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They’re from down-under so it must be hard to find room in the rucksack once you’ve packed the surfboard, barbie and six-pack but this is a good list. Good on yer, mate ! Arita-san and Simon will be pleased to see more Man-Tights love too.  Tights Love - Credit to Helen @ http://afeitar.blogspot.com/ Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. ~Aaron Levenstein Its about 2 months since we decided to participate in the Oxfam Japan 2010 trailwalker, and we have only 3 weekends left between now and the big event. <pun-alert>So – who’s in peak condition? Who’s trailing behind? Who’s facing mountain criticism for skipping too much training? who’s had their mind on summit else and not hiking?</pun-alert> Well, After 8 training sessions, here’s the totals: #1: General Woodgate: 143 km #2: Colonel Bray: 140 km #3: Major Marshall: 59 km #4: Lieutenant Arita: 45 km There’ s still some time to catch up, and with plenty of action over the coming weekends anything can change. I say the Loser has to wear a bikini across the finishing line. Should match the tights. Took a look at the website stats for the last 100 or so visits, and 70% of visitors spend only 10 seconds on the site. In that case I probably have about 3 seconds left to point you here http://original.justgiving.com/snailwalkers to help change the world, just a bit. Anyone still reading, have a look at the archives, check out the world-famous Snailmix calculator, or just forget the UK general election or Obama-care referenda and make your voice heard in the real poll that matters, Snailvoting.
A special event for the long weekend, a 2-day epic to the highest point in Tokyo, Kumotori-san (or is that Kumotori-yama..?). A great weekend training, with plenty of uphill slogs for the first day, more uppy-downy stuff on day 2, finishing with 3hours of downhill endurance. Weather was surprisingly pleasant, and despite an incredible storm on the mountain overnight on Saturday, the mountain-mans prediction that it would all clear up by 7:00am turned out to be unnervingly accurate. Having watched the reams of hikers leaving the lodge at 6:30 on the dot wearing enough waterproof gear to survive the bering straits, I for one felt quite smug stepping out into the breaking clouds in only a fleece. The start of Day 2 bought the main event – a steep 30 minute climb to the peak. The path is delineated on both sides by ropes, and the conditions underfoot were pure ice, with surface rain on top. Calling Dr’s Spat and Crampon – surgery please. This was it – the crampons maiden voyage. Strapped on and ready to go, I took a quick dummy run around the lodge, these puppies were awesome. Were talking spidey-grip on the ice. I think I may have whooped. That was it – we were off. 30 mins to the top, this felt like proper adventure. Snow. Ice. Crampons. Rocks. Forest. Men. Woot. Based on the cost of my crampons compared to the amount of ice I have encountered while carrying them, their run-rate per minute is roughly the equivalent of a manned mission to mars, or parking in Tokyo – but it was worth every penny for that 30 minutes of dawn hiking in the icy forest. Next stop: Mt Rainier, Summer 2011. I’m serious.  Waterfall near the trailhead
 Snowy path through the forest  Cramponegaishimasu!  The most well-equipped mountain hut on the planet  Crampontastic!  At the peak: Kumotori-san (2017m)  View from the ridge Route If you want to follow this course, GPS route is posted here We followed the lonely planet “Hiking in Japan” version, with all possible additions to get the most possible vertical climb off this 2-dayer.
Directions to the trailhead: Train to Mitsumine-Guchi, then get on a bus to Owa – its a 15 min bus ride from the station. Get off at Owa and cross the bridge over the river to find the trialhead. Dont look for the cable-car – its not there any more. The hike finishes at Okutama station, perfect spot for an onsen before jumping on a direct train back to Tokyo. Trail stats Total distance: 35.7km Moving time: 10 hours 31 minutes Stopped time: 3 hours 45 minutes (not including overnight stay at lodge) Moving average: 3.4 km/h Overall average: 2.5 km/h Accumulated elevations 3365 m Max elevation: 2017 m The Kotatsu Playlist Simon/ Kevin – in the interests of expanding your musical horizons, here’s the music we listened to Saturday evening, best played from a tinny iPhone speaker: Portico Quartet – Popidou Athlete -Vehicles and Animals The Beatles – Elenor Rigby Belle and Sebastian – Get me away from here, I’m Dying Adam and the ants – Antmusic Death Cab for Cutie – Marching bands of Manhattan Rodrigo y Gabriela – Stairway to Heaven Take That – Back for Good Supertramp -Breakfast in America Estelle (Ft. Kanye West) – American Boy Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah Adele – Chasing Pavements Air – Cherry Blossom Girl Aretha Franklin – Chain of Fools Amy Winehouse – Tears dry on their own Marvin Gaye – Heard it through the grapevine It’s time to tackle the old nemesis again – Kumotori-san (2018m). Been here before, but this time I’ve got crampons and a GPS. 33 km over a day and a half – promises to be good training, and a lot of fun. When: Sat 14th Mar 2010 Snailwalkers: Paul W NeverAgain’s: Andy, Joe (“the marathon men”) Other Snailwalkers excuses:
Where: CP7 to Finish Distance: 22 km (longer than the officially posted 20km due to slightly lost detour and walk to onsen) Moving time: 5hours 50 mins Stopped time: 1 hours 09 mins Moving average: 3.8 km/h Overall average: 3.1 km/h Total ascent: 2835 m * Weather: a barmy 18 degrees at Surugaoyama station, dropping to 10-12 degrees at the peaks. Sunny with clouds the whole day. Trail condition: Theres been heavy fresh snowfall above 800m this week, especially Mt Mikuni (2feet on top) and the whole section onwards from CP8. At these temperatures it should be gone soon. Slushy wet snow – no need for crampons (boo) but spats / gators looking pretty handy. * I have a low confidence level in this figure due to the fact that I had to swap batteries 3 times on this hike. This is because my wife enjoys putting flat batteries back into my man draw, so I have to take 3-4 spare sets of batteries with me wherever I go assuming that at least 50% of them will be duds. GPS altitude calibration therefore a bit shaky on this one – and I had to delete quite a few wayward points on the GPS track to get a sensible profile map. If anyone knows the correct accumulated vertical ascent for this section, please let me know. Report So, another weekend, another early start to catch a 7:20am train. Clear blue skies in Tokyo made it feel a bit less of a chore, and the weather stayed good for the whole day. This was my first time on the new trail from CP7 sinec they changed this section after 2008. The new route is a corker – a long long uphill, getting gradually steeper until you are literally scrambling up the last few meters to the first peak – Mt Furo. Here we met another Trailwalker team out training - apparently after a heavy night out at the ACDC gig on Friday night. Ouch. From there its supposed to be a steep downhill section to Mineska Pass, unless you’re following two numpties who managed to convince themselves and half of the other team to take the wrong trail off the peak. The other team turned back but Andy and Joe persisted in our little detour, taking us 15 minutes down the wrong hill until the GPS saved the day (see map below!). Oh well, all good training and it makes for a pretty set of symmetrical bumps on the profile map as we back-tracked to the peak and tried again. Luckily the ACDC-fans seemed to be doing a fast pace and we were spared the embarrassment of bumping into them again. So far so easy(ish). Then its a long slog up to Yubune-san, an anonoying climb up that always seems about to end but never does. Time for a quick re-fuel at CP8 and a few minutes in the sunshine…  Lunch in the sun with the marathon men from team 'Never Again'. I'm told I should be grateful that Jordan wasn't there setting the pace, or I would actually have been having a heart attack rather than just feeling like I was having one. Straight out of CP8 you hit the ascent up to Mt Mikuni, which has to be the toughest point in the whole trailwalker. Even after just 15km this was killing me, the deep snow not helping in the slightest. It was a long, slow climb staring at the distant dots of Andy and Joe as they floated up. After that its a skip and a hop to Mikuni-san – the final peak in the 100km trail, and one with the most spectacular view if its clear. It’s all downhill from there and I could feel how nice the onsen was going to be a long time before we got there to round the day off .  Almost a clear view of Fuji from Mt Myojin. Despite the frosty-looking snow, conditions were most pleasant for hiking. Some more photos from Andy:  Looks lickable, but I don't vouch for psychotropic properties.  still jaunty at the start of the climb  peak #1 (and #2 about 30 mins later as we backtracked following navigation error). I really climbed this , despite it looking like I've been photo-shopped from the previous photo...  un...  .. be ...  .. lievable
Do you think paying 16,000yen for a pair of tights is silly? Why are the two Pauls always teasing me about my tights to hide their jealousy? It is not a pair of usual tights but super tights ‘CW-X’ used by top athletes like Ichiro, Ryo Ishikawa and some medalists in Vancouver Olympics.
This pair of tights support my entire legs and waist with the perfect compression. It can be used for a variety of purposes and actually I use it for running, trekking and snowboarding. A pain on my knees is totally gone and fatigue on my legs is amazingly reduced. It is really incredible. More effective than doping. Easy to get 200 hits if you wear this tights. Stop teasing me and go to a shop! |
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*Not really. Well, Simon is quite Bond-like when he's not wearing tights. Copyright © 2012 Snailwalkers |
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