Training Report - Mt.Tokachidake (Mt.Tokachi) 26

K participated in this training. It was minus 16 degrees Celsius at the Mt.Tokachidake Hot Springs. The travelled distance was 23km.

It snowed a lot during the last three days. When he was preparing for the training, the snow removal operation was ongoing at the foot of the mountain. So the road surface condition was very good up to the Nakachaya Gate. However, above the gate, the road wasn't snow removed recently. And as very few cars pass here during the night, snow on the road is only partially compacted. It makes very difficult to ride. It's the second worst road condition after Mt.Tokachidake 16 in the history of our training on the Mt.Tokachidake.


Ruts of hard ice hidden under the fresh snow make very difficult to ride straight. These new tires aren't suitable for such a road surface condition. However, the hard rime is very beautiful this day as well.



Here is very difficult part of the climb because of ruts. He has to use the lowest gear although these tires are very light (cf. Mt.Tokachidake 25).


Above the bifurcation, the lane for descent is snow removed. Therefore, it became a little easier to ride. Interestingly, the hard rime at one side is destroyed. It might be because of rotary snowplow.


Because of snow removal, it became much easier to ride.


Above the altitude of 1100m, the hard rime wasn't destroyed because the road isn't snow rmoved yet. The road surface condition became bad as that of the road before reaching the bifurcation.


The snow height almost reached the famous mirror. Beneath the fresh snow, hard ice layer is hidden. These new tires' studs aren't long enough to reach the ice layer. So his rear tire spinned many times loosing the traction without grasping the ice. Such problems never occured with the tires of Mudmad of IRC.


He did sprint training several times at the summit.



But as the road surface condition isn't good, he sometimes looses control.



View from the Mt.Tokachidake Hot Springs. It snowed a lot during the last three days.







The descent is catastrophic with the tires of Ice Spiker Pro. It's very difficult to control the bike. He once lost the control and almost deviated from the road. He tried to get back to the lane boucing off the snow wall along the road. But the snow wall was much softer than expected. So it didn't help and he had to stop for a moment.




Hard rime is really beautiful.





Clouds are dissipating.
After passing the bifurcation, the road surface condition became much worse. Much worse than that of when he had climbed. He once again almost lost the control because of ruts and had to stop. These Ice Spiker Pro tires aren't suitable for such a road surface condition in comparison with Mudmad of IRC. They aren't good at ruts. Moreover, the compound of tire becomes stiff in a low temperature. This fact makes more difficult for tires to grasp uneven road surface. He had to reduce the speed to 30-40km/h.


After passing the Nakachaya Gate, the road surface condition became good. He increased the velocity to 50km/h. These tires are good for well snow removed road condition but bad for not well snow removed condition.

A picture of the Tokachi Mountains taken after the training.