Alas this isn’t about seeing Avatar live, though I’d definitely love that too (not with the virus though, not anytime soon). This is, on the other hand about climbing three of the Hundred Famous Japanese Mountains in the Northern Alps – and one of them is called Washiba-dake, which would be “wings of the eagle.”
Kirigamine és Tateshina
Kirigamine és Tateshina két “kisebb” hegy a Yatsugatake környékén (aminek a főcsúcsa az Akadake). Odajutni Tokióból három-négy óra, bár megmászni egyiket se telik túl sok időbe. Ezért kitaláltam, hogy ha már úgyis “ráérek” így a vírus alatt, akár rá is szánhatok egy hétvégét erre. Szerencsére találtam egy kempinget, ahol (pár horkoló részeg és néhány szúnyog kivételével) nyugodtan és olcsón tudtam éjszakázni. Plusz autóval voltam, úgyhogy nem számított, ha kicsit nehéz a sátor.
雲取る雲取
コロナ禍で県またいで移動しないように要請されてるし、都内の山と言えば雲取山。奥多摩からアクセスもそこそこ充実してて朝一から行けるところなので6-7時間ぐらいの山行なら完璧。人気があるから登山道が整備されてて危ないところはない。日帰りなら鴨沢からの最短ルートが一般的だけど、長距離でもいいならいっそ奥多摩駅から石尾根をずっと歩く（走る）手もある。春早速も行ったが、夏になってから更に2回も行った。
武尊山其の弐
1月の頭にすでに一回武尊山行ったことあるが、その時は雪山登山の予定が吹雪に阻止された。コロナで自宅待機するのも飽きて車借りてもう一回挑戦しに行ってきた。結果から発表すると、今回は無事山頂に立てた。
Asama!
I got really fed up with sitting at home because of covid. So instead I rented a car and went for a snowy hike where I wouldn’t be likely to run into people: Mt Asama, an active volcano. In fact I only ran into 1-2 people on the way.
Return to Kumotori
While other countries have pretty harsh lockdown rules (from what I hear on the news), Japan is pretty lax about that. While commuting to work by train is discouraged, I figured going up in the mountains (where there are hardly any people) it can’t hurt, right?
Training for Aconcagua
After Elbrus and Kilimanjaro, I knew I can’t take Aconcagua lightly. At almost 7000m it’s the highest mountain outside of Asia and thus the second highest of the Seven Summits. Working full time, the time I had available for training was very limited. This was before covid hit either, so I actually had to commute to the office too, which is about an hour one way. So what can the man do if he only has so many hours in the day and he needs some sleep too, but training has to be done for Aconcagua?
Down and out
After reaching the summit of Aconcagua at 6961m, we took two days to get back down. Naturally when we got back to camp 3 after the summit day, we were completely exhausted. However the next day wasn’t going to be any easier either: we had to descend all the way to the “normal” route base camp at Plaza de Mulas.
On the summit of Aconcagua
On Elbrus we’d enter the world of snow as soon as we “went up the mountain.” Aconcagua is very different. There is snow and ice: there are the penitentes and the route goes over glaciers on multiple occasions. But the snow and ice is mostly covered by rock and dust, so it’s much harder to be conscious of it. This year there was so little snow that we didn’t even need to take our crampons for the summit attack.
High camps
After Plaza Argentina base camp, we kept doing the same load carrying routine: carry up some team gear, go back down, maybe rest and then move to the higher camp. We had a total of three high camps: camp 1 at 4950m, camp 2 at 5570m and camp Colera at 5870m. While we were climbing Aconcagua the “Polish traverse” route, Colera is also the highest camp of the “normal” route.
