10 April 2009

I just returned from a 5 day solo trip into Hakuba's deeper backcountry. It has superior touring terrain and snow quantity and was likely one of my most enjoyable tours outside of Europe. In fact, it reminded me of Europe.

I spent 5 days and 4 nights camped by a pretty and remote stream and didn't see another person for the entire time. The entire trip covered about 70km, a lot of which was skiing, the rest skinning. The itinerary targeted the following peaks, with my camp based in a central hub at 1300m:

- Hakuba Norikura (2450m) - northerly descent
- Yukikura Dake (2611m) - northerly descent
- Asahi Dake (2418m) - north easterly descent
- Gorin Zan (2253m) - easterly descent

Mini sized panoramic

Click here to view the full sized panorama taken from Hakuba Norikura. It's worth it.

The purpose of the trip was to gather detailed beta on this magic area. I was alone and so chose to ski everything more conservatively.

Here is the map of my new nirvana.

Day 1:
With a 20kg pack filled with 5 day's of food I climbed from 1600m at the Tsugaike trail head to the top-rear of Hakuba Norikura at 2450m in 2 hours. The descent down the pure north spine is one of the best in all of Hakuba with a ridge then an open bowl with trees followed by classic Japanese tree skiing. I took it all the way to the river crossing at 1100m for a full descent of 1350m. There was ok powder for the top 400m vertical.

Route of descent on HakuNori north side

In the gladed bowls as I dropped off the ridge line

Day 2:
From camp at 1300m I put in a long 1300m ascent to the summit of Yukikura Dake. For the first time in years I developed two nasty blisters and the going was slow. The descent was good, lining up two alpine bowls followed by a wide rolling line. The snow went from from wind blasted hard alpine snow/ice to sastrugi to packed chalk to soft chalk to perfect corn to my camp. I reversed the full 1300m line without much traversing at all. An incredibly satisfying descent and a relaxing afternoon at camp.

Route of descent on Yukikura north side and then heading in the direction of camp

Entering the second bowl. Wind pack.

Day 3:
Another day of perfect weather. It took me 3 hours to ascend 1100m up Asahi Dake. Blisters burning.

Route of descent on Asahi Dake north-east side and then heading in the direction of camp

The NE bowl from the summit

The view from the summit of Asahi was very good:

For perspective of where I was, the peak on the left is the back of Shirouma Dake. Little Asahi Dake is to the right.

Close-up of little Asahi. I skied it a lot last spring. I like it.

The highest peak in the Kita Alps, Yari ga Take to the south:

Day 4:
Feeling fit and fast I went up 1000m to Gorin Zan in 2 hours. I was looking forward to this peak more than the rest, and it didn't disappoint. Endless perfect corn, with a nice sequence of bowl-bench-bowl then gentle terrain hooking skiers left into very good steep trees. The total descent was 1000m of perfection to an utterly remote rocky stream cutting through the snow. I had a rest here and then made the hour or so journey back to camp with slow legs.

Route of descent on Gorin Zan's east bowl. It left me 2km from camp

Day 5:
The return journey home - a long slog with over 10km travel and 1000m climb to Tengupara via Renge Onsen. The highlight was to be a midday bath at isolated Renge. Unfortunatley the volcanic water was way too hot. But I enjoyed the journey and for some reason still didn't see anyone at all. I had a 500m descent back to Tsugaike ski resort but it doesn't really count.

I couldn't get my foot in for longer than 5 seconds, and it came out red. The terrain I had enjoyed over the week is in the background

Camp

The afternoons were warm. These were my makeshift shoes

It was a fantastic trip, at times very special. It is a good life in the mountains.