12 April 2008
Mio and I joined the crowds heading to Norikura Dake (2400m) in Hakuba today. The morning inversion hid a nice blue alpine environment, great weather up high with no wind. We rode the NE face off Norikura heading down towards Renge Onsen, in the direction of which a hoard of people were migrating. It is full swing spring yama ski season here in Hakuba and a mostly middle aged and 'young elderly' crowd of below average skiers are out in force. For all the sign-posting that I dislike, its nice to see people of all levels enjoying the mountains to the best of their ability and under the steam of their own sweat and effort.
The above picture shows the top section of the overall descent (along teh distant ridge and face). The snow was icy corn with quite deep runnels form recent rain. The descent takes you down about 700m vertical and starts out at 40 degrees, easing to a very casual 20 degrees in the meadows and stream beds leading towards Renge. Its fun. After that we skinned back up to Tengubara and rode the typical route down towards Tsugaike, another 500m vert of ok corn.
Mio Riding
At the top of Norikura Dake we found a group of three Ptarmigan. They are clever and beautiful birds, changing colour with the season. They were not at all concerned about us, in fact I almost walked on one due to its excellent camouflage. They just posed for the shots and walked about like domesticated chickens.
For future reference, this is what the same slope looks like in late December.
Whilst were were on Norikura I took a look at the NE face of Korenge San (2759m). Its looking good.
