Who: Snailwalkers: Paul W, Simon , Arita-san. Others: Eddie & James from Ocean Park Capital
Distance: 20.3 km
Max elevation: 1564m
Accumulated elevation: 2001m
Moving time: 6 hours 17 min
Stopped time: 2 hours 46min
Moving average: 3.2 km/h
Overall average: 2.2 km/h
It was with equal measures of trepidation and excitement that I checked the weather out the window this morning -the forecast rain had indeed arrived, but i was cheered by thoughts of seeing Simon’s gore-tax hat in action.
With 2 sets of crampons in my bag, an entire array of waterproof equipment, poles ready to whip out – the scene was set for an epic day.
The day started to plan in true Japanese efficiency – an early train from Shinjuku to arrive at Shubusawa by 7:53 am. A short hop on the bus by the norther exits heading for Okura (10 mins , JPY200) and we were at the trail head.
Base of Tanzawa-san from the station. We weren't exactly in need of sun-tan lotion, but it at least appeared we had left the rain behind in Tokyo for now. As a point of fact, Eddie did rather optimistically have sun-tan lotion on him.
Leg 1: Okura (310m) to To-no-take (1491m)
Leg 1 was a straightforward slug up the side of the mountain – and we made pretty short work of the 1200m climb up to To-no-take, stopping for Ramen and coffee at a conveniently staffed, and open, mountain hut. Crampons so far unused, but maybe there would be snow on the next section…
To-no-Take
Leg 2: To-No-Take (1491m) to Tanzawa-san (1567m)
A tramp along the ridge for just over an hour bought us to Tanzawa-san, high point fo rthe day and a wonderful view of the inside of a cloud. Hiding massive disappointment at the lack of ice and snow, I convinced myself that bringing the crampons had been worth it anyway for the extra weight.
Tanzawa-san
Leg 3: Tanzawa-san (1567m) to Lake Atsugi (290m)
By this point, with no sign of the torrential downpours and 3 meter ice-packs that we had been prepared for, it was looking to be a rather enjoyable , albeit challenging hike. Things started to look a bit off as we began to descend to the end-point, as the GPS started to mysteriously overestimate the time to finish by about 3 hours (maybe they’ve been given the same freakish predictive AI that makes iTunes Genius so sinister to listen to..) . Soon we were whacked with 3 s t e e p ascents that we hadn’t planned for or been expecting and we found ourselves racing the daylight down the last 6-7km . The hiking gods were laying down a challenge, and the path started to deteriorate. Before long we found ourselves navigating a series of mud-slide traverses, precipitous slippery bridges with no hand-rails and huge ridge-rocks with foot-holes roughly cut out. This was tricky stuff, with some heart-stopping moments as feet began to slide sending rocks cluttering down the scree slopes. But , survive we did and the path firmed up as the trees thickened around us.
As dusk was well and truly bedded in, we dropped the last few hundred meters to he lake to catch the bus back to Hon Atsugi station (on a Saturday, they leave at 52 minutes past the hour, 45 mins, 630JPY (I think)
