Shiro Pond and Kakuma Pond Backcountry
My second excursion into my the nearby mountains was again in Itoigawa, Niigata. This time around it was only a two-man squad hiking up. The total time spent hiking up was only around two hours after we realized we had taken a shortcut (only realizing after some pretty vertical areas).
Snow-covered Shiro lake with the mountains in the back
We passed by Shiro Pond (白池 - shiro ike) and made our way up to Kakuma Pond (角間池 - kakuma ike). The view of the frozen pond with the mountains in the back was absolutely stunning. We kept pushing forward after making our way past Kakuma Pond to find a good stopping point. The snow conditions were unfortunately similar to the last hike so we figured it wasn’t worth going much longer after we felt a little tired (I now know that we were only 10 or 15 minutes from the peak). I was only able to get down to around Shiro Pond before running into trouble on flat ground. From there on it was not the best experience having to hop around on my board to move, but perhaps I could do it again with my splitboard. All in all, it was another nice experience and some well enjoyed time in the snow.
