Japans highest and wildest ice

True alpine ice is glacial remnant, and whilst Japan no longer has any there is ice that feels like for climbing. Refreshed by huge annual snow seasons, there are ice lines that have much in common with the alpine ice found in the Alps, where the climbing is high and exposed.

We have climbed a lot of alpine ice in the Karakoram and Tibet, and it is very different to the water ice that most people think of with ice climbing. Alpine ice instead is compacted snow that is usually wind blasted and consolidated over seasons, and even when not part of glaciers often remains year round through the summer.

Whilst not common in Japan, many of our trips visit alpine ice found in more remote and rarely visited places. By its nature, alpine ice forms on north sides and in deeply featured and vertical geography, like the high peaks of the Northern Alps and the west side of Kaikomagatake.

It should be noted that alpine ice anywhere requires its own techniques, and presents its own hazards due to the complex nature of how it forms. For a long time we would climb the year-round ice famous in the Ichinokura gully of Tanigawadake, finally stopping a few years before it eventually collapsed due to increased temperatures.

Now we mostly climb alpine ice routes in the Spring, including the lesser known, Himalayan-style routes on Mt Fuji. We climb these style of routes as a mix of classical and hard technical techniques, usually over several days.