10 May 2010

Hakuba Yari viewed from my house at 11am after the descent

I got out of bed at 15 minutes to 5 and was pulling on my ski boots in the Sarukura carpark and hiking at 5.30am. Exactly 5 hours later I was back at the car, then home with a beer and planting carrots at 11am looking back up at Hakuba Yari ga Take which that morning I had skied. If you will excuse the lack of modesty, even for me it was fast and I was a bit puzzled at how I did it and what to do with the lingering motivation and energy high. The slow pace of carrots seeds was relaxing, but I decided to switch to ditch digging instead. Then back to carrots once by buzz ran out.

The very top of Hakuba Yari, 2903m, viewed from the west flank of Shakushi. I skied the NE face as pictured.

Down the hatch

For the last three seasons I have been committed to the task of acquainting myself with as much Hakuba terrain as possible, over a wide area. It has been lonely work but fulfils my need for exploration rather than thrill and I am now able to join together terrain in a way that I couldn’t previously. The mountains are becoming much more multi-dimensional thanks to increasing familiarity and coupled with the ease and efficiency of travelling on snow afforded by skis (rather than by previous habit of snowboaring/splitboarding). My fulltime purpose here in Hakuba is extremely fulfilling and unfolding nicely. I am happy.

1:25,000 scale with 1000m grids. Ascent in green, descent in red, traverse in blue. Total climb 1900m, total descent 1700m all on NE aspects, plus the trail back to the car. I had perfect NE corn the whole way except below 1700m

The route takes the steep NE face from Yari – a first for me, down to the permanent snow field and scree piles below Shakushi. At 2050m traverses skiers left to a spur then climb 200m to an area I call ‘The Ponds’. You are now at one of my favourite places in the valley. From The Ponds, ski a quick NE fall-line into the lower section of Junction peak SE face. Then traverse again, this time from 1900m, giving up perhaps 10m with some strong contouring. Then ski the remainder of the tour down the rolling gentle NE terrain of Junction peak to the foot of Daisekkei. Obviously the are loads of other varients possible, all with their final leg heading back to the Sarukura track, some with more climbing, some with less traversing. All in my number one favourite backcountry area near to town.

Here is a rather badly edited partial depiction of the route. Much of it is out of view. This picture was taken on xmas day a few years ago, not in May this year

Somewhere mid-face, my track along with my band of brothers, in other words, mine alone. The 800m NE through E descent from Yari is now one of my preferred lines for late spring

I think this is a great tour for spring alpine skiers, however not so good for snowboarders due to some hefty traverses if you follow this exact route. I’ve included a map as I hope other give it a go themselves. With all the traverses you can remain on NE aspects above 1500m for the entire descent, rather than taking one long line that ends up in a SE funnel full of avalanche debris and rock fall. Realistically it is a full day tour. I am still stunned that I managed to reach the summit of Hakuba Yari in 4 hours from Sarukura (about 5km travel with a climb of 1700m). Ascent was up Daisekkei, traverse the rear of Shakushi and up the summer path ridge to the summit of Yari. I had frozen spring snow from 2200m in Daisekkei and remained in crampons from then on. The ridge up Yari was mixed talus/scree, creeping pine, snow and water ice.

Mid-section of the summit NE face of Yari from near ‘The Ponds’. Shakushi’s rock wall on the climbers right partially obscured by a near-ground crag.