Watamukiyama Snowshoeing, Shiga-ken, 24.02.2008

In the end of February, Rie and Kaori drove us (Sebastien, Miyuki and me) from Osaka to snowy Watamukiyama in Shiga prefecture. The area was so snowy that we hat to put on the snowchains for the car, but arrived safely on the foot of the mountain. We put on our snowshoes and hiked through the beautiful white forest, mostly without seeing anybody else. Only in the small mountain hut the last shelter before the summit, it got a bit crowded with a few other snow hikers. After lunch and warming up we clothed ourselves in everything we had and faced the snowstorm outside until we reached the protection of the forest again and then climbed up to the summit of the mountain. Maybe we missed the "official" summit, but after reaching the highest point around we decided to descend and get back to the car before it turned dark. On the way home we had ice-cream (actually only me, the others preferred hot drinks) and delicious ramen and reached Osaka in the evening, happy, exhausted and ready for a hot bath. It was another great snowshoeing event, I hope it was not the last one.

Ries pictures - Sebastien's pictures - back

6413_Arrived_in_the_snow	6414	6415	6416	6417
6418	6419	6420	6423	6424
6427	6428	6429	6433	6434
6435	6436	6437	6442	6443
6444_Rotating_tree	6445	6447_Snowstorm	6449	6451
6452	6453_Mountain_hut	6454_The_hut	6455_Bell	6456_Ring_the_bell
6457_Take_off_your_snowshoes	6458	6459	6460	6462_Rie
6464_Sebastien	6465_Rie_Miyuki	6466_Look_outside	6467_Snowstorm	6468
6469	6470	6471	6472	6474_Markus
6475_Markus	6477_To_the_summit	6478_On_the_summit	6479_On_the_summit	6481_Down_again
6482	6484	6486_Kaori	6487	6488
6489_Snowstorm	6490	6491	6492	6493
6494	6495	6496	6497	6498_Tempura_tree
6500	6501_Group_picture	6502_Going_home	6504	6505
6506_Road