On this outing I purposely tried to take a lot of pictures from beginning to end, which is quite out of character for me.

The biggest peak in the valley is called [Mount] Shirouma.  It doesn't look like a horse.  And compared to the peak on its left, it isn’t white except in winter.  But horse it is and white it still is in July, just.  Its a 1700m/5100ft climb and quite frankly I'm getting a little tired of doing it these days.  I am now able to ascend the 170m in 3.5 hours, which is fast.  However my lack of flexibility is causing my body to hurt more than it should.

Today I rode the main couloir starting on the lookers left of the summit.  The couloir has 1000m/3000ft vert in it, followed by a 1km long 400m vert of run-out in a firn gully.  I went alone, deciding not to take my dog as the entrance is too steep for him to enjoy it.  It turned out to be a good decision.

The lower part of the long permanent snowfield is getting holes in it.  Almost no need to carry water these days.

The snow was dirty down low.  Good to be on the splits again after two months of skiing (which I prefer more in spring)

This is my exit.  Hard to believe.

Some scenery on the way up

The view back down the first 75% of the firn gully (Daiseke).  Lots of rocks.

My favorite peak in the valley, sad to see it with no snow, but good to know it a little more in different clothes.

At the summit, my entrance didn’t leave me much to play with.  It’s a lot narrower than it looks from the valley. 

Being alone, I used a rope just in case.  I also used it because I doubt I could have gone without.

Ready to ride

Riding

Looking back up at the entry

The snow was surprisingly clean for July, some rocks, but not bad.  Sun cups and runnels were more of an issue.  We had 6 inches of rain here a few days ago.  All the seasonal snow is gone and we are now riding firn/neve which on hot sunny days like today had a soft and slippery top two inches, very compact and icy below that.  Along with the very uneven surface, it made the riding the most difficult I have had all season.  I didn't ride it well.

Oops, what’s this gap in the snow.  What’s that water noise??

Someone could have mentioned this waterfall to me.  I had three options, the first of which was to down climb and try to rap the exposed areas.  It looked deceivingly easy from the top.  I started on that and luckily carried it through to the end.

First bit possibly didn't need a rap, but again, on my own on wet rocks... so I rapped it.  I got wet.

For the second rap, my anchor was poor and had no backup.  Uhhg.  I didn't like it much.  I didn't like it at all.

I only took a 20m rope (6mm static), just in case it would help on entry.  The last 'pitch' of the waterfall was a little over 10m, so after doubling for retrieval, it wasn't quite long enough. 

When I reached the end, I tied off, took off my pack with snowboard on it, carefully dropped it to lean against the rocks and used the board’s nose as a very dubious foothold whilst I untied and retrieved the rope.  I then used the board nose and bindings as a ladder.  After that I tried very hard not to slip underneath the snow into the steep steam.  That would have been appalling. It can’t have been so bad because I managed to take a photo.

The remainder of the ride was hot and sunny, had stones in it and really not part of my day out, but it let me have 1400m of ridden vert and I will never complain about that.

Back in the forest it was green and comfortable, very pleasant.  The light filtering through the trees and the sound of running water all around was calming.  Among other things, I saw a nice Japanese maple.