Training Report - Mt.Tokachidake (Mt.Tokachi) 55

The day before, he corrected the slided inner tubes of tire. It was a necessary procedure as he uses tires with very low air pressure (between 0.15-0.19MPa). The inner tubes frequently slide because of low pressure when accelerating and braking.

A cold air lake was formed on the Furano Basin because of radiative cooling. The upper end of the ground inversion layer was situated at the altitude of 750m. It was fine the day before. So the surface of the road had been once melted and refrozen. It was icy.



The day is breaking.



He's wearing a new jersey of Caisse d'Epargne.


He might have heard the sound of frost crack 4 or 5 times but he isn't sure.


Approaching the bifurcation.


He didn't feel cold until entering the katabatic valley (KTV). But entering the valley, the temperature went down rapidly. His hands became numb because of the cold of the valley. Only at the south side of the valley, one could see the hard rime this day.



After quitting the KTV, the temperature augments and his hands are no longer numb. However, passing the KTV, the content of the bottle froze completely because of the cold of the valley. The ice of the throat of bottle had been once frozen in the KTV. But with high pressurised expiration, he successfully melted the throat. He could drink two or three times. But after that, it's completely frozen.


Moderate south wind produces clouds around the summits of the Mt.Furanodake (Mt.Furano) and the Mt.Sanpo which are situated at the south front of the Tokachi Mountains although the summits of the Mt.Tokachidake (Mt.Tokachi) and the Mt.Bieidake (Mt.Biei) are seen. He's doing sprint training here.


We found three climbers on a ridge called "Geant Ridge" of the Mt.Furanodake (only two of them are seen on this picture). They must have started very early in the morning.


He did sprint training several times at the summit. No snow melting agent was dusted this day (cf. Mt.Tokachidake 47 (report which isn't uploaded yet)).





Diamond dust is falling from the sky.



At the summit, he talked with about a dozen of skiers from the UK, dozens of skiers from the USA, several skiers from Norway and a dozen of skiers from Australia. He saw more than 100 foreigners there and he talked with almost half of them. They were really interested in a sport K was doing and addressed him spontaneously. Many of them took pictures of him.

Some of them explained him why so many foreigners come to ski here. They said the snow quality here is really good in comparison with that of their countries. Moreover, in this season, they don't have much snow back home. Therefore, they came to Japan to ski. Many of them are doing tour of skiing resort including Hakuba, Niseko, Kiroro, the Mt.Asahidake, Tomamu and Sahoro. However, some of them avoid Niseko. They said they avoid Niseko because there are too many westerners and too crowded. Moreover Niseko is too commercialised under the foreign capital and as too many westerners are there, they don't feel like to be in Japan but in their countries. "It's like just Bali" they say. K heard the same stories from many foreign patients (K works as medical doctor who is charged with foreign patients in the area as he has experience of working as interpreter before becoming doctor).

He continues sprint training as the weather is becoming better. Clouds covering the summit of the Mt.Furanodake (Mt.Furano) are dissipating. It's first time you see the summit of the Mt.Furanodake from this point in this season during the training.










As the sky is crystal clear, he doesn't want to finish his training. He's enjoying sprint training at the summit under the crystal clear sky.











After preparing for the descent wearing the ski goggles, he did once sprint in order to warm up the body which had got cold during the preparation for the descent. However, because of the sunshine, he began to feel hot.


The descent has commenced.


K and the Mt.Furanodake.



A Boeing 747 passes over the Mt.Furanodake leaving four streaks of contrail.




The surface of snow is enough smooth that he can speed in the straight. But he can't speed in the corners because of strong contrast due to strong sunshine. The velocity reached 72.0km/h.


At the foot of the mountains, he saw a car carring three mountain-bikes. He learnt afterwards that these were cyclists who were going to enjoy downhill.


The Tokachi Mountains.


After descending from the Mt.Tokachidake, he went to train on the flat near the Senbo Pass.

Surroundings of this route evoke landscapes above the forest limit.


The Tokachi Mountains.



It seems he rides above the real tree line.



No trees. No artificial object except for border marker poles.



You see in the distance a Boeing 767-200 of AirDo making the final approach to the Asahikawa Airport.


Heading for the Senbo Pass.


Climbing a small hill. The Tokachi Mountains are really beautiful


There are many beautiful hills around here.


The Tokachi Mountains.