Ice Climbing in Japan

It was my first winter mountaineering experience, and I had a wonderful time. Hiroko is great guide. She is professional, knowledgable, and very patient. Also, her love for Tanigawadake and the Minakami area is both inspiring and contagious. It made me want to come back and experience the area in a different season. My only complaint is that our email communication was a little slow. Overall I highly recommend this tour.

Aoyama san is a great guide! He is very proficient and I feel very safe ice climbing with him. In a 2 day trip we went to different ice falls and learned a lot of technics related to ice climbing. Highly recommended his course if you would like to learn ice climbing/mountaineering.

It's one of the best experiences! Jun is a great guide and was very patient and helpful with me all along. He taught me patiently step by step and encouraged me to go beyond my limit. Also he provided everything perfectly. I had best time learning from him and enjoyed both the lesson and the mountain.

Thanks so much to my guide Takao! I had so much fun ice-climbing in Sounkyo. I would definitely like to do it again and will happily recommend this experience to other people! Hopefully I’ll come back next year!

Big Thanks to Kenichi,he is professional and think about your safety all the time.He organized everything to made a proper program for us and discuss with us through email many times before starting the trip. We have lots of fun and already fall in love with winter mountaineering! Never thought that we will reach the summit. If you looking for someone who can guide you with safety and happiness,Kenichi is the one.

Jun gave us a wonderful trip! He is very experienced and speaks perfect English. All the instructions are easy to understand. Although both of us are beginners, we still can enjoy the joy of ice climbing in Japan. I would definitely recommend Jun as a ice climbing and hiking tour guide :)!

Great, experienced guide. Very knowledgeable and professional and had a great time. Would definitely recommend.

Great trip - poor weather. Excellent guide!

Kenichi is a great guide, very experienced and focussed on delivering a safe yet enjoyable journey. We were lucky weather conditions on both days were favourable and the views along the way and from the Nishihodaka summit were just stunning!

Cveto is an exceptionally experienced guide. Akadake was a challenging climb for me but Cveto got me up and down the mountain safely and made it a lot of fun. He taught me some new crampon techniques that I was able to put to work immediately and they really helped with the steepness and deep snow on the mountain that day. He helped me with trip logistics as well, recommending a nice local lodge to stay at. His English was excellent and I would strongly recommend him as a guide.

Takao-san is a great guide. I would highly recommend him and plan to go climbing with him again.

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We had a wonderful time ice climbing despite some rather crazy weather conditions! Takao was great company, very clearly experienced in the area and equipped with all necessary equipment. He was always on time and made exceptional efforts to get us out to the ice and back safely to Sapporo. The onsen, river crossing and thigh-high snow trek were as important as the actual climbing to the whole experience. We highly recommend and hope to be back to the area for summer climbing!

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Excellent well organised trip, Mr Shinohara was very responsive to emails and helpful in preparing for the correct equipment for the trip. Highly recommend - it was a fantastic experience!

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Perfect trip. Perfect guide. Nice mountain

A good climb although weather wasn't good and couldn't see much at the summit.

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Takao is very professional. I enjoy climbing with him very much. Also, the waterfall at 2nd day leave a good memories for me. If I climb in Japan again, I will find him again.

Excellent guide for a very dangerous mountain! In Hiroko's hands she guided me across challenging terrain. I highly recommend this winter hike as she will teach you the basics of winter mountaineering. The mountain is quite steep. For beginner mountaineers, this is the perfect trial ground. Hiroko was polite friendly and extremely helpful. She dropped me off at an onsen after the hike and then dropped me off at the train station.

Awesome! Couldn’t have asked for a better guide or a better two day activity. Cheers Cveto and Chibow!

Hiro was fantastic from start to finish. She introduced me to winter techniques and was brilliant company all the way to the peak. She is a true pro. It was an epic day on Tanigawa that will live long in the memory!

It was a really great experience and good for technical knowledge. He picked us up on time and was flexible with our schedules. The climbing itself was amazing and challenging. Beautiful scenery and the walk in to the waterfalls were interesting.

(Travelled December 2016) On the whole, we enjoyed ourselves very much! We love Japan and have a huge respect for our the Japanese who are polite, organized, professional and have some of the best food in the world :) Takao-san was very friendly, gentle, patient and genuine. We enjoyed his company throughout. Of course, we slowly learned that he is one of the most experienced mountaineers and guides around in Japan. In any case, we always felt safe with him. He also spoke well enough in English such that we could have simple conversations and understood the instructions. We would recommend him to others should they need a guide :) Sounkyo is interesting. The two waterfalls are beautiful and it's a privilege to be able to climb them. It seems we are there a bit early so the town was really quiet. Kin Shi waterfall was also great, first pitch was spectacular.  It's our first time in Hokkaido, we are surprised how cold it is. It seems there must be endless reliable ice climbing routes here and the season is much longer than the alps. When we were in Champagny en Vanoise in end Jan last season, we were climbing on really thin ice. Routes are manageable, not too difficult. The first 30m pitch of Kin Shi was probably my favorite. Takao said that there are routes by the sea. That would be really interesting to try out when we next come back to Hokkaido. If there is a downside, I'm not sure the value compares well to the alps. When we were in Champagny, the cost was about 350 euro a day for a local guide incl. all equipment rentals. We climbed routes that were 7-8 pitches long that took 4-5 hours. With Takao, the first day Ginga we did single pitch practices (it was a bone freezing -20 to -25 so just as well we didn't do the multi pitch), the second day Kin Shi was a 4 pitch climb we finished around 1230 back at the car park. I understand that the cost may be due to the limited number of guides, high cost in Japan, and transportation, but if the tour was about 20 percent cheaper that could be more attractive.  I think it's a great job what Explore & Share is doing to develop the Japanese climbing scene and open the opportunities for foreign climbers like myself. Overall I'm optimistic that there is much potential and I look forward to coming back.