23 April 2009

Whilst I was away on my recently reported 4-peak nirvana trip, Hakuba resident Matsumoto-san left a message on my phone asking if I would like to join him on his weeklong holiday to Hokkaido. Not long after I returned from camping we had loaded his van onto the 19 hour ferry ride bound for Hokkaido from Niigata City. Matsumoto-san works very hard as the local mountaineering shop owner (Rappies) and was in the mood for a very active vacation. It was a great trip.

Day 1:
Clear but windy and cold so good soft spring touring was not on offer. So we went surfing instead. I admit that I didn't end up entering the 6C water after being driven back into the car by blustery 6C winds. This is on the Pacific coast not far from Yotei San. After Matsumoto-san enjoyed a cold surf we camped off the side of the road near a nice lake.

Day 2:
We met with Fujikawa-san, a Hokkaido local and professional backcountry telemarker (and alpine skier). Here is his blog: http://telemark.fujiken.boy.jp/. Fujikawa-san was a very kind and knowledgeable local guide for three of our days. He took us to the heart of some great areas allowing us to efficiently link together various terrain features in one day thanks to his excellent local knowledge. He has a bunch of great gear thanks to his sponsors (Elan, Alpine Lowe, Scarpa, Hestra and others) and was lucky enough to manage basecamp communications in 2008 for a successful Japanese ski descent of 8156m Manaslu in the Himalaya.

The day's objective was Yotei San, 1898m with four of us in he group including Fujikawa-san's photog buddy.

Yotei from the north

Approaching the SE aspect we skied

Summit

Into the crater

The opposite aspect of the crater that we climbed and subsequently skied

Fujikawa-san reay to ski

...skiing

Yotei was a great tour, very enjoyable and easy skiing. The ascent is so simple with only the last few vertical hundred meters offering any challenge, and that is more emotional than physical as the cone seems to endlessly steepen and drags on a bit without much mental stimulation (aka, it is a boring climb as mountains go). We started at 300m and climbed 1600m to the summit then skied into the crater, climbed up the other side, then skied back into the crater and climbed again to the rim to make the descent back to the car. About 2000m climbed and ridden. Good fun and totally worth skiing.

Day 3:
Up at 4.30am to check the surf on the Sea of Japan coast directly west of Yotei - not bad, but not great. We explored the coast line towards the city of Otaru then inland to meet with Fujikawa-san again at a nice little ski resort called Kiroro. From there we had an easy day touring the backcountry bowls with three descents of different areas for a total of about 800m vertical for the day. The last bowl we skied was great. For the next two nights we slept at Fujikawa-san's house in Sapporo.

On the drive along the coast, perhaps only in Japan you see houses built where avalanche fences are required above your house with concrete tetrapods guard you from the sea. Unique geographiclly and also in it's fruitless battle with nature.

The main small peak behind Kiroro stands at 1488m and has a great array of bowls heading in various directions that can easily be linked in a simple day trip without much effort at all.

Fujikawa-san in the top section of one of the bowls
If the video appears with coloured bands, just click play, the footage should still show

Day 4:
Into the backcountry proper again, this time a few hours north along the coast from Sapporo (after again checking the surf) to a peak called Shyokanbetsu Dake (1491m). What great touring! The approach was long and gentle, about 1000m climbed. It was a windy cold day and the spring corn had failed to soften much at all. Lucky there was some fresh chalky snow to be had.

Fujikawa-san checking the main face that we later skied via the bowl to the right of the cliffed area.

First we dropped into a long bowl over the back of the peak. It was so good. Here is Matsumoto-san ready to ski

A long bowl with soft snow

After climbing back up from the backbowl it was a short hike with crampons along the main ridge, after a steepish and icy traverse around and below a cliff section that blocked the way.

Fujikawa-san skiing the top of the bowl from the steep ridge, today on AT gear rather than Tele. More soft snow

Matsumoto-san

The bowl from the ridge

Shyokanbetsu Dake

The terrain in this coastal mountain range is excellent, I took a lot of pictures of the nearby peaks and will be coming back. After a genuinely fantastic day of alpine backcountry touring we made our way back down to Sapporo.

The surf was still not so good

Matsumoto-san is training for his first big triathlon, so he rode his bike for 55km during the afternoon return to Sapporo.

Hakuba's most serious shortcoming is it's total lack of sunsets, and that is not good for the soul. Not a problem in Hokkaido. I love seeing the sunset on a day well-lived

Day 5:
At last, Asahi Dake! Situated in the cold dead center of the island, it is Hokkaido's highest peak at 2290m.

It and the surrounding terrain is epic. The bowls and peaks over the back instantly invoked fond memories of Austrian terrain on a smaller scale. The ascent of Asahi is a trivial 700m vertical hill walk from the top of the tram station.

Matsumoto-san decided to ditch the telemark skis for his snowboard on Asahi

Volcanic steam vents along the way

The descent on the NE face was good but only after we negotiated the upper section icy crust, strafed with large sastrugi running at right-angles to the fall-line. Lower down was soft wind blown new snow enjoyed with utterly perfect weather.

Matsumoto-san finds some respite from the higher ice and bumps

The Happy Man

Nearby to Asahi Dake and the greater range in which is is situated there is an area that I found utterly unique so far in my mountain travels within Japan. The agricultural town of Biei is surrounded by scenery that called my name like none other in the country. And the long ridge of mountains that stand behind Biei is superb.

We slept in our tent in the local train station carpark, conveniently located so that we didn't have to drive after some great beers and yakitori with yet another one of Matsumoto-san's buddies, Patchi Man. The next day dawned cold snowy and very windy in the alpine, ruling out a softening of the corn, so instead we enjoyed an 8am breakfast beer at a very impressive onsen near Asahi Dake then made our way back the the ferry for a relaxing 19 hour trip home a day earlier than planned.

The exploratory trip into Hokkaido just scratched the surface. I was so inspired that Mio (my wife) and I have just booked a return boat ride back there, departing in two days. I need to see more of Hokkaido, and it simply isn't fair that she misses out on the magic that can be found there. I'll be back in a week.