After enrolling in the backcountry tour to Hachimantai last month, Isamu and I decided to challenge it on our own.
We made sure we packed the followings into our backpack:
GPS, avalanche beacon&probe, bendable shovel, thermos w/ hot drink, water, bourbon (yes!), plenty of high-protein snacks, spare goggles and gloves ...
Then we drove to the no-longer-used ski resort. We started climbing around 10am, quite late actually, but it was so windy earlier in the morning, so we waited for the wind to calm down.
The weather was quite ok, cold but sunny.
I strapped my snowboard to my back just like other snowboarders, while Isamu tried a new way → tied the snowboard w/ the climbing rope and hooked it to his rucksack.
On the way we bumped into different groups of climbers:
●2 men of native Iwate who have jsut started the 2nd climb of the day. They prefer to climb up only half the summit and slide down and repeat the same course for 2-3 times. One skier, one snowboarder.
●1 man of native Iwate who climb alone, skier.
●a group of 3 young snowboarders (1 male, 2 female) from Yamagata prefecture. They had been up since 5am, drove for 4 hrs all the way to Hachimantai. What a will!
●1 snowboarder climbing alone. We did not have chance to chat with this guy. He just nodded and climbed past us so quickly.
●2 male skiers. We met them at the summit, and it was freezing, so we did not stop to chat, just nodded and parted.
It took us 4 hrs to reach the summit, of course we took brief rest in between, munching some snack to keep the energy level up, sipping bourbon to keep warm :)
The weather on the top of the mountain was not good. Windy and very cold. So, we decided to snowboard down before the weather got even worse.
The powder was not as light as we had hoped, but still nice. And the feeling of riding on a "private" slope was great!!!
We were exhausted, but had a great time, great ride, and great exercise!
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