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New WI7 by Will Gadd in Japan |
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10-Feb-2016 6:23:23 PM
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Trip i did with Will, Sarah Hueniken and Aussie John Price. Not much gets reported about the ice and mixed in Japan - not necessarily a bad thing.
http://iceclimbingjapan.com/2016/02/06/will-gadd-sarah-hueniken-2016-japans-frontier-climbing/
plenty more where that came from.
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11-Feb-2016 1:24:11 PM
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Nice one....i've always wondered what ice there is out there in Hokkaido.
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11-Feb-2016 1:40:05 PM
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Will' new routes are not in Hokkaido. That said Hokkaido has some great stuff with easy access so a good objective. Hokkaido tho lacks the topography for heaps of ice, whereas Honshu has unclimbed ice everywhere. Places like those in Will's trip have hundreds of routes waiting.
He and Sarah have climbed everywhere and they were blown away by whats waiting in Japan - even in a pretty shit season.
Good access, no crowds, loose rules, friendly locals - one day the climbers will catch on just as the skiers did 20 years ago.
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11-Feb-2016 2:46:52 PM
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That second one looks scary...
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11-Feb-2016 4:28:22 PM
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Thats a good description.
Really pushes the definition of ice, high, tiny blobs and the last swing out onto the dagger. The mantels are thin too.
No good rock features and sketch ice means its bolted - but Gadd style ie only to protect but not reassure.
Dozens more of those flutings with ice in the back.
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12-Feb-2016 11:40:56 AM
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On 11/02/2016 tripleshot wrote:
>Good access, no crowds, loose rules, friendly locals - one day the climbers
>will catch on just as the skiers did 20 years ago.
Yup, so keep harping on about every success there to stroke your egos and ensure it gets overrun by foreigners with little respect for local culture so that climbers in 20 years will have something to whinge about!
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12-Feb-2016 6:49:03 PM
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good one. if WI7 foreign climbers overrun those places i will worry about it then. the locals seem happy to get the word out and if letting the tiny world of ice climbers know some cool stuff was done in a cool place then i dont give a f--- if its stroking our egos - we did the hard work and took the risks, those that are involved are happy too and that includes a lot of locals who wish people would visit again.
feel free to come over and climb some good shit so at least you can stroke your own ego whilst you sit in your armchair and moan about something you know nothing about.
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13-Feb-2016 5:24:35 AM
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Is it also good over there in the Punter grade range (4-5)?
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13-Feb-2016 3:35:30 PM
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in general yes, lots of that, across a wide area with a broad range of styles (remote multi-pitch, roadside single pitches, half day gullies, alpine mixed etc). in the 2 places from Will's trip the first has a few days worth, but the second is mostly hard mixed lines.
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