With strong legs from a solid winter of snowboarding and plenty of energy for exploring my rapidly expanding world of the mountains of Japan, I set out with Sagara-san and Ogawa-san for Yake-dake. Yake (not to be confused with the mountain of the same name in Myoko, or any number of other burning mountains in Japan) sits above the famous alpine valley of Kamikochi, and is seen by many as the Southern outpost of the Kita Alps.
We climbed from nearby to the small onsen resort of Nakanoyu, which is on the windy mountain pass that is now bypassed by the Abe-toge tunnel. The climbing up the back side of Yake was steep and scrubby, and I felt the limitations of my split-board were close. We rounded a ridge to the front side of the mountain, and continued up a snow slope to the peak area. After skiing a small line down, we climbed to another section of the peak, then dropped in to what is probably among the steeper slopes I have been on.
It was probably 45 degrees and broken up, making for relatively conservative safety turns in between side slipping. This was probably a good warm up for the nervousness of the ski out. We followed a massive gully back down into the Kamikochi Valley, with rocks and debris rattling down from above as we skied. In hindsight not an exit I would want to repeat in the boiling hot afternoon sun.
GPS track below.
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/782977100
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