Last week, an article in the news was saying that the Juhyō (樹氷, snow monsters made by heavy snow accumulation on trees) were the best in the last 40 years. We were really impatient with my friends to go to Zaō–onsen (蔵王温泉) last week-end but had little hope. Little hope, because Zaō is well known fgor its bad weather in winter and the forecast was not good at all. With maybe no more than 4 days of good weather every winter, you must be very lucky to see the snow monster over a blue sky background like on advertising and posters.

And luck we didn’t had. We had some hope for a while though. When we arrived at Yamagata (山形) train station, we could see some blue sky between the clouds, but by the time we reached the bottom of the ropeway which goes to the top of Zaō ski resort it was a complete different story. At the summit it was even worse. The thermometer was displaying -14°C (6.8°F) in the shade and there was at least 20m/s of wind ; so strong that the snow was biting like stings. It might have been around -25°C (-13°F) with the windchill effect. On top of that we couldn’t see anything more than 5 meters ahead. Maybe 20 when the snow storm was calming down and clouds clearing a little bit. No need to say that we had almost no chance to see the biggest snow monsters of the past 40 years. We still went to Jizōdake (地蔵岳) summit close to the ropeway just do something and wander between the snow monsters on the East side of the summit, protect from the wind while hopping for the cloud to clear off for a little while. But it was a waist of effort and we went back down to at least enjoy the resorts’ hot springs.

The next day it was the same in worse. More wind, even more limited visibility, etc. It was not worth trying to go bakc to see the snow monsters. So I guided my friends on the Zaō–chuō-kōgen (蔵王中央高原) plateau, away from the ski slopes, to do a very nice snowshoe hikes crossing a lake and climbing two small hills, protected from the wind in the forest. On top of the Saburo-dake (三郎岳) and Goro-dake (五郎岳) summits the wind was blowing very strong, but outside of that it was very nice to be protected in the forest. It is a very good itinerary to snowshoe when the weather is bad in Zaō–onsen.

It was not the best snowshoe week-end I have ever done and we unfortunately couldn’t see the snow monsters. But Sunday’s very nice snowshoe hike save the week-end … and we will be back.

The video is availble here.

Maps

Necessary map is at least :
1/25000地形図、 蔵王山、仙台12号-1、NJ-54-21-12-1 (Zaōzan, Sendaï 12-1, NJ-54-21-12-1)

Jizodake : zao-jizodake.gpx
Chuōkōgen : zao-chuokogen.gpx

Facts about Zaō

You will find all the information (mountain lodges, access, security…) regarding Zaō in this article.