Paul Ads,
Matt Chunk and I headed out to Nagano on the Sunday moring (after a Jets
victory on the Saturday) to make the most of our three day weekend.
Catching the
first shinkansen out of Omiya and a bus from Nagano (14400 return) we
were in Happo (Hakuba) by 0940. (It turns out there is also a direct
bus - Shinjuku-Hakuba - which is much cheaper). We spent the Sunday
riding the Happo runs - the top slopes being the only ones out of the
cloud.
Sunday evening
we hooked up with cameraman Masakazu Watanabe for tea at Uncle Steven's
Mexican restaurant (near the base of the Happo gondola). Watanabe-san
had offered to put us up at his place in Hotaka.
After a day
in the resort we were itching to get out into the wild and Watanabe-san's
weather and snow reports were encouraging for the next day. We enjoyed
a few beers with the Watanabe's before retiring for an early night.
Monday was
as beautiful as promised and the views from Watanabe-san's backyard made
it easy to see why he had moved away from Tokyo. After a filling breakfast
- the highlight being amazing homemade apple juice - we were given a lift
back to Tsugaike. We split with the Chunk at the gondola, sold our day
passes and bought two one-ways to the top.
It was 10.00
by the time we set out hiking but there were still a few others starting
off. The weather was perfect and the snow was compacted on the trail making
the first part of the hike a lot easier than the previous year when we'd
been wading through almost a metre deep of fresh.
We aimed up
the track towards the top of the summer ropeway. It wasn't until we reached
the second mountain hut that we snowshoed up. At this time Norikura was
still a white mound in the distance. Paul tried to check for tracks with
his Christmas binoculars but we couldn't see any. We plodded on - inspired
by the beautiful weather - towards Tengupara.
The sun, snow
and incredible Alpine surroundings were plenty enough fuel and instead
of stopping for lunch when we reached the Tengu flats we decided to hike
across towards the snowcovered marsh. At this stage we could make out
two distant figures struggling up Norikura. Still full of energy and tempted
by the virgin slopes ahead we discussed carrying on up. We reasoned that
we'd be lucky to have such conditions again and our minds were made up
when we saw Canadian Dave (a local guide - www.evergreen.co.jp) come over
the brow with his group.
After checking
with Dave about the snow up ahead we decided to make a final push for
the top. It was now 14.00 and we had a 300m climb to reach the peak. This
last spurt was easily the steepest and the snow was more compacted in
patches. Nevertheless we had almost a whole mountain to chose a fresh
route down and kept on up.
It was 15.00
when we hit the windswept top (2436.7m). We took a few snaps - there were
now a few clouds but we still had brilliant views on every side. 1700m
vert of terrain stretched out below us and our rendez-vous with Chunky
Matt and a hot bath - the best was yet to come.
I set off
down first - not sure of the slope to begin with but soon enjoying the
steep and fresh after a few easy turns. I set up the camera on Tenguparra
to capture Paul's ride down.
We had a little
walk across the "marsh" before it was downhill all the way.
It was a pefect 50 minutes as we rode down to the bottom.
An amazing
start to our backcountry adventures of 2003.
(Dedicated
to riding buddy Steve 'The Steven' Parker now back in England. We miss
your whoopimg and hollering matey!)
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