Asama Yama is visible from Saitama on a clear day and towers above the resort town of Karuizawa. It's an active volcano and has been closed to hikers for the since 1995 due to the increase in poisonous gases emitted from it's crater. Despite this, from January through to March it's vast white slopes act like a beacon and the peak seems perfect for climbing and snowboarding down. (This had been a plan since I'd first seen the mountain, but I'd never been too sure as to the when and how).
Hideki, whom I'd met on an Adventure Guides trip up Tanigawa-dake the previous season, was just back from Hawaii was my buddy for the trip. We'd hastily finalised our plans on Friday night as we were both free and the forecast for Saturday was good.
Hideki picked me up in Omiya at 06.40 and despite a small jam on the Kan-Etsu Expressway we managed to begin our trek by 10.00.
Asama Yama was visible in the distance all the way from past Kumagaya on the motorway. We'd picked a perfect morning and with luck the weather would hold throughout the day. The slopes are even and unmistakable but it's not a perfect cone as with Yotei-zan and Fuji due to its many eruptions. (The last serious one being at the end of the 19th century).
We left the car at the pass at the top of Route 146 besides the Todai (Kazan Kansokujo) Volcanic Monitoring Station. There were only a couple of other cars in the car park and everything looked closed. We later found out that the Volcanic Station were prone to turning back would-be adventurers, but it all seemed shut when we went past.
Hideki studied the Japanese-only warning sign telling people to stay outside of a 4km radius of the crater but the fact that there were other tracks leading along the path and the beautiful white slopes above meant that we didn't think too hard about abandoning our quest. The summit still appeared very far but this was as close as we could get on this side of the mountain. (There is another road on the West side which heads up to Asama 2000 ski area. The approach from that side looked much steeper on the map and our North-Easterly facing slope had more snow for our descent).
We carried our snowshoes for the first 30-minutes or so following the compacted track of an earlier group. As we reached Ko-asama Yama the snow began to get deeper and we decided to strap into the shoes. Up ahead we could see another pair of snowshoers whom we soon caught up. They were a retired couple who told us who were just planning to go to first ridge from where you could get a good view of the whole mountain. We were a little perturbed when we realised that they had been making the tracks and there was no one else up ahead , but the man told us that he'd been to the top a few times and had skied down before.
As we got up on to the first shoulder past Ko-asama Yama we felt the first strong winds of the day. These were icy and certainly blew at us (and our boards strapped to our sacks) on and off throughout the day but we both felt that they could have been much stronger. We stopped here for our first break. The route up was becoming more apparent and out of the trees the snow was much thinner and easier to walk on. Rocks were visible almost all the way up on the shoulder, which at least alleviated any immediate worries of falling snow. We ended up taking our snowshoes off again as we realised that it was easier to walk on the rocks themselves. (Up close the white visible from so far around is speckled with volcanic rocks and the snow itself wasn't much more than 50cm deep). There were just a couple of sections as we climbed up to the second shoulder where the snow was deeper and the slope was steep to make snowshoes (with metal teeth) or crampons necessary for a safe climb. (Later on in the season it would be easy to imagine crampons being needed for the whole climb up).
We carried on plodding along the shoulder, sticking to the rocks rather than the steeper snow slope where the regular path would have run. The wind came and went and the clouds remained above 3000m so despite the time ticking on we resolved to continue on up.
We reached the false summit just before 15.00 and the weather still holding out even gave us a little sunshine. The top was another 100m above us but with the daylight running out we decided to laeve our boards and sacks and just snowshoe up the last slope. When we finally reached the summit any doubts about the reasons for all of our exertion were immediately expelled. Below us there was a perfect round crater with cliffs on all sides and yellow and white smoke pouring out from the bottom. It was such an amazing site that it was hard to believe that we were only on a day-trip just a few hours away from Tokyo.
With daylight time running out and the smell of the poisonous sulphorous gases ominously strong we took a couple of photos and jogged back down the snow slope to where we'd left our packs. After a final drink and bite to eat we began to hike back down around the false summit to where the steep white slopes began. We came down approximately 150m before we were able to strap into our boards and finally begin riding. The first 100m or so we had to traverse along the path as there were rocks both above and below but we were soon out into the open bowl. The snowpack had showed no signs of moving and a quick hand test revealed only 50 cm of compact snow. We couldn't resist the vast white slope and set a distant building on the road as our goal rather than aiming back where we'd hiked up. It was 16.00 so we carefully picked our route and took turns to ride down.
It was an incredible feeling having the whole 2568m mountain to ourselves. It would have been great to fly down the 1000m of vert through the open bowl, but the shallow snow cover meant that there was always the likelihood of rocks just under the surface so we chose our route carefully and took the ride steadily. (Indeed, the only regret I ended up with was choosing my new Timeless rather than my old board for the trip. Although it was early February we were after all on a volcano and rocks were to be expected. After the hike up I think I was lucky to only catch one real rock on the way down but this was enough to leave a gash in the base.)
The lower slopes flattened out into the 1300m plain that stretched away towards Manza and Tsumagoi to the North, and after riding as far as a small copse of trees we ended up having to unstrap and snowshoe the last 30 minutes to the road. As the sun was going down the vastness of the smoking peak behind was a memorable sight.
After hiking out it was almost 17.00 and the sun was getting ready to set. I waited with all our gear whilst Hideki managed to thumb a lift with an old Nagano couple in the second car that passed. He only rode with them a couple of kms up the road to where we'd left our Chevy, but when he came back he was full of their kindness and had even been give two hot cans of green tea for us both.
Having reached our goal and managed over 1000m of vert without paying a single yen we treated ourselves to a welcome bath at Hoshino Onsen Hotel (1000 Yen) just off R146.
The perfect end to an amazing day.
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