[pete D]

Hi All

I'm going to a conference in Kyoto for the first week of June.  I'm taking the 2nd week of June for a holiday and was hoping to find some good climbing.  I realise it's probably not the best time of year, so where am I most likely to find reasonable conditions and weather for climbing?  I'm equally happy to boulder, trad or sport climb... (I'll be starting from the Osaka/Kyoto area but I don't mind travelling the length of the country if the climbing is world class!).

I've not done much research yet myself but I've seen some nice pics from Mt Horai and Ogawayama...

One for Jwi?

Thanks in advance

Pete

[jwi]

Yeah, 2nd week of June should be at least a week before rainy season ("tsuyu") starts. Still, some days going to be rainy for sure.

There's quite a lot of places to go to around Kyoto/Kobe/Osaka, sport, trad, and bouldering, but they might be quite hot: expect temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius. Horai is really good for sport and hard bouldering (a few problems up to 7a, but most stuff is harder than that). Ogawayama is not a bad idea at all. The campsite is at 1600 m above sea so it should be a lot colder, and I'm sure its bloody cold during nights. I takes something like 5+ hours to get there from Kyoto: just get up on the chuo express-way and drive all the way to Sutama-intersection (須玉IC), then the fun starts....

So there is a English web-page on ogawayama.com  I have written some stuff on ukclimbing:
http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=264 I found a problem with the map I drew. Where it says "Bypass" you have to look out for a sign pointing toward 廻り目平 ( <--- sorry if you have an old OS: then you only see: ????) Its a very sharp fork and can easily be missed.

I really, really liked the boulders in around Mizugaki: put up some info here: http://thousand-cranes.blogspot.com/2007/04/mizugaki.html It takes something like 25 min to drive from the campsite in Ogawayama to Mizugaki forest. If the weather is still crap tomorrow I'm going to add info how to get to Mizugaki from Ogawayama. A map of sorts can be found in Mr. Kitayama's topo.

If you get fed up with trying to find the routes you want to climb in the confusing jumble of rocks and spires on the forrested hills of Ogawayama, you can always go to the small trad-crag Yukawa. Half an hour by car from the campsite.

If you don't want to drive (coward...) you can rent a room at the Ryokan at the campsite. A friend of mine did this last year, and they came and picked her up at the trainstation. I stayed at the ryokan October 2005, and they had excellent food (breakfast and dinner) in a very traditional Japanese style. It might be a good idea to book soon, I think its quite popular in summer.

[pete D]

Thank you both for your help.

I've just realised that Jonas on rocktalk and jwi are one and the same!  I'll stick to UKB, it's less confusing!  Have decided that I'll check out the gym while I'm in Kyoto and then make a decision whether to head to Ogawayama/Mizugaki or Mt Horai for my 2nd week.

I had begun to think that I'd picked the worst possible time to try and climb in Japan but am a lot more optimistic having read your posts.

Cheers

[jwi]

I'm going to Horai this weekend. I'll try to update my blog-thingy next week with some info how to get there, where to park, and where to camp/stay.

For now, the climbing in Horai is exactly at the red cross on this map, and Kyoto is on the same horizontal line, but on the left side, just to the right of the circled 9.

[jwi]

Oh yeah, I forgot. If the conference is at Kyoto University, take some time to stroll over to the Silver Pavilion. It is only  a 10 min walk from the campus, and have an exquisite garden.

My pics from Horai: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Horai&w=73264594%40N00&s=int

[jwi]

So I have now written some info about Horai here: http://thousand-cranes.blogspot.com/2007/05/sportclimbing-bouldering-in-horai.html

My apologies in advance for the badly written piece. I solemnly swear to proofread it sometime in the future. However, I think  I have got most of the facts right.

[pete D]

Thanks jwi.

Your blogs a really useful resource, keep it up!  Think I'll hire a car and try and take in Mt Horai and Ogawayama.  I'm looking forward to it!

[jwi]

Went to Horai on Sat-Sun. The conditions at Oni-iwa (鬼岩) where pretty much perfect. Around 15-20 deg. and a light breeze.

Apparently Koyamada also found good conditions last Wednesday when he finally managed to link Koenma into Metaforce giving Horai a new 9a, Spectator. On his blog (http://koyamada.dai.hiho.jp/?eid=542573 and http://koyamada.dai.hiho.jp/?eid=542837) he states that he got unreasonably pumped and that he have tried the linkup 110 times. Oh.

Cool design on his blog, but he should sack the photographer.

[jwi]

[...]and that he have tried the linkup 110 times. [...]

Terrible sorry for the mis-information. I didn't really read the second paragraph. If I had read it (instead of just skipping all weird kanji's before the sentence about 110 tries I would have noticed that it said something like: "Which reminds me, while we were climbing on haikara-iwa we heard a terrible war cry of great delight* from the direction of oni-iwa. What was that? A 60 year old lady had finally succeded on her redpoint project, after about 110 tries... well impressive!"



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* I'm sure this make sense in Japanese