's elbow, you hear a huge BOOM from above and you know there's a crown fracture. you've got less then 15 seconds to get the ++++ out of dodge. where do you go? where can you go? i would do direct route UP only where the avie risk is minimal and there are no terrain traps. that's what AK and i did at tateyama in may with eskimorepairthelegcamp. if you wanna know more about the terrain, lines can always be scoped in summer, though i know you're overseas now. toque's summer pics of green would be helpful. i just looked through your 28 pages of your pics, toque but couldn't find them. maybe they're on p. 1?? of the snowinjapan thread. i can't remember the mt., but i remember the deep greens. Link to post Share on other sites
dizzy 0 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 double post. didn't read your post serreche until i finished writing mine. i haven't been to karamatsu myself yet, but it slides all the time in early/mid winter. FT and toque know a helluva lot more about it than me. another thing to think about of course is the aspect. what's the aspect on the orange and green lines? East South-east? Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 No worries dizzy, I agree with your comments. Link to post Share on other sites
eskimobasecamp 0 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 yo diz, thanks i like your name for me... so here's the word from eskimorepairthelegcamp - yep i understand your points about REALLY scoping the line you are riding by going directly up the thing - but quite apart from the risks involved which people have discussed above - i'm also talking about what you have get over just to get to the bottom of those lines... you'd have to do your exit in reverse, which honestly would kinda suck without a snowmobile. if anyone's got a snowmobile and doesn't mind driving it into national park land, then go for it and hope that shit above you doesn't give way. so without a snowmobile my guess would be that accessing those lines would be most quickly and safetly achieved via the ridge... though that too is quite sketch and exposed the closer you get to those lines. ask toque about what he heard the last time a bunch of us went up happo as he and FT neared the summit of karamatsu... he heard shit falling off. also the camping - where on happo are you gonna camp in mid winter? it's all exposed ridgelines, but maybe FT has some ideas about that? for me if my leg gets its act together, my goal would be something like skiing off karamatsu, the lines that toque and FT did last season, but you won't see me near any of that stuff you guys are talking about, looks sick, but looks like straight out of a TGR movie too - and there won't be a copter hovering over waiting for you to bail or for an avie to break. i will on the other hand take your photos, i want to get into more photography this year and get a good camera for the mountains. Link to post Share on other sites
mattlucas 0 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 Dizzy - don't have summer pictures of this area EBC - that was spring EBC - you can't get a snowmobile up there Link to post Share on other sites
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