Might be interesting tv viewing. Jan 25 around 9pm NHK is running a program about a search and rescue at Tsurugi. Incident happened in 1969:

http://www.nhk.or.jp/projectx/yokoku/yokoku.html

http://www.tvguide.or.jp/tables/0125/GBS/tokyo/19.html

Where is Tsurugi?

Tsurugi-dake is in the Kita-Alps

elev. 2998m, Japan's 14th Highest peak
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=tsurugi-dake&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&fr=FP-tab-web-t

It sounds interesting!
Wish I had a TV...

Tsurugi is the big peak north of Tateyama



(edit: bigger copy)

The peak to the left there. This is looking from near the top of Karamatsudake, the mountain above Happo.

Nice nice picture.

Tsurugi is a wild one, and the area behind it pretty isolated. Should be an interesting watch.

Here is a good picture of it from the south.
There is an "easy" way up that doesn't involve using ropes and is just a class 4 climb. You can kind of see the route in the picture but up high it pretty much follows the left skyline.

There should be some hardcore ski mountaineering routes in the late spring and summer on the right side (east face??). Really really steep.
Anybody up for it?

Bump

It's on tonight

dude how steep is "really really steep" on the descent?? +50 degrees?

Some of the chutes probably start at around 55-60
I have only seen pictures of that side of the mountain. Havn't been up except for the tourist route.

I watched it last night but only made it about 20 minutes in. Wasn't going anywhere and I couldn't understand what was really going on other than some people got hurt in the mountains.

It was also eating into my sleep.

what time was it on? I was watching something about a uni hiking club, and on another channel for about 15 mins they had a rail competition up in Sendai. Wonder if the few gaijin who competed are on this site??

Started after 9 sometime but before 9:30

It was a typical "Project X" melodrama. I was half expecting them to crack out the ol' Tina Turner "Simply The Best". Then again, it wasn't made in America.

No, it was just some story about how a bunch of hopeless coppers got trained in mountain SAR and did the biz once when it was asked of them. The show had some good footage of the mountaineering boom in Japan in the Sixties, but it was all too brief.

The program showed them hiking along the top of a narrow ridge with multiple cornices. Is that what you're supposed to do? Wouldn't it be safer a little lower on the non-cornice side?

Yah there were some amazing olds shots.
So many people out there. But then it's the same now come July/August in that area.

There was one winter fly by shot of people climbing Tsurugi. There was probably 50 people packed in along the narrow ridge. Pretty amazing that more people don7t get into trouble.

i missed it due 2 a nomikai... one project X episode that was truly amazing, even with the super melodrama, was about the construction of the Kurobe Dam...killer views of the area (aired 6/2001).

toque how is the access in late winter/early spring?

55-60 degrees? i heard that after 57 or 58 degress, if U fall, U're can't 2 stand up again until you spill out on2 a slope that is less steep.

sounds like fun!

The area opens up again in mid April
Closed at the end of November.
Any earlier than that would probably involve about 2 days of walking and 2000 metres elevation gain to get in.

I don't think I have ever skied anything over a consistant 55. I'm not a very good judge of angle though. It was steep though. But not exposed as a fall would just slide onto a glacier.

You go to sleep that early??

Yes I do
I have to get up really early every morning for work.