For Sapporo dwellers, a far-away peak like Higashi-dake in the Daisetsuzan Range requires commitment. Not just because it’s a long day out. A long day out just means an early start. But factoring in the drive there and back from Sapporo, it adds up to a very full weekend.
As it happened, Rick was staying in Obihiro, so on the Saturday we drove to Taisetsu Plaza 273 via Obihiro. We got away just after lunch, so it made for perfect timing to visit a supermarket, pick up Rick, eat some dinner, have an onsen soak, and park up at the Taisetsu Plaza 273 for the night.
Rick pitched a tent on the snow, Timbah slept under the stars, and Haidee and I bunked down in the van. It was a quiet night with only a couple of vehicles passing all night.
The morning broke still, clear, and cold. My guess was it was around -15 degrees C.
We all bundled into the van, the diesel heater ticking over, for a warm breakfast before venturing out for the day.
By the time we got all our gear sorted out, we were all feeling the cold in our extremities. Frozen hands, chilled feet.
We made the first 200m down the road on foot. The day was just breaking. Colors and moods subduded.
At the entrance to the road along Horokaishikari-gawa River, we donned skis and started the 8km approach to Higashi-dake’s eastern face. We all moved fast, keen to warm our cold bodies up. It’s not often that I wear my mid-weight insulated jacket while skinning. Today, I didn’t end up removing it until the sun started peeking through the trees, a full hour and a half after we set off.
The forestry road approach promised to be long, but true to the guidebook‘s words, it was a very pleasant walk. Well within the Daisetsuzan National Park, the forest was old, silent, and majestic.
We were setting a cracking pace, so soon found the end of the forestry road.
We were now picking our way along the Horokaishikari-gawa River. Here and there, the bullet-proof southern-aspect snow made things a bit treacherous.
We hoped that as the day wore on, the snow surface would soften up a little for the descent.
It took us a leisurely 3hr 45m to cover the nearly 9km of gently ascending approach before we arrived at the base of the climb proper. The moderately narrow valley we’d be travelling westwards along suddenly opened up.
We were in full sunshine, and the day felt good.
We stopped for a quick lunch before pushing on.
It was around this time that the long approach appeared to be taking its toll on the team. We had a powwow. We weren’t aware at this point whether we’d be able to ski all the way back down the forestry road, or whether we’d need to don skins again. We knew that we still had a lot of climbing to go to get to the summit. Perhaps most importantly, however, we knew that we were racing against the clock. Windy.com had forecast 60km/h+ gusts from noon, and it was already 10:30am.
Some of the team was keen to press on to the summit, but we made a compromise to get to Oku-no-daira at the top of the saddle we could see from below. From there we’d have good views across the Daisetsuzan alpine plateau, and would be able to make a better decision on whether a summit attempt was feasible or not.
As we ascended, the views only got better, wider, and more expansive.
We were in a seldom-visited area of Daisetsuzan National Park. Indeed, winter is the only time this zone is accessible – there are no hiking trails here.
This mellow approach to the plateau via the southeast valley was a walk in the park. We hardly needed to kick-turn, and we arrived at Oku-no-daira with our skis and skins on.
A frigid, stiff wind was blowing at the top. It was clear that the summit would have to wait for another day. We had run out of time, and already strong gusts of wind were whipping snow and ice up into wind funnels.
We ripped skins and started gingerly skiing the descent on hard windpack, breakable in places, then turning to breakable crust, and then to more manageable warm snow.
Everywhere we looked, we saw beautiful potential in the multitude of lines beckoning us on the eastern face for another day and another attempt.
Mercifully, the forestry road exit was surprisingly good. Had it been any flatter it would have been hard going. As it was, however, it was just the right declination to just require a bit of poling here and there. Freshly-waxed skis were the key here, however. Rick’s were not freshly waxed, and he was poling much more than the rest of us.
Just as we arrived back at the Taisetsu Plaza 273, a large bus of Taiwanese tourists showed up. One inquisitive chap walked over to us as we were packing away our gear, clearly interested in the spectacle.
We were away from the parking lot by 1pm, in the onsen by 2pm, having sushi dinner at 4:30pm, and back in Sapporo by 7pm.
We didn’t hit the main objective for the trip, but the secondary objective (having a long walk and climb in Daisetsuzan’s wilderness) was well and truly achieved.
