Akatani Yama 赤谷山 2013.5.4
Here’s the vid from last Saturday.
it’s the peak that’s labeled in the pic
Pity you didn’t have a sunny day. Vis looked average.
WOW!! Thats bloody steep 
Super impressive, I dream of doing lines that that 
Question time, did you carry your axe as extra safety, should you fall you have another stopping device?
At the 3:15 and onwards mark, is that snow from a slide?
How did you feel coming down there, you didn’t have your normal smooth style, seemed like you were really concentrating on what you were doing.
How long did it take to hike up there? and finally, you did that alone??
WOW!! Thats bloody steep
Super impressive, I dream of doing lines that that
Question time, did you carry your axe as extra safety, should you fall you have another stopping device?
At the 3:15 and onwards mark, is that snow from a slide?
How did you feel coming down there, you didn’t have your normal smooth style, seemed like you were really concentrating on what you were doing.
How long did it take to hike up there? and finally, you did that alone??
thanks Azz.
I left the house at 4am, and started hiking at 5. Had two hours of walking and scrambling over rocks & vegetation, with the split on my pack, then an hour of skinning, then 3 hours of crampons & ice axe to the summit. You reach the summit from the left side (in the pic) and as I was going up I was 90% going to ride back the way I came. The trouble was that it was a big open featureless face with the snow being 10cm of sugary pow on top of a really hard layer (that was softening as the day went along). There were also very steep sections with little branches from shrubs that would have been tricky to navigate. In the valley I had scoped a nice looking line from the right side of the summit and that was my 10% option. I got to the summit pretty tired as it was quite windy and the last 45 mins of scrambling up had been quite stressful mentally. So I was at the top and it was all flat and you couldn’t see over the edges. I found a track made my mountaineers leading in the direction of the line I had wanted (according to the gps) so I followed the footsteps to see how it went. It got steeper and steeper and finally I had to turn around and downclimb it like going down a ladder. That took a lot of time and was the most stressful part of the day. Thinkgs really slow down as my world just consisted on three things: getting the axe in solid, left foot kick step down, check. then right foot kick step down. check. repeat.
I finally got to a point where it looked like i could ride so I climbed back up to a spot with some small trees and chiseled out a small spot to do my changeover. That took a long time too. Just have to be very sure with each movement as you put the split board together. It was steep and if I accidently touched a binding or whatever sitting in the snow, I could lose it, and be forced to walk the whole way down. So, I managed to get the board set up and crampons off and bindings on. I kept the ice axe out because I really wasn’t confident in the snow and sliding off the path to the right was a sure nasty end bouncing off big rocks, and to the left was mostly unknown, but definitely another valley that I couldn’t afford to go down as the snow bridge down there was out and crossing the river would have been a big problem. So yeah, the ice axe was for self arrest in case I fell, and also to be an anchor when I stopped. You can’t tell in the video but the top section was seriously, one turn. stop. look around. take a breath, turn, repeat. I got to the end of the ridge and the foot steps when straight but it didn’t feel right and it turned out to be unrideable. Luckily I saw an opening on the left. In the video I kept the ski cut/traverse to the left in it. That took a lot of time as the traverse released the top layer of snow, revealing nasty looking ice. It turned out to be soft though so I was able to side slide down.
I got to the entry of the line and while it was nice and steep (and very long!), there was a slight convex roll into it which I didn’t like at all, and there were no ridges to ride safely down. I ski cut it and nothing moved and then moved down slowly on the right side. The snow was ok, but had some frozen chunks from previous avalanches in random spots.
I could have put the axe away here but decided I was ok with it and the weather had gone from sunny to that grey in the video. So as I was going down, I was assessing the safety all the time, as well as trying to get away from avy debris. Lower down, such as at 3:15, that was soft debris from a point release avy a short time earlier. I may have been lucky to have had it cloud over when I rode it. There was a bit of flat light lower down but I could see ok for the most part. It’s hard to go blazing fast when you don’t know what’s coming, and more importantly when you’re alone in the middle of nowhere.
There was a section in the middle where the snow was sweet and I let it out for a bit. I may have ‘hooted’ a little. 
As for style, lol, usually after a long climb, the little style I have usually goes out the window, but I’m working on that. We call it ‘survival snowboarding’, when you’re riding to get down alive, rather than looking for features to get all freestyley on.
So, Azz, you still up for a tour?
Nice one, Marc. How long did it take to hike?
6 hours plus an hour to downclimb, plus an hour to walk out after riding. but was home by 2:20pm
So, Azz, you still up for a tour?
If I ever get the chance, I will be there with bells on
and thanks for taking the time to detail the climb for me
Lots of ‘I’ in that post Gamblor… does that mean you did go alone?? 
Yes, I made like Han and did it solo
So, Azz, you still up for a tour?
If I ever get the chance, I will be there with bells on
Yes, bells are recommended - to ward off the bear(s) 
I’m not bloody going if you are taking that idiot Mizu with us!!
it might be a good strategy since I think we can run faster than him. Always head into bear country with someone slower than you
it might be a good strategy since I think we can run faster than him. Always head into bear country with someone slower than you
Mizu, being a bear is especially good for that, being mating season and all