TR: Oomado, Japan : stymied by the river gods!
This is the view from my house that greets me every morning and every evening when I come home from work. For 8 years now I’ve been staring at Oomado (Big Window) which is the big saddle on the lookers left of Tsurugi-dake, the big peak in the middle.
While I knew it was doable, I never imagined that I would ever do something like that…until this year, when the pieces started falling into place.
I had wanted to do it during Golden Week but I couldn’t find a partner and was a bit worried about the crossing of the Shirahagi river which people mentioned with concern in their eyes. Anyways, the gate blocking the road for the winter was still down during GW and a guide had told me to just take a bicycle up to the Bambajima Campground. I tried during GW as recon but was dismayed to find that it was another 6kms to the campground from the closed gate. With no equipment I huffed and puffed and pushed my little folding bike uphill for an hour which sucked.
I hadn’t even gotten to the trailhead and had to turn around to get back in time for a family dinner. I really didn’t want to do this with a heavy bag full of gear just to get to the trailhead. Deeper, further, use up more energy does not really appeal to me 
Anyways, there were still too many unknowns for me.
The next weekend I had rice planting to do, so it fell to today being THE DAY. I found a partner, Mr. N, we had good weather and we both made the 5am meetup time.
There was no snow left where we parked the car, and with no snow in sight I had to carry the split on my back. AWESOME!
We set off at a good pace and reached the Shirahagi river in an hour. Damn, there was no snow left to cross the river easily, and there was no way to hop over the rocks. I did not want to start the day off with wet boots, but there was nothing to be done about it. There was an alternate route which went up a shoulder instead of staying in the valley, but an old guy we met had just checked it out and he said it was sketchy. Later on we would see people going along it and I knew I did NOT want to be on that trail. It was a traverse along a steep face that had some snow sections requiring crampons and then steep dirt sections. Mr. N. knew a little of the route and he said that there was one bit that was a ‘slide & you die’ section. However, to my eyes, most of the route that I could see was a ‘slip and you’re screwed’ scenario. No thanks.
So anyways, we crossed the river and my boots go soaked. It always seems like it’s going to be the worst thing in the world but once the water gets in, it’s actually not bad.
Here’s Mr. N. after the crossing
This one, of the way back, shows how wide it is. This was the most tame section.
After that, I was feeling quite good. We’d crossed the river and should be hitting the snow any second now. Next, we had to get over a dam using the snow on the side. It had a nice hole in the middle and we weren’t sure the thin bit next to the hole would hold us. Mr. N. went first which pleased me, as he made nice toe holds for my soft snowboard boots.
I scampered up ok and then we were walking on snow! We walked maybe 15 meters around a bend and ...... found we had to cross the river again! This time, however, there were no shallow areas spanning the river. Only a couple of doable crossings that were unfortunately broken up by deep, wide and churning sections. We talked about it for a bit…even if we crossed here, the next crossing was only possible if the snowbridge was still there. The next section was a gorge and had high narrow walls. The river was too deep and too powerful to cross without the snowbridge. We really felt that the snowbridge wouldn’t be there and risking the crossing we were faced with, just to get to the gorge, wasn’t worth it. We’d also have to repeat the whole thing on the way back down, and since today was quite warm (27degrees celsius), even if the bridge was there in the morning, it may not be there in the afternoon. So, we called it.
To get back down the sketchy part by the dam, I strapped in and did about 30 seconds of snowboarding (woo hoo!), but it was sketch.
In that pic I was watching the old guy, who we had met earlier, go down. He ended up going the sketchy route since he was trying to get to Goryu-dake!
So we went to plan B: a mellow line called the Bunakura. There are some really interesting peaks above the Bunakura like Akatani yama and Nekomata yama which I’d like to explore one day.
This is a pic of the Big Bunakura (there’s also a small version, and the regular version!)
We went round a bend in the road to find…the unthinkable! The bridge was gone!
WTF??? Did it wash away? Nope, they put it away for winter. Apparently, they’ll put it back up in June. Groan.
We looked for another crossing…
this looked tempting for a few seconds, until reality set in.
Well, at least they had the park set up
The best part of the day I guess was the kamoshika we saw on the way back to the car. It was in some seriously steep terrain. Pretty sick!
Can’t see it?
Here it is zoomed up
While we watched it, it crossed the snow bit on the right and headed into the really steep with gnarly exposure.
Oomado, I’ll be back next year!
Wow! Looks like a great trip mate. Glad to hear you had a great time. Look forward to hear about next years adventure back!
thanks Darb. def want to do it proper next year
That was an excellent read, Gamblor. Props to the both of you for trying to make it possible. It takes some real determination to be ready to hike into the unknown at 5am. Great report, loved reading it. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Thanks Rider. Actually, the getting ready at 5am part is the easy bit. It was hardest deciding to wade through the river and getting wet boots before a 4 hour hike/climb. 
That was an excellent read, Gamblor. Props to the both of you for trying to make it possible. It takes some real determination to be ready to hike into the unknown at 5am. Great report, loved reading it. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I think the above comment sums it up.
I loved how they took the bridge away for the winter!!
First of all, brilliant post, really enjoyed reading it, thanks. Second, is that seriously the view from your house?
yep! Not too bad, eh?
that mountain range actually extends out a lot further on each side. Here’s a longer view. On the very right is Kuwasaki-yama which I did a TR on before
Not to bad hahaha, i would have said something a little different. Thats fucking amazing!
Waht do you do for a living (if you dont mind me asking) and how did you come to live in a house with such an amazing view?
i live with the inlaws (until dec) so it’s their house and their land
Good man, thats awesome 
Do people in japan actually ride or do they just slog up sketchy stuff to downclimb back to the car?
Do people in japan actually ride or do they just slog up sketchy stuff to downclimb back to the car?
I noticed that ya siad that ya had “rice planting” to do!!!!!!
Commercially or just for self consumption????
Love the rap also!!!!! I would love to be able to trek around the “backyard” like ya do!!!!!
It brings back memories of trekin up the mountain and back down the creek as a kid!!!!! (mind you the mountain was nothin like the ones in your backyard!!!!!)
Do people in japan actually ride or do they just slog up sketchy stuff to downclimb back to the car?
Welcome to BW loon!
To answer your question (which I did like gamblor), check out the NoHe photography contest for the dozens of amazing photos Gamblor has taken of his riding adventures. Also check his other Trip Reports in this Mountains and Travels section which show that they do actually ride