Yesterday Igor and I took a group of 8 customers up to Ichinokura, the glacier course in Minakami. We were both keen to check out one of the new GIANT slides that I had found.
The day started out with low cloud, which means no panoramic mountain views but still enjoyable, as we made our way up the very scenic Yubiso Valley.
We got in a few small 5-8m slides to practice for some of the giant slides that we would be tackling in the afternoon.
After a short snack at Machigasawa we cracked the whip and managed to make it to Ichinokura by midday.
As we dug our snow table and set up for lunch the clouds slowly started to lift. The group all worked together to serve up the gourmet lunch... katsu-curry.
Not a bad view for a lunch spot eh! The entire lunch time was silent; a mixture of everyone's hunger and awe from looking at the mountains above. (Japan's largest slab rock face)
After lunch it we had a small warm up walk to get closer to the mountain (but a safe distance from avalanches) before gearing up for the afternoon. The first slide of the afternoon was a beauty. 30m @ 30deg. (bit hard to tell from this photo).
The second slide was another 30m with a couple of nice jumps along the way.
When we reached the valley floor the clouds cleared off all the mountains and we got awesome 360 deg. views of the peaks around us. The return walk was breathtaking! We chucked in a few headfirst and backwards slides for good measure for those that were up for it and by the time we got back to the van, everyone was happy to sit down, relax and reflect on the amazing day in the mountains.
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