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Naei-zan (那英山)
This past weekend I went out to Naei-zan (那英山, 819 m), a short mountain on the west side of the Furano Basin near Kamifurano, with Sam and a couple of Japanese friends. We’d seen the mountain on the blog of a group of Japanese hikers (Naei-zan in particular here) and had gotten a little excited about the purported views from the mountainside–looking across the basin and farmland towards the characteristically sweeping faces of the Tokachi Mountains. It also didn’t seem to be a particularly long trip to the summit, which appealed to me after we didn’t make it to the summit of Fujigata-yama (富士形山, 638 m) last weekend, due to a super-long approach. Pff.
Unfortunately the morning of the climb was a snowy one; visibility couldn’t have been more than 150 meters or so. Dang. At any rate, we made our way from Asahikawa down to Kamifurano through the snow. The mountain isn’t particularly popular, so there’s no parking (or even a trailhead, really), but there’s a bit of a pulloff at the intersection of Prefectural Routes 581 and 759 where we shoveled out a space for two cars. In a pinch you could probably park three cars on this pulloff, but that’d be pushing it a bit.
We got our gear ready, crossed the street, clambered up besides some windbreaks, and headed off across a typically Furano-esque rolling field. On the far side of the field was a second-growth forest beyond which the mountain rose up into the snow. We headed for a little break in the forest along what would have been a dirt path in the summertime, maybe navigable by tractor. We skirted the margin between a stand of younger trees and a tall, orderly forest of second-growth softwoods, wandering for a little while into the young trees when I lost the dirt path. The path opened up at the back of the stand of younger trees and climbed up into the forest.
The first climb wound through more of that second-growth softwood forest. Many of the trees here were tagged with numbered pink tape, and there was a pretty clear switchbacky route upwards; when the slope slackened out we just climbed straight up. Eventually we reached a bit of a plateau and passed into first-growth forest, lots of white birch, which is called shirakaba in Japanese. From here on out we followed pink tags tied to the trees; every now and again we saw a red tin plaque nailed to a tree noting that we were on the boundary between the towns of Nakafurano and Biei. The way forward was pretty evident–it was clear to us that we were following some kind of trail.
We eventually came to another climb, switching back a little bit when we came to what looked suspiciously like a road. At the top of the climb was another flattish section before we climbed a short rise up to a wide ridgeline. The southern face of the ridgeline was pretty bare; a few young trees stuck up through the snow. We traveled along the north side of this open area before coming to the bottom of the last climb up to the summit, where we dug a hole in the snow and performed a compression test to check the snow for avalanches. The slope above was similarly bare and reasonably steep and I didn’t want to get into any trouble.
Snowpack was a little more than 2 meters deep, with maybe 15 cm of powder on top and a pretty well-consolidated 1.5 m layer of firm snow underneath. The bottom 30 cm or so was made up of bigger ice crystals, probably snow that melted early in the season and refroze at night. I was a little worried about it but it took some serious pounding on my shovel to get a column of snow to fail at the boundary between the 1.5-meter layer and the ice crystals beneath. When I got above the snow and jumped on it with my skis I couldn’t get it to break, so I figured we were safe.
We trudged on up the steep slope, making big switchbacks, until we reached the end of the open slope and headed into the forest again. We cut back along the south face of the ridge above us, losing the trail of the pink tape and ducking through a pretty tight forest. Soon the trees thinned, though, and we came back out onto the top of the ridgeline heading towards the summit. From here it was a pretty easy walk up the top of the ridge. The season’s prevailing winds must have been coming from the west because there was a huge cornice on our side, maybe 2.5 or 3 meters tall. Below the cornice the slope was pretty even so we left our gear to the side and took turns jumping off the cornice into the powder below, which was a ton of fun.
I took off my skins and skied back down, getting some decent speed at points. The big field above the avalanche test was pristine and the powder was deep and I got a taste of what they try to make you feel in ski films shot at Niseko, but the slope wasn’t particularly long and the fun was over pretty fast. Past here there were a good number of flats, and I wound up pushing myself along, which wasn’t fun. In a few places the trail climbed short rises and I had to take my skis off and trudge up the snowshoe path in ski boots, which was miserable. The second-growth forest had some fun tree skiing but the snow was crusty and thin and lumpy from where it had fallen off the trees. at the bottom of the second-growth slope, I decided to put the skins back on–they were a little wet and the glue wasn’t cooperating, but they got me where I was going–and skinned out.
If I were to do it again I’d probably take off the skins for the ski down to the bottom of the steep slope below the summit (that is, that big open ridge), then put the skins back on and skin out from there. The few places where the slope was steep enough for good skiing past there didn’t have great snow, and having to plod along on skis was tiresome and tough.
Back at the car I pulled off all my sweat-soaked stuff, changed into dry clothes, and headed back into Asahikawa for a well-earned soup curry dinner. It was awesome.
intersection of 581 & 759: 8:10 -> first climb: 8:40 -> avalanche test area: 10:42-11:07 -> summit: 11:44-12:02 -> avalanche test area: 12:09 -> bottom of the climb (put skins back on): 13:03 -> intersection of 581 & 759: 13:23
climbing time: 3 hours, 34 minutes / descending time: 1 hour, 21 minutes
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A short post explaining how password resets work, mostly just to help me remember.
Archive
Posts Stream Books Walks • Clear filters
2016
January 2016
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Okirika-yama (冲里河山)
28Climbing Okirika-yama, just outside of Fukagawa, by ski in the wintertime.
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Kitoushi-yama (鬼斗牛山)
20How to climb Kitoushi-yama, a small hill just north of Asahikawa, in the wintertime.
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Abandoned bus in a field
19
2015
December 2015
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Abandoned home
16Coming across an abandoned home. Nanowrimo 2015.
November 2015
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Beach to town
18Walking from the beach into town. Nanowrimo 2015.
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A rural Japanese elementary graduation
5A grade 6 graduation at Kaisei Elementary School.
2014
August 2014
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Week 104
14A visit to Tsuru-no-yu at Nyuto Onsen in Akita Prefecture. I sit in a very hot bath far longer than is considered normal.
July 2014
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Week 101
24Climbing Tomuraushi with Tony over two days and running out of water on what was maybe the best walk I've ever done.
2013
December 2013
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Week 66
20My first real trip out to Shiretoko, touring of the Five Lakes district in the late fall.
November 2013
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Week 65
20Climbing Yotei for the first time, alone in the early winter, and being absolutely floored by the beauty.
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Week 64
6Twenty-fourth tour round the sun and I'm still enamoured of the autumn.
October 2013
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Week 62
30Climbing Kogane-yama out west with Jordan, padding out the post with a bunch of rubbish about steep dropoffs
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Week 61
7Running 10 kilometres in Okoppe.
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Week 60
7Random stuff I overheard on The Bus in Honolulu.
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Week 59
7Driving over Ukishima-toge on the way back from Asahikawa to Takinoue
September 2013
August 2013
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Week 55
26Camping down south, at one of the welcome parties I think, coinciding with the Jigoku-matsuri in Noboribetsu.
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Week 54
19Driving home from Tony's house in the rain.
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Week 53
15Driving down south, visiting the Jozankei sex museum, sleeping in the Matsumae Michi-no-Eki parking lot
July 2013
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Week 50
29Climbing Tokachi-dake with Emma and Oliver.
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Week 49
16Climbing Teshio-dake with Tony and Oliver, visiting an abandoned school on the outskirts of Monbetsu.
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Week 48
9Driving north from Asahikawa with the windows down.
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Week 47
1A brief interlude at the top of the Nissho Pass, driving with Tony down to some event in the southwest.
June 2013
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Week 45
20Returning to Shari after the abortive attempt the previous fall, a trio of Kiwis and I summit in glory.
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Week 43
3The first day of summer, coming surprisingly late to northeastern Hokkaido.
May 2013
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Week 40
13Oliver let me tag along on an excursion to see what was left of the rail line that used to run through Yubetsu.
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Week 39
4I drove Penelope the AZ-Wagon around the whole perimeter of Hokkaido to see what else was out there.
April 2013
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Week 36
17Tooling around Maruseppu in Penelope the AZ-Wagon.
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Week 35
11Much ado about melting snow; the gang comes across a pair of abandoned cars.
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Week 34
2The first days of spring are coming to Hokkaido.
March 2013
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Week 31
12Coming back from Pippu, I am struck by the first blue sky I've seen in what feels like months.
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Week 30
8A blizzard strikes Yubetsu.
February 2013
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Week 29
26Skiing at Kurodake and my first visit to the Sounkyo Ice Festival.
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Week 28
18A trip on the icebreaking ship Aurora to see the sea ice on the Sea of Okhotsk.
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Week 27
13Back to Yamabiko-no-taki in wintertime to see the frozen waterfall.
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Week 26
5In Iwamizawa, I experience my first (and thus far only) earthquake, and we drive home through thick snow.
January 2013
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Week 25
28A bit about Hokkaido in the dark on a quiet evening.
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Week 24
22Going out skiing at Piyashiri, trying to leave anxiety behind me.
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Week 23
16A brief layover in Osaka on the way back from the States leads to some real soul-searching on trains.
2012
December 2012
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Week 19
18Much ado about a bunch of snow. I guess I'm not used to quite this much snow.
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Week 18
13The night of the rented Higashikawa cabin, and the emotional aftermath.
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Week 17
3The days are approaching their shortest; winter is well & truly here & boy is it dark.
November 2012
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Week 16
26The winter is starting to settle in. I celebrate American Thanksgiving with friends in Monbetsu.
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Week 15
19In which the author rambles a little bit.
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Week 14
12A belated Halloween party, home from which we took the low roads over the mountain passes.
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Week 13
5More urbex at the Kampo-no-yado Sounkyo, a semi-destroyed hotel by the side of the road just outside of Kamikawa.
October 2012
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Week 12
29Konomai, the first time I explored some abandoned infrastructure that marks so much of the face of Hokkaido.
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Week 11
23The first abortive trip up Shari-dake, accompanied by a quartet of Kiwis, ending in a mad rush down the mountainside after hours of beating through the wilderness.
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Week 10
15Yamabiko-no-taki, my first encounter with a higuma, a drive on a forest road, and karaoke with the Monbetsu folks.
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Week 9
10A trip to Nitori, a night in Asahikawa, and a trip to Tenninkyo
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Week 8
1Hauling Renyu on a mikoshi through Kamiyubetsu.
September 2012
August 2012
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Week 3
29Arriving in Japan, Tokyo Orientation, the train up to Yubetsu, and my first days at work.