Hakuba - Day 6 - Dasekkei - and Shiroumadate

So, on our penultimate day, we decided to go on another long walk - but this time starting earlier to ensure we got back before dark! We'd driven up to the car park the day before so we knew from whence we would start. So we woke up with the alarm (horror of horrors) and drove for about 15 mins up the mountain from where we started the walk.

This particular walk was to summit the highest mountain in the region - Shiroumadate. En route, there was a 'famous' snow-field called 'The Daisekkei' which is there all year round. So we started walking up a fairly well marked track, and reached the first hut after about 90 mins, around 9:30am. Just a few mins further up the mountain, we reached the Daisekkei - at this time of year, an ice-field. I actually felt a little irresponsible, but Ross thought it was hilarious - we trekked up wearing shorts and tee-shirts, with an 8 and 10 year old; many of the Japanese had crampons, full North-Face gear, and were roped together (allegedly you sometimes see people with ice-picks; we saw no oxygen masks!) It was most bizarre - and really rather slippery! We had bought fleeces and wet weather gear, and did stop half way up to don extra clothes.

The book said this bit of the walk would take 3 - 5 hours, and I was starting to thing we'd made a bit of mistake when, after an hour and a half of walking through cold mist, on rather slippery ice, we arrived at a warm and rocky bit! There followed another 4 hours of very steep climbing up! Neve reached the end of her tether before we reached the top, so we left her at the hut, choosing badges and walked the last 30 mins up and down as quickly as we could. The view was amazing - all along a ridge, although the clouds rather obstructed a full panorama. MAny people walk around the ridge for 4 or 5 days, and we agreed that this would be a great thing to do as some point!

The walk down was long, but we got back before dark. We had planned to cycle the mile or so to the restaurant, but the clouds looked somewhat onerous, so we opted for the car - thank goodness, we had just driven out of the campsite when the heavens opened, with two concurrent storms, one crashing overhead and other in a nearby mountain - the road was like a river, and the lights went out twice in the restaurnat. Thank goodness the tents didn't leak, or we'd have had an interesting night!!