The day was bright sunny and we were so excited.
6 am we got up, 8 am we started.
Start is a camp site called "Shisi gawa camp" (鹿川キャンプ場)
I was very glad I know how to see the difference between climbers vague trails from actually well stepped hiker's trail... it is a way more vague...
When I was not yet confident enough, I used to hike all the peaks in the mountain range so I will know the escape route when I am lost and stuck. That was the preparation to the serious climbing but these days I feel more confident to try on any new crags without doing hiking homework.
This place resembles Kanmanboron, a famous granite route in Mt. Mizugaki in Yamanashi prefecture... it is the granite stone paradise in Japan...
But much smaller scales... I saw a small stream and nice woods, a half an hour walking you are already in the foot of climbing rock... it was much shorter than we expected so we did a little exploring...
These area seems to have no access issue since they actually have trail signs to show the way to the climbing routes.We went to further on, since we arrived earlier than we thought, and found a beautiful big fall...
There was an interesting rock called "Paken iwa" so we enjoyed scenery a little...
This place is a large granite which seemed like Mizugaki and Insubong.
I wanted to come back with my husband for just hiking...
You can come to the same place without climbing, just hiking, so it is shared mountain like El cap with hikers.
The peak gotten by climbing feels much more than the peak gotten by just walking.
How difficult may be more important in happiness??
on Climbing...
1st pitch: Me lead. I said I'd lead, since it is the easiest pitch, also had the first bolt in my sight... but I could not see my second bolt... so bolt is just a matter of ... I don't know the proper word but useless. Never fall is the word.
But the slab was easy, and I felt if it is Insubong, it will be just a approach, not a route. Korean climber are lazy so many never bother to use ropes... it useless when you don't have proper bolts anyway.
So I must lead this easy... still I was scared since the bolt too far means free soloing...
My rope was soooo heavy so my belayer must have been very scared and he must have been crossing his finger for me... very tight belay.
I was sooo scared so I was very very quick to up climb, to the bolts... in slab, you better not to hesitate.
2nd pitch: My partner led... he is 5.12 climber but still very careful, it is a slab so climbing skills does not matter much, the friction of your climbing shoe matters.
3rd Pitch: my lead climb. The rope work is easier in this switching system... we are so happy about it. I put my small cam in the flack in the beginning but it seemed not strong enough... still may be better than nothing??? I always take my protection whenever I can. I am fighting against my laziness to skip the pros. Actually climbing gets harder when you have to set the pro.
The pitch was a large traverse, so this means also you can not afford to fall.
4th pitch: also traverse. my partner led.
5th pitch: Big big traverse, me leading... I was surprised there were only two bolts this pitch... it is already far from the ground but still.. only 2! also the bolt quality was questionable...
6th pitch: my partner led. The end of the "beautiful traverse". This is the hardest pitch in this climbing route.
We decided to connect two routes so we go up the peak by climbing...
7th pitch : is just a band walking the traverse walk... this traverse is just connecting two routes so much easy so I became a bit lazy, I did not use two draws to make rope smooth to run, so the rope became a way too heavy because of the friction... a good lesson, think about rope and friction always! Belaying my second was a way hard since the rope was heavy due to the rope drag.
8th pitch: Actually the 1st pitch of another route... 5.6 slab it says... my partner took the lead since he saw me scared. Very very far bolts it seemed. I felt 5.10a due to the bolt distance.
9th pitch: my partner led since it was more difficult than the one before... the climbing line was not straight so more dangerous. The rope gets tangled easily when lead climber is the same person so we became careful about tangled rope, it is a nightmare when you don't have a rope when you are on slab!!
10 th pitch: a easy traverse. the rope was dragged so was very heavy. Used a rock as a substitute for draws...
11th pitch: the only crack route, very short one point crack, may be 5.9 or so. My partner free soloed, I was roped. The rough stone surface made our hands bloody.
This is the end! The top was so much like Mt. Kinpo I used to hike in Yamanashi... there are some holes that rain made...
We enjoyed a great view from the mountain top and we went down using hiker's trail... this trail is easy to get lost.. we followed animal track a few times by mistake, we were not watching carefully because we were so struck with a beautiful view...
we started to climb at 10:30 and at the top 15:00 and came back where we stared at 17:30, the camping site where we parked.
Related site( outside this blog but you can see the photos)
http://kac90.sakura.ne.jp/report/2019/1020mennbokoiwa/index.html
https://yamap.com/activities/4353471