Urabandai

In February, we went for a final winter mountaineering trip, to Urabandai in Fukushima prefecture. Like everywhere in Tohoku, it's less developed than further south, which also meant less busy! We ended up going for three snow-shoeing expeditions; actually renting and returning the snow-shoes turned out to be our major logistical limitation -- nowhere opens early enough to get the gear in time for an early start!

Anyway, after much shopping around we found a very nice rental guy who agreed to rent us the night before (cash only please) and the next morning we got on the first shuttle bus to the ski resort at the bottom of Nishi Azuma, the first mountain.

We got the lift up most of the way, but the start of the trail involved hiking up the margin of the ski slope. Already it was obvious that the snow shoes were required equipment - the snow was deep and powdery and would only get deeper.

Looking back south towards Mt. Bandai; we would get a closer look two days later.

We were the first people on the mountain, so there were no visible tracks to follow. The snow was very deep higher up, and trail breaking was very slow going. In the worst sections we were doing a metre per minute! There were people coming up behind us; I'm not sure if they realised they were following a path made by idiots who had no idea what we were doing.

The visibility was pretty poor. It was not snowing yet, but we were in and out of cloud. At some points we were navigating purely by gradient, which is actually pretty fine on the way up. The way down required a bit more care, but we had more landmarks.

The summit of Nishi Daiten! This is the smaller peak before the main summit of Nishi Azuma.

Between the two peaks there is a patch of trees famour ofr its "snow monsters". Basically crazy acculumations of snow that look like mishapen creatures looming out of the gloom!

It was about -10C up here, and I was starting to turn into a snow monster myself!

The ascent had taken longer than we planned so we didn't have time to actually summit Nishi Azuma, and the snow had started to fall. We had went back down, surprised that our tracks on the summit from 30 minutes earlier were already gone.

The next day we did a low level walk around Goshiki Numa -- the five coloured ponds... "Numa" in japanese can mean either pond or swamp... appropriate for this landscape.

This is the blue pond! The are warmed by volcanic activity, which is also responsible for the colours. (Common opinion is that five colours is total overselling.)

Lunch in the snow is a mandatory part of all such walks.

The ponds were apparently formed after the eruption of Mount Bandai in 1888.

Of course we did not spend the whole trip outside. We were staying in a giant resort hotel which had various entertainments, notably including an excellent onsen. I think the bar staff were sick of the sight of us by the time we left.

Next day we went to Mount Bandai itself. Ingrid was not in love with low tech ski lift! (And at the top, we saw an old guy who had taken a tumble dismounting and hurt himself.)

Looking back down from the top of the ski slope to Lake Bandai. Unlike the Goshiki Numa, the lake is sufficiently frozen to support temporary buildings.

It's not too visible, but this patch of earth has no snow because it is outgassing hot steam from the volcano. This is very much an active area!

There is a high plateau approaching the peak. Deep snow! There third pair of rented snow shoes were definitely needed. We spend so much on renting snow shoes we could probably have bought a pair...

The famous "Yellow Falls". No further comment.

It was a steep climb to the ridge line.

At a certain point we had to exchange snow shoes for crampons. By the time we got to ridge line the weather was positively sunny! It was a lot warmer than on Nishi Azuma two days earlier.

The actual summit of Mount Bandai! We didn;t have time to go that far. My camera was suffering a lot from fogging in the cold.

Everything at the top was growing these ice structures. The point to where the wind comes from.

In the background you can see Nishi Azuma -- not in the clouds today!

No idea where this person was going.

Another view of the lake.

These weird little things are the remains of old foot prints. The loose snow gets blown away, but the compressed snow remains behind.

On the last morning, we took a potter down by the lake. You can see all the huts where people are eating fish pulled up from under the ice, snow mobiles supplying them, and little tents where people are fishing. It's a pretty major operation!

Then we got the bus back to Tokyo. Which was totally fine except for the part where it stopped at a traffic light directly outside our flat before driving on into central Tokyo....