This year for Christmas, Brian and I got each other avalanche beacons, shovels and probes (thanks Dad and Margo!), and some snow baskets for our trekking poles. Romantic? No. Exciting? Hell yes. Now we`re equipped with the goods, if not the knowledge, for safe back country excursions. Luckily, our friends with whom we made this trip are extremely well versed in avalanche safety and they`ve promised us our next trip will be preceded by a lecture on the topic. But Shioyamaru Yama is blessedly tree covered and therefore we just got to have fun this time around.
Sunday morning we got a lift from Takahashi San, a friend and telemark skier. We rode with him to the little parking area at the base of the mountain where we met the rest of our posse. Most of the gang where telemarkers, but Nauto snowshoed and boarded with us. Before this trip I would have thought that skiing up would be easier than snowshoe-ing, but when the going gets steep the shoes are definitely easier. We climbed for about 2 hours before reaching the top. There was no fresh snow, so going up was easier. And the day was relatively clear so the views were amazing. Our friends were a little disappointed in the snow conditions, but we were too excited to notice or care.
We had lunch under this tree after having summit-ed and boarded down. After lunch some of us climbed back up to the top to do it again. Brian and I both had wondered if we`d like back country as much as a ski slope where you can go off piste (like Rusutsu for example) because you only really only get one ride in. But the hike up was beautiful. It really makes you appreciate the ride when you`ve worked so hard to get it. And it`s certainly nicer to hear birdsong in the woods that J-pop on the gondola. And those views!
You can click on any of these images to see them larger.
It was one of my favorite days in Hokkaido yet. We got a call from Hashida San saying that the next trip just might be this coming Sunday. Can`t wait!
