Overnight trip to Norikura

28 Dec 07

Korenge Ridge looking beautiful. A real alpine environment in Japan.  More pictures below. 

Thanks to Mick and Sarah, employees and guests at Hakuba House for taking such good care of Lloyd whilst I was away.  I have never seen a dog look more at home. And thanks for the cold beer in your bar on my return!

My solo overnight camping trip to Tengubara above Tsugaike was great. Despite some strong winds the temperature in the shelter of my tent was not so bad –10C at 7pm as I went to sleep and probably no colder than –12C in the small hours of the morning. On the first day there were perhaps 5 other people touring the Norikura bowl. I lapped the bowl three times and by my second descent all other people had departed the area and I enjoyed it to my self. The snow was wind packed and chalky with loose accumulated snow on the surface. The three round I had were all quite fast and I carried the speed well beyond the bowl into the low angle meadows and rolls to the north of Tengubara. This made the return ascent quite a lot longer, but it was fun to wash off all that momentum with long weaving turns through the gentle and sheltered glades. I had buried all my overnight equipment below the bowl to make my riding and climbing pack lighter. On the third ascent of the bowl the wind had really started to howl at the top and exposed skin reacted quickly to the intense windchill factor.

On the second day I decided not to carry out my planned ‘traverse’ over Norikura to the entry area of the Renge Onsen faces (due to the wind). Instead I rode a little of the low angle northerly aspects that head away to nowhere in particular (the same gentle gladed slope I mentioned above). Then I traversed the south facing ridge that overlooks the summer tram from Tsugaike. The northerly chutes were looking good, but clearly wind loaded. I didn’t even risk a small descent to dig a snow pit. I’d have rather been in the company of others and roped up for that task. Instead I spent a nice morning taking photographs of future terrain an d enjoyed a pretty descent southerly descent from 2100m in wide spaced trees and on sun softened wind packed snow. It was fast and fun. My overnight pack was quite heavy, but with a bit of luck and ‘snowboard hip shuffling’ over flat sections in the lower resort pistes, I managed to ride one uninterrupted descent to the Tsugaike resort carpark at 800m. That’s 1300m vert descent without taking a foot out of my bindings.

 The Norikura Bowl

 Looking down upon Happo-one in the clouds

I woke up and thought for a moment that I was back in Chamonix.  The fantastic NE couloir off Shiromadake (2932m). Never photographed or pointed at from Hakuba Village as it is only visible only on the approach to Tengubara above Tsugaike.  The couloir is obvious running left to right down the face on the very edge of the shadow.  It runs for 600m vert at an average angle of 38 degrees, ending in the long smooth permanent snowfield that leads down to Sarakura.  This second much bigger wide open couloir running right to left can itself be ridden top to bottom for at least 1000m of vert at an average angle of 25 degrees.

A cornice in the making at the top of the Tsugaike chutes

In the foreground: the treed ridges and chutes of Sarakura.  Then, the north faces of Happo-one side country, behind that, Hakuba47-Goryu north face side country and behind that,  the Alaskan style face of Kashimayarigatake (2889m).