Tag Archives: Chogatake

Fieldwork Blues

PSU Geography Japan

Penn State Geography, Japanese Alps

The hiking has been amazing.  Over the past two weeks Helena and I have been doing lots of hiking and though not all of it is far in distance (46km) there has also been a major elevation component (gain 5196, loss5246).  Each trip into the mountains begins with a roughly 1300m vertical assent over 4-6km.  So far Helena and I have made it to the top of 4 mountains (Tsubaroku, Jonen, Yokodoshidake, and Chogatake) in addition to a number of smaller hills and what felt like mountains in between.

Tsubakuro Peak

Peak of Tsubakuro

Chogatake Peak

Peak of Chogatake

Jonen Peak

Jonen Peak

Panorama_Yari_Tsubakuro

Panorama from near the Enzanso Hut on Tsubakuro

Presunset_Jonen_Yari

Pre-sunset from Jonen Peak across the Hotaka complex and Yari

The views from the peaks of these mountains and from the adjacent campgrounds have been amazing.  Our days are bookend by amazing sunrises at 4:45 and sunsets at 7:10.  However, we are not in the mountains to hike we are in the mountains to work.

Tsubakuro sunrise 3

Sunrise from our tent at Tsubakuro Enzanso Campground

Sunrise on Mountains

Sunrise Panorama from the campground at Tsubakuro Enzanso Hut.

Sunset_Jonen

Sunset from Jonen Goya (Hut)

Working in the mountains has had a number of false starts.  Initially we were limited in our work due to waiting on permits to come through.  Once the permits were all dotted and crossed we were able to begin working in the mountains, however, the leaves on the trees were not yet flushed.  Why is this important?  One of the aspects of my research is to examine the regeneration niche of seedlings throughout the forest and a key component is the light availability at ground level.  If the leaves have not fully opened (flushed) than there will be more light available than when the forest canopy is fully developed.  I am trying to measure the fully developed canopy light environment using hemispherical photography.

Norikura_flush

Snow on Norikura with birch leaves opening in the background, those in the foreground have yet to burst.

While waiting for the leaves to fully flush, Helena and I have headed to the mountains to assess the research sites and to core trees for the climate portion of my study.  Here, we have run into another problem, steep slopes.  While I knew some of my potential study sites would not be appropriate for my research, I did not expect the east slope of most mountains to be inappropriate.  When I say inappropriate it is not due to the species composition.  There are very nice forest belts from the sub-alpine forest, through the birch and up to the Haimatsu (creeping pine) belt.  These sites are inappropriate for they are too steep for safety.

Hiking in Haimatsu

Helena hiking through haimatsu

Jonen Poor

Poor east and west facing slopes at Jonen.

Most recently we hiked down what appeared to be a steep but not too steep slope on Chogatake, only to find that it was too steep.  Having climbed down from the Haimatsu belt to the Sub-alpine forest we realized that the slope was really a series of small cliffs and exposed meadows.  Hiking up the meadows was not feasible for there is no shrubs to hold onto so we climbed up the slope and small cliffs back to the top.  On a number of occasions we measured the steepness of the slope which was 60-70 degrees!  Thus the slope is too steep and not appropriate.  These slopes are hard enough to walk in let alone attempt to do field work.

Jonen to Chogatake

Jonen Peak towards Chogatake shows how steep the east (left side) is compared to the west (right side).

Chogatake Slope

Dangerously steep slope on Chogatake

Tsubakuro study sites

Tsubakuro Study area with the beautiful peak of Yari in the background

 All of this has led me to reassess and discuss my proposed fieldwork and how to continue to make progress towards completing my research, while doing it in a safe manner.