I finally made my way to Chichibu to see some of the areas there. Jack took me to the impressive Battleship Area and several other areas that I can not remember the names of now. All of these areas are places that Jack has developed/ing or discovered. These areas have many bolted lines, including a 30 foot roof in a cave boosting two 13+/14- lines that need ascents.

The Battleship crag is very visible from the town below and is very nice limestone. This area in particular has seen several ascents, notably Yuji's send of the most obvious line that I can not remember the name of, but goes at 5.13+. We were on a scouting mission this trip and we climbed a rather unusual line for Japan that moves through slopers below to a long tufa up top, then to a pumpy crux finish that if botched, the leader will take a long, fun fall. But totally safe due to the steepness of the head wall.

Next we traveled down several more roads and visited more areas, but the area that sticks out the most was Osutaka no One. This is named after the deadliest plane crash in history that happened in the area. This is the area with the large cave that I mentioned before. The main wall has about 10 routes with about 5 more on a wall near by. We climbed a very beautiful and dirty 10d, that was the first line Jack bolted here. Very nice and technical line that works its way up the middle of the wall.

I was not able to take many photos, but Jack snapped a few of me climbing. I included them to show some of the rock quality. Enjoy the photos and I will have another post tomorrow.



Go Climb Something.