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After a busy Saturday night of football and socialising, a fresh Sunday morning
begged to be taken advantage of. Leaving the smog behind them, Paul and Mark
headed out of Tokyo and Saitama for the Niigata hills. Ads, powered by only
three hours sleep, jumped a 6:30am Saikyo line train into the familiar old territory
of Saitama as the first leg of his journey. Mark, 12 hours sleep and four weetabix
to the good, strolled into Omiya station raring to go at 7:15am.
Arrival at Echigo Yuzawa brought startled cries of "It's cold!" and
"Isn't there a lot of snow!" from a few, seemingly unsuspecting, train-goers
although to the seasoned eye the white, cold fluffy stuff was the reason for
being there. We took a bus from the station (470yen) and 25 minutes later arrived
at the foot of Mitsumata ropeway where we changed. The fresh air was envigorating
and the clear horizon more than welcoming. New snowshoes packed and snacks prepared,
we made our way to the top lift (Dai ichi kosoku) for a reasonable 1900yen.
Fresh snow had fallen all week and, despite Kagura not threatening the steepest
of slopes higher up, our concerns were for the avalanche potential. Mark had
used his initiative in filling out a mountain plan before leaving home and handed
it to the patrol at the top of dai ichi kosoku- they were surprisingly welcoming
to our intentions of hiking out of bounds for the day and even suggested that
our proposed course was likely to be a safe one.We needed little more encouragement
than that and so, at 11:10am, ducked under the tape and jumped into our snowshoes.
A swig of red wine later (thanks mate, whoever you were) and we had begun.
The weather was, again, a treat and the still air made for a relatively comfortable
hike in superb surroundings and frequent silence. The vast areas of untouched
snow offered hikers and riders virgin trails both on the way up and down the
mountain. The distinctive snow-covered trees of the Kagura area made not only
for beautiful photo items , but convenient rest-stops. Mark's fourth weetabix
was starting to wear off at about 12:30, when we refuelled with Walkers Salt
n' Vinegar, Milkybars and donuts.
The top of Kagura-mine is 2029.6m high. Exactly. We had it conquered by 1:30pm
and were rewarded with cracking panoramic views and a fun, powdery ramble over
to the ridge chosen as our launch pad for the journey back down. Boards on and
a rough path planned, we weaved through some of the aforementioned trees before
riding some very special snow on the steepest face of our afternoon's adventure.
Short but very sweet.
Once we had got back to the ground floor and changed, curry and ramen administered,
we were soon back on the bus and then shinkansen. Our return was spent reflecting
on a great day. This one is with thanks to the men and women of Kagura Ski Patrol.
Good work fellas.
PA
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