This week with TTR: snowy Tanzawa

Hi friends,

What a week! Just Tuesday we had over 20°C and now the temperatures have gone down enough that we might have snow in town, never mind on the mountains!

Which leads us to this week's lovely plan: crossing the Tanzawa ridge from north to south, going over all the fluffy snow, hopefully on a sunny Saturday. Fingers crossed!

What a month this was! Keep following our newsletter and our Facebook page for more announcements and updates.

Alain 🏃‍♂️

CRAMPONS REQUIRED: see note below

Let's enjoy a beautiful North-South traverse of the Tanzawa range in Kanagawa, though a classic TTR route. We will meet at the central ticket barrier (中央改札口) of Hon-Atsugi station on the Odakyu line.

We will then take the bus for Miyagase lake (宮ヶ瀬湖) that leaves at 8:40 AM from the North side of the station. Our run will start on the west side of the lake with a ridge climb to Takahata and Honma no kashira before reaching our high point of Tanzawa (1567m). Then we run some rolling hills to Tounodake, where the views of Fuji are spectacular in clear weather.

After, get ready for the LONG descent on the ridge down to Okura, where there is a bus stop to Shibusawa station on the Odakyu line.

FAQ

• CRAMPONS REQUIRED: given the current forecast, we expect snow to be falling as late as Friday. You can find them on Rakuten/Amazon as アイゼン/crampons for about 2000 JPY with shipping
• Meet at the central ticket barrier (中央改札口). There is at least one more exit at the station, so please be careful.
• Hon-Atsugi and Shibusawa station are far apart but on the same line, so you can leave luggage at the start if you want. Just time accordingly.
• Be on time for the bus, since there will be no later options.
• We will be on safe but steep ground in winter and trail running shoes are recommended
• This is an intermediate event. You will be expected to tackle this long, steep course at a brisk pace
• Bring a mask/buff
• There is no water on the mountain, so please bring plenty
• This is a winter run on higher altitude, dress appropriately (wind shell, gloves, hat, etc)
  

Miyagase - Tanzawa: Bust a lung, pop a brain vein and shred your buttocks with this cold, crappy, torturous twenty k.

Feeling like things are a bit slow post New Year? Welcome pain and suffering back into your life with TTR’s ‘F@&k your knees’ Miyagase to Inaka middle of somewhere.

You’ll regret every moment of your decision to click ‘going’ on the first half uphill, where other runners will laugh at your feeble attempts to grind the crusty, snowy infinite climb to nowhere, then hang on for your life as you drop into a relentless 6km knee hammering descent slowly grinding your knee cartilage into powder and paste, while trying not to slide out on ice, slush and other frozen crud that will turn the landscape into a winter nightmare.

In fact, if you’re lucky, you’ll break a leg and earn a brief rest to tape it up before hobbling down again constantly apologizing for holding everyone up while they mock you for getting ‘scratched up’ Make sure your helicopter insurance is paid too, in case both your legs get lucky, then pray it gets there before Hypothermia sets in, and/or Jack Frost decides to keep a couple of your fingers/toes on the mountain.

See you there.