Training Report - Mt.Tokachidake (Mt.Tokachi) 72

We are still in October. K participated in this training. It was minus 5 degrees Celsius at the Tokachidake Hot Springs (Tokachidake Onsen). It's first time he rides his third bike in the snow of good condition.

At first, the road wasn't snow removed. It was snowing hard. The road was covered with fresh snow of more than 20cm. We saw a stuck car at the altitude of 850m due to deep snow. It was impossible to ride a bike of one-wheel drive. You need a two-wheel drive winter bike in order to ride in such a deep snow. K knew that a snowplough would come in 5 or 10 minutes. So he waited for the snowplough.

After the snowplough had passed, he began the training.

As the deep fresh snow plays the role of insulation like a blanket, the road surface temperature was high. So the lowest layer of snow was half melted. But after the snowplough's passage, this layer becomes exposed to the air. Therefore, it freezes soon and is being covered with snow soon due to strong snowfall.


Several minutes later after the snowplough passed, the road surface is already completely frozen.


There was an abandoned car on the slant of 130 per mill. It has been immobilised because of the deep snow before the snowplough came.

Sprint training on a slant which isn't so steep.


Sprint training at the summit.







During he was preparing for the descent, the snowplough came for the second time.

Began to descend.
The front wheel skidded several times without any friction. Hard ice is hidden under the fresh snow. When the studs do not reach the hard ice layer, the layer of fresh snow slips. Such dangerous problem never happened with the studded tires Mudmad of IRC (cf. Studded tires) which have longer studes. This hard ice layer has been formed when the wet layer is exposed to the air after the snowploughh passage. He has to descend very carefully.




He descends up to the altitude of 1150m.



He made U-turn there and climbed again.

Sprint to the summit.






After preparing for the second descent, he did sprint training a little more in order to warm up before the descent.


He is descending carefully the second descent as well.


Hard rime is beautiful.




Below the hot spring's hotel situated at the altitude of 1150m, the snow on the road is partially comacted as the road is busier. So the tires do not skid anymore.