Togakushi Snow Hike

This is the first notice for the snowshoe walk trip of TWMC at Togakushi hill, Nagano. The date is scheduled in the weekend of March 8-9th.
Togakushi area is located in the north of Nagano and you can come up to the main gateway with roughly 1 hour using car.
Togakushi is famous for two folds; one is Togakushi shrine. The other is soba; Japanese thin noodle. In particular Togakushi shrine is situated in wood land with cedar trees which were implanted over a hundred years old. The shrine consists of three locations; lower shrine (Treasure of Light), the second Chu-sha (Middle Shrine) and the third Oku-sha (Deep Sanctuary). They were built at intervals of roughly two kilometers. These shrines are dedicated to mythological gods( generated from Japanese Shinto religion) and each has a long history. We are going to walk around besides Oku-sha with snowshoe and this walk takes you to well- preserved forest with deep snow in front of Mt Togakushi. Additionally the route to walk along the ride to Mt Izuna besides Togakushi ski place is our second target to enjoy a nice view for Mt Myoko.

This trip is again formed for car based travel from Tsukuba area ( or train from Tokyo) and participants who are able to bring cars for this hike are highly appreciated.

The walking plan is as below;
March 8th: After leaving cars in car park nearby Oku-sha, we walk along the snowshoe route around this area. The details are shown in HP as below.
http://www.togakusi.com/enjoy/

March 9th: Our destination for the second day is Mt Izuna. We are going to use ski lift from the bottom of Togakushi ski area to get the starting point (Mt Menou) for snowshoe walk. It takes roughly 1~1.5 hours to get the submit of Mr Izuna. We keep the ridge walk through two small mountain shrine and descend to the car park where we leave our cars.
http://piore.com/iizunayama-map.htm

The difficulty level is between �-�. Most route is flat and very easy on the first day. Probably You may need a bit effort to stretch your snow walk along the route to Mt Izuna on the second day. Still it is mostly straightforward. The snowshoe route is often changing the difficulty level on the same trail by the degree of snowfall. I will see closely the snow condition on the day to judge the validity for prosecution of each snowshoe walk.

Our lodging is the pension Azalea where is situated nearby Togakushi ski area. The rate is 10,000yen per day including 2 meals. Those who do not have snowshoe can rent a set with poles (1500 yen/ day).
http://www.avis.ne.jp/~azalea/top.html

You have to bring your own lunch for 2 days and snack for night ( with a bottle of wine??)

The total cost would be around 22000~25000yen ( including snowshoe rent and travel fee) in case 4 people are coming with a car from Tsukuba.

Those who wish to join from Tokyo can join using Nagano Shinkansen heading Ueda. From Ueda station I will pick them up using my car and drive to Togakushi using Nagano motorway.
If nobody could bring car for this trip, all participants are obliged to use Nagano Shinkansen from Tokyo. I will pick you all up using my car at Ueda station as mentioned above. However, I will not be able to take more than 4 people excluding me using my car in that case.

What you need for this walk:

You need to bring these items as usual;

• Well insulated, warm clothing, including good socks and gloves. (As this area is open space, it would be very cold if it is windy….)

• Fully-water-proof outer layer. This means everything except for your hat. You must have water proof gloves and water proof boots. Sneakers and hiking shoes are not acceptable, you need high-ankled, water proof, well-insulated winter hiking boots. You must have gaiters. It is also recommended that your jacket must be wind proof.

• Sun glasses or ski goggles (It is essential on snow….).

• Suncream (up to your skin condition…..).

• A water proof hiking pack. Ideally, it will have a rain cover.

• Lunch. Tea, coffee and miso soup in your thermos would help you to keep yourself warm from inside…

You do not need to bring your own snow shoes or poles for this hike, unless you already have one. We will hire snow shoes for those who don't have their own.

If you are willing to participate in this snowshoe walk in Togakushi hill area, please send me your email with below information ;
1) your name
2) do you need renting snowshoe set with poles ??
3) do you have your car to be able to bring for this trip??
4) do you use a train service to come up to Ueda??

Hi snowwalkers

The weekend of March 8-9th was supposed to have been bad weather according to weather forecast. However, fortunately it was incorrect and the weekend brought us an ideal condition for snowshow hike.
In particular, Sunday(March 9th) was fantastic condition in both weather and snow condition at Izuna yama area. The snow was dry and nearly powdery condition which allowed us to descend on the slope along the ridge toward Togakushi onsen.

At the first day of this snowhike (March 8th) we walked on the flat snow forest of Togakushi shrine with relatively less information regarding course route.
Although it was sunny, it was windy a bit and a heavy snow forced us to use an extra energy to walk on the route. Also, as mentioned, we "enjoyed" the route finding in walking in the silent forest heading to the gateway of Togakushi shrine.

The hut owner kindly gave us many rides between the couse route and hut for both days. It was also great help to make our time schedule efficient.

At the end of snowhike, I had to rush out from the hut to take Stephaine to Nagano station for her bus on time (I am sorry, Stephanie, for my misunderstanding the bus schedule.) and therefore, I did not have time to tell many thanks for all participants for his hike.

Again, I would like to express my appreciation to all for your sharing precious weekend time together with me.
Notably, I want to tell Anja many thanks for not only as a role of sub-leader but also your sorting out the total finance for this hike after my rapid leaving the hut.
Also thank you, Joonas for your showing strong affinity for snowshoe hike throughout winter season past 2 years. I was very impressed by Nordic passion to snow and ice again ( I was aware of their special bondage with snow from Norwegian friends previously). I hope you enjoyed your last snowshoe walk before leaving Japan this April.