melonBlog

Mt. Yotei
I Climbed Mt. Yotei with 3 friends the other day... It was my first ascent but i've been wanting to do it since i first visited Hokkaido 3 years ago.
We left at about 9am and climbed for about 6.5 hours, in some spots it was very hard going, Steep, Sliding snow, I gave up about 3/4 of the way up but was spurred on again by a local Japanese skier who announced "It's easy from here..." I made it to the first crater but still had another 50 or so meters to go to get to the actual summit - these 50 meters were hard ice pack with large chunks! but by then i was exhausted and needed my reserve energy to snowboard back down again. It was a perfect day for climbing, No wind a little cloud which passed but basically a very sunny day (Needless to say we all got sunburnt!) This was an amazing experience, I've never used snow shoes before so having faith in every step I took, took time to aquire, however by the time i was nearly at my final destination i was amazed at just how well they hang on to the side of a Steep snow covered volcano!
I'll definately try again next season but next time i'm going all the way to the top!
The ride down was fun but by far the experience was all about the climb!





standing on top of the world!

assorted photos...


Just a kero heater flame.



Old factory in Otaru.



The side door to the factory.



A night scene of a Sapporo street.



Niseko...



More Niseko.



Fresh snow and trees.



Nature is cool.