TR: Tateyama, Japan

Here’s my TR:

I got up early because I thought they’d be a huge lineup for the 7:20 cable car from the Tateyama side. However, as I arrived I found the parking lot practically empty. It wasn’t til I went in that I saw that the first cable car wasn’t until 8am. Damn. I had an hour to kill and I would be an hour later than what I had told Ninjaman and his stable of sidekicks.
So, I waited the hour and made it up. I spoke to NM who was having crampon problems at the saddle and we agreed that I’d start heading that way to catch them on their second line. The rest of the gang was already at the top of Ohyama.
It was overcast and blah.

On my slow way up (since I didn’t do any real exercise over the summer) I noticed a line which is maybe named Yamazaki Curl that looked appealing to me. Hitting it from the top was doable but it looked sketchy and the traverse was over a lot of exposure. Plus, I figured it was less hiking to go up the guts. I was worried about how steep it was since I didn’t have crampons but I just planned on strapping in and riding down when the going got too tough. So anyways, screw those guys, I went to do that line.
I traversed over and as I was packing my stuff up a Japanese dude on a splitboard came up behind me. I asked him where he was going and he said my line looked good, but he had a splitter so he couldn’t go up. I told him, nonsense! let’s put a bootpack in together.
He agreed and we started up. I had planned to carry my board in my hands to pull myself up with it, but it quickly got heavy in my hands and after 2 or 3 steps I stopped to put it back on my bag. In the meantime, this Japanese workhorse pounded out a nice bootpack for me and I had an easy time up he he he.
He ran out of steam half way up and I caught up and took the lead. After 10 minutes I called a break (told you I was out of shape ) and offered him a chocolate bar. Unfortunately for him, as he opened it, he dropped his glove and we watched it slide all the way down and round the corner at the bottom. He decided to go after his glove and do an easier line afterwards. He was surprised I was going to the top. I just felt that if I had spent an hour going up a chute, I wasn’t going to give up halfway.
Here’s two shots of him riding down:

Looking up, this is all I could see:

So off I went. At random intervals I took some more pics. Do you think Mountain Hardware would want to sponsor me?

Hiking up after he left me was quite enjoyable. It was all double kicksteps in and the ice axe quite useful. It was full on concentration for each step.
So I made it to the top! I think it was 2865m. Murodo was 2450m. It took 50minutes after the Japanese dude took off. So 1hr50 total, and another 1.5 hours from murodo to the bottom of the chute.
I jammed my gear into the snow and got this shot:

my gear got lonely so I got in the shot with it

the way down

the way down got lonely so I got in the shot with it

So I strapped my board on and felt like Jeremy Jones. I then remembered it was my first turns of the year and I was on a big stiff board that I never ride (a 166 Burton Frontier - not the most forgiving board). I think I should have ‘warmed up’ on an easier slope. Falling here would suck.
The snow was firm and a bit grippy so I took it real easy. Let me just say, ” It was AWESOME!”
I had a huge smile when I made it to the bottom. What a great first day!
Even though it was only 1:30pm I decided to call it a day and took the 2pm bus down. Unfortunately, I got some major motion sickness on the way down and it totally messed me up. Had to stop at Alpen Mura and slowly eat a garigarikun while watching ponies to feel human again.

On the way back to murodo the sun came out.

and for those of you who couldn’t see the red dots before check this one out for my line:

That`s awesome man!!
Thanks for putting that together.

What an awesome trip report, Marc. You’ve left me really motivated to get some hiking done. I was eyeing this line yesterday which required a decent hike; I felt it was too early in the season and walked away. I can’t help but to wonder how rewarding it would have been if I made the effort. Needless to say, I will be doing a lot of hiking this season. I can’t wait to get out there and find some epic lines. I will be sure to document them as well as you have. Great work mate!

Thanks for the great write up Gamblor!