2014-03-09 丹沢縦走

Expecting most of the snow would have remained I decided to go for a long and tough hike in Tanzawa.
In June 2013 I had been close to 3,000m uphill: http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=4648198
This time I thought I would pass this threshold, however it turns out I was just short by a few meters.
The difference is that more than 50% of the trail was covered in snow and I had to use crampons for about half the day.

The weather was not so great with many clouds and I had been in Tanzawa last time with great weather:http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=6248271
so I decided to focus on performance only. I expected a bit more snow so I thought I would need 12 hours to complete the trail.
I had 4 L of water and .5L of sports drinks plus I had drunk 1L in the train. When I returned home I had only about 600 mL left.

From Tsurumaki onsen to about 500m high there was no patches of snow. Then remaining snow was visible on the downhills facing North.
It was only around the final ascent towards Oyama from the intersection which goes to Minoge that the trail was covered in ice.
After a few hundred meters I put on the crampons. Before that I had met a group of runners, who soon went towards a different directions.
They had no backpacks and were not really fast so probably some guys training in the mountains to get fitter but no serious trail runners.

From Oyama to Yabitsu pass the trail went from ice to almost no snow. A lot of people were going on this trail and I was asked twice about the snow condition,
people asking if crampons were necessary.
Yabitsu had significantly less snow that 10 days ago, luckily it was above 0 degrees so almost no ice on the road. However the snow from 2 days before had settled in the parts shaded from the sun.
From Yabitsu to San no to I walked without crampons. The snow was hard with a thin layer of fresh snow on top, but heavy traffic almost entirely obliterated the fresh snow on the trail.

From San no to, steep downhills prompted the use of crampons and I kept them on until Nabewari. However since the ridge is almost entirely exposed to the sun, there were many stretches with up to 10cm of mud.
Towards the end of the ascend to Tonodake a very fast hiker was in my heels, I was near 2500m of positive elevation change at that time so it was the hardest moment of the day.
I needed only 10 minutes to reach the summit with this guy possibly faster than me, closing down on me. I didn't want to "lose" so easily so fought as hard as I could, with cramps threatening to occurr on both legs simultaneously.
Nevermind the physical pain, I got to the summit first with this guy about 10 meters in my back.

At the summit most of the snow had melted and clouds were hidding Fuji. I took a few pictures even though none was comparable to those I had taken 10 days before.

From Tonodake to Nabewari more people were either climbing or going down. From Nabewari the snow had almost entirely disappeared, the first 200 meters were covered in thick muck which got thinner and before I knew it the trail was dry dirt.
The only exception was the small ascent to 栗ノ木洞　(can't read it), facing North still had 30 cm of packed snow.
After a while I got to a small and minor mountain called Kunugi-yama. There was a nice view towards Oyama and San no to, a family was resting on a picnic table. I made a mental note that I should bring my son there some time.
It turns out the trail from there to the bus stop is quite easy, short (map time 1:30 uphill), never steep, no rocks so I definitely want to to there with my son.

Overall it was a nice workout, with much less pictures than usual.



Times:

Place Time Duration Map time %
Start 6:20
Oyama 9:31 3:11 5:45 55 %
Yabitsu 10:06 0:35 0:50 70 %
San no to 11:29 1:23 1:40 83 %
To no dake 13:17 1:48 2:25 74 %
Nabewari 14:29 1:12 1:10 103%
Bus 16:27 1:58 2:45 71 %

Total 10:07 14:35 69 %