The weather was GREAT!
Left the city at 7 a.m. and parked the cars at the bottom of the Yayoi course at 9:30. After all the gear and accesories were prepared we left towards the bus stop (15 minutes walk). The bus schedule was different from the one we knew; 1 hour and a half to wait for the 11 o`clock bus ?!?
The lady that owns the shop located near the bus stop, was so kind to tell us that a taxi can pick us up and take us to Iwaki Skyline for the same price, and so we did. The 50 minutes hike, up to 1500m was hard enough, but it was worthwhile. The clear sky gave us the chance to see the 360 degrees panaorama over the Tohoku area.
There were 3 degrees on top but because the wind was almost absent it felt warmer. After we had lunch( some of us had HOT noodles- prepared guys), we packed and prepared for the long ride. It was hard to leave the beautiful view from that altitude( an airplane was flying under).
The long ride on the Yayoi Course slope was more than we were aspecting and went down slowly enjoying every bit of it.
The traverse we had to take down the mountain put our legs to work, but we had to do that in order to avoid falling into the river that goes underneath the snow on the valley. Compared to other years, the snow melted faster- we took a 15 minutes walk throw the forest to arrive at the cars.
To finish the day properly, Dake Onsen was the next stop for a hot spring.
Today's photos- Hiking Iwakisan on April 19th, 2009
Iwaki mountain Map 岩木山地図 (pdf)
Spring Ski Courses Iwaki mountain 岩木山春スキー コース情報 (pdf)
Thank you よっちん
