Friday 20 June 2014

Special tours starting from June 28th

If you have done a canyoning trip with us before and want to take your adventure to the NEXT LEVEL then check out one of our SPECIAL canyoning tours.  All of these tours are full day trips into some of Japan's BEST canyoning sections!
The trips are physically demanding as most require a decent hike in to access the start of the canyon, ranging from 30 mins to 2.5 hours depending on the course. The time in the canyon itself is also very long, with a lot of time in the water, swimming, jumping, sliding, rappelling, climbing, walking and scrambling. The shorter special courses like Deer Canyon with only a short access walk still requires 7 hours, and our hardest physical trip, Iron Canyon requires a total of 10-11 hours.
Last waterfall of Crystal Canyon - 35m
The various courses all emphasize different types of canyoning. For example, Deer Canyon is an awesome technical canyon where you can do a lot of rappelling down some big waterfalls. Yamanashi Canyon on the other hand, is solely a whitewater canyon that is all slides, jumps and swims.
As each of the courses are located in different altitudes and geographical areas the seasons for each course differs. Yamanashi, Deer and our Okutama courses are all open from late June,  but Crystal does not open until late August when the snow has melted high in the alpine and the weather starts to stabilize.
Yamanashi Canyon - Itsutsugama section

The best season for many of our special trips is actually in September as the summer storm season has typically passed but the temperatures are still warm enough to spend the day in the water.  This makes it possible to access some of the larger alpine canyons like Crystal and Iron Canyon.

If you want to try out a special course but are not sure which one to go for then contact us and chat with the guides. We can make sure that you get on the perfect course for your level.


Tuesday 6 May 2014

High water Spring rafting has started!

The melting snow is swelling the lakes and rivers and the dam is now releasing. High water season has begun!
The snow pack was pretty decent this year so the high water can be expected to last until around mid June. Depending on the amount of rain in rainy season (mid-June until late July) we may even have good water right up until summer this year.
The standard half day rafting covers 12-15kms of whitewater, ranging from grade 2-4. The course changes depending on the flows on the day but we typically run 3 main canyon sections.

Our popular full day rafting trips in Minakami will be running for all of May weekends. Over 25kms of whitewater bliss with a delicious BBQ lunch.

Come up and experience the Mighty Tone river at it best!