TR: Yari Onsen with Lloyd
16 May 08
This was an eventful and fun 2 day trip. Just myself and the dog. It was good solitude.
We were headed for the big bowl on the left hand side of Hakuba Yari, using the natural hotspring at 2000m as a base camp. Two days of this, all to myself. In the above photo the onsen (volcanic hot spring) is roughly one third from the bottom of shot, at the base of the big bowl, near a hug melted patch. There is steam rising from it but you cant see it.
Started out at from the trailhead at about 4am. To reach the onsen you have an easy 600m climb to a low-range col. from there a 200m descent and another 600m climb. I was aiming higher than the cold to get a bigger descent into the 'yari basin'. Unfortunately it was still dark and I missed my ascent line a little, putting me into slighter steeper terrain than hoped and on pure re-freeze corn ice. I had ski crampons on and was literally about to switch into boot crampons and ice axe when I slipped. Face first on my stomach I went for a slide on the ice, taking me about 100m back down the hill before I could arrest the slide with my ski pole. It was pretty nasty, lots of bruises, knocked the wind from me. Its a horribly basic error that I shouldn't have made, although I had admittedly just decided that crampons where needed, but one step too late. The worst part was I wasn't wearing any gloves, a bad habit of mine. So I lost some skin. All told, the damage was not so bad. I picked up my stuff and went back up the hill. Unfortunately I had lost one of the ski crampons. I decided that I would get it the next day on the return.
Down to pure meat. Same on the other hand. Scratched forearms.
Reached the onsen nice and early and it was tempting, but I only dropped some gear and went up for a first tour. My hands were hurting and still bleeding a bit from being constantly knocked and rubbed by my ski pole grips, and it was getting hot, so I only went for a quick trip, up to 2500m from where I rode back down past the onsen to 1600m, pretty much the snowline at this time of year. It was a good 900m of early-morning perfect corn. It took an hour to skin back to the onsen.
Which was unbearably hot. My watch measured it at 45C, but I think it was higher. I could sit in it for no more than 60 seconds at a time. I soothed my feet in it, which made them turn pink. The onsen has been developed over the years for summer use, hence the artificial retainer wall and concrete pool. The steam has a very strong sulphur smell.
Looks tempting. Dangerously hot.
Half way up our ascent looking back towards the onsen. The descent carries on out of shot to the right.
It had snowed the previous evening and we had about 25cm new snow quickly getting warm in the sun.
Lloyd was happy.
The snow was good for mid-May.
Back at camp, I got naked. And bathed naked. And walked around naked. I was at my own nudist snow camp.
The onsen had a good view.
I was sweating like a lobster in a sulphuric volcano pot. Hello.
The water was too hot for me to enjoy and besides, it was very warm out. So I fell asleep in the sun for 2 hours and got really sunburnt. I didn't need the sunburn on top of my other knocks and bruises from the mornings accident.
By 6pm it was only 1C, so I made a fire. I had been back at camp since 11am and enjoyed a very long slow and quiet afternoon and evening of nothing but thought and looking at the scenery and being naked (whilst the sun was still high.)
Yari Onsen has a few rudimentary huts that get disassembled over winter and wrapped up in rope and steel sheets. Avalanche wreaks havoc with them so I cleaned up some of the smashed wood.
Overnight it dropped to about -4C. I had taken my three season weight bag (rated to +3C) and a ridiculously thin and light weight bivy bag, more like a sleeping bag cover. Lloyd and I didn't have much room in this set up as it is extra small to save weight and space in you pack. But we got by ok, not too cold at all.
We packed away our gear in the morning and left it there for collection later, by 7.30am we were heading up to about 2800m. The 800m ascent took 1.5 hours. Still heaps of snow on the backside of Shirouma Dake as well. Looking very good for another trip.
The view back own to Hakuba 2000m below. You can just see some of the rice paddies which have recently been flooded and planted.
Saw a ptarmigan turning speckled for spring camouflage. A few weeks ago they were still pure white for winter.
Rode down some very good clean snow fields with fresh and then to hit this rocky peak. It had a really nice wind lip leading up it.
Lloyd got some at the rock as well.
Good stuff for May. The advantage of having some proper alpine terrain in Hakuba
More good stuff.
Took a brief stop at the onsen to collect my overnight gear, then rode the rest of the way down to the snowline. This descent went the full 1200m vertical, a seriously good line for just having fun. . From there we skinned the 200m or so back up to the col, hiked higher along the ridge and rode down the line I slide on yesterday. Unfortunately I couldn't find my lost ski crampon. But it gave me an excuse to get a longer line back to the car. Another 700m vert. So much riding, such a great two days.
Lloyd and I were pretty tired, happy to be back at the car. Over the two days we did a lot of skinning but got a solid 3000m of vert, all great corn or heavy fresh.
