Snow, Wind and Fear

Now, Japan is in the oven. Very hot. Japan’s summer is so hard. Hot temperature, humid air and Typhoon. Especially, this summer is really hot. So I love Winter.

This story is the winter hiking that I experienced in this March. I love Winter because of chilly temperature, silent and white snow. However, this time. I experienced fear of Winter.

2 March. 21 PM. I was Shinjuku station and waiting to ride “Azusa” to go to Nagano. “Azusa” is the express that many people use to come and go between Nagano and Tokyo. It is a very useful train. However, there were few people because of late at night. Basically, this train needs a reservation. I had the huge hiking backpack and the camera gear, so I put it on the seat next to me. I knew that seat was an empty. Then the train moved smoothly.

23 PM. I arrived Okaya station that is beside Suwa lake (諏訪湖), Nagano. The air was chilly and pitch darkness surrounded everything. I remembered Tokyo was always bright, hot and noisy.

The forest road was covered by snow.

This time, I had a companion. My friend Abe. We gathered at Okaya station and rented the car to go to the trail head. There was icy snow and completely dark. We carefully drove the car into this dark and bumpy forest road.

We parked the car near the “Sakura-daira (桜平)” and slept until morning.

5:00 AM. We woke up in the car. The temperature of outside was almost -10℃ so everything was freezing. We prepared the hiking. Made boiled water. Ate breakfast and wore a winter jacket and boots.  Then we started to walk on the snow road.

6:17 AM. We arrived Natuzawa spring lodge (夏沢鉱泉). I guess many people use this lodge as a base camp.

My hiking gear.

Abe’s hiking gear.

We took a rest little bit and wrote a paper that is called “Tozan-Todoke (登山届)”. It is one of permission to enter the mountain. Basically, it is required to write the detail of your hiking plan. For example, the number of people, how long stay in the mountain and which route you will walk.

Stood in front of the building, we could see snow covered mountains in the distance. I guessed, that is “Hida mountains (also called north alps)”.

We continued to hike to the mount Io.

7:15 AM. We arrived “Oren lodge”. Basically, this lodge was closed in winter. But there was unlocked door because of emergency use as shelter.

8:00 AM. We arrived the “Natsuzawa gap (夏沢峠)”.  This was 2,430 m elevation and the tree line was almost there. The strong wind was always blowing and the temperature was really, really low.  But the weather was good.

Sorry, I have no photo from “Natsuzawa gap” to “mount Io”. Because I had some trouble. However, I could take a video and you can see what happen to me at that time. I linked that video on the bottom of this post.

We put the crampon and wore a wind jacket and glove. And then, we walked through the pine tree area. There was no trace. So we had to dig the snow to make the trace. It was very hard.

We passed through the forest, there was rocky and icy world. The wind was getting stronger. There was the world that no one can live.

The slope was really steep and the wind was so strong. The scenery was changing from snow to rocky surfaces. If I stumble over a stone or something, I would fall down and die.  There was so dangerous.

Then, I felt something strange. I heard some noise when I walked on the rock. I looked my foot. My crampon was put off from my boots. I couldn’t understand what was happening. There was the steep rocky surface with strong wind. The temperature was almost -15 ℃ to -20 ℃. I had to take off the glove otherwise I couldn’t fix the crampon. However, If I dropped the glove, it will be blown away by strong wind. And it would be caused frostbite. It was really, really dangerous situation.

I tried to fix the crampon again and again. But I couldn’t. So we gave up to go to the summit of mount Io and decided to go down the mountain…

Mount Neishi-dake (on the right) and the lodge. The mountain on the left of the picture is Nishiteng-dake (西天狗岳).

We backed from dangerous slope to the “Natsuzawa gap”. I checked my crampon and I found the cause of trouble. I put the crampon wrong way. So the strap was loosened.

We discussed what we do next.  We checked the map and found the mountain called “Neishi-dake (根石岳)”. This mountain was not a danger than mount Io.

11:50 AM. We arrived the lodge of mount Neishi-dake.

There were two young staffs. We ate the lunch and took a rest. The outside of wind was so strong. However, we were now safe. According to this staff, almost 30 member of people were now heading to this lodge and stay tonight.

We started to go down the mountain.

14:00 PM. Finally, we arrived the parking. The top of the mountain was freezing world, but snow that covered the parking area was melting everywhere. I thought the winter was over.

Next day, I went around the Chino city with my friend. He used to be live this city. And I rode the express bound for Tokyo. The winter hike was finished.

This time, I couldn’t reach the top of the mountain. I know the winter hiking is danger. However, climbing the difficult mountain is the great challenge and make sure own experiences.

The lesson: Not only buying the gear, but also practicing the gear is knowing your equipment and experience.

Thank you for reading! See you next time!

Tamaki