2014-04-27 浅間山

Day hike to Asamayama

We came by car and this time I didn't pay attention to the road because it wasn't my plan. We reached the parking lot in front of Asamayama sanso shortly before 8 AM. On our way we had a wonderful view of Myogi, Asamayama's South face was completely free of snow and it was warm as we got out of the car.

We were 8 and split in 2 groups, K-san leading the group of 5 slower hikers and I leading the other group of 3. With my group we decided to go for a longer trail via the mysteriously coined J-band. From the pictures I checked before the hike it seemed more visually aesthetic that the barren Asama.
The trail is first almost flat through the woods then it gets a bit steeper while the view starts to open.
I struggled for about an hour with my gps, it would just switch off without warning. Fortunately it started working normally again before we needed it.

After passing a hut with emergency shelter designed to protect hikers (I didn't understand how a wooden building could be of any use in case of a volcanic eruption) we went left and aimed straight for the ridge. The slope got progressively steeper and the snow was soft, making it hard to find stable footholds. At first we saw a group up towards the ridge and decided to go straight towards their position. The trail was covered in snow and it made more sense to go straight. When the slope got too steep we exited the snow gully and made our way up while grasping at sasa grass. The trail appeared sporadically and several times we passed snow covered stretches. Suddenly 2 kamoshikas appeared a short distance away from us. Then we met groups who were not well equipped for such a steep downhill on melting snow. They were mainly sliding down and expecting to magically come to a halt safely a bit further. I hope none of them got injured. As we progressed towards the ridge the view was getting better and better and Asamayama  was getting too close to fit entirely in the frame.

After a while we reached the ridge, there were more trees but from time to time we had an opening. The trail was almost flat and covered with more than 1m of snow under the trees while it the rocks were bare on parts exposed to the sun.

After passing small summits relatively crowded we got to the intersection from where we would go down before the final ascent. As it was supposed to be technical I packed the camera, however after 2 minutes I took it back since there was no difficulty to note.

We then went straight towards Asamayama until we merged with the normal trail. It had gotten a bit cloudy by then. We got to the summit after walking on a trail almost flat. 
The highest point of Asama if not accessible as too close to the crater of this active volcano and I heard the emission of gazes sent more than a few to hospitals. From Asama we had a clear view of all the trail we had walked with the J-band facing us to the West. Azumaya-san which I hiked 2 weeks earlier  http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=6559272 was still covered in snow and probably more than Asama.

I was tempted to run all the way down to the car but at first restrained myself and waited to the members of my party. After a while I took I-san's car keys and dashed to the car. From then the way down was the same trail we used in the morning so going slowly was not attractive to my sense.
Overall it was a nice day and a beautiful hike with varied sceneries and relatively easy physically, so the next day I could go again hiking at a faster pace this time.

More pictures here:　https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dn6na43uygycr8i/iOxObTtjLw