Trail Running Plan 01 – (Yamanashi – Nishizawa Keikoku Hiking Course)

This trail run course is not easy to access but certainly worth the trip as it is by far one of the most beautiful hiking trail there is in Japan. If you love waterfalls and hiking trails with lots of ups and downs, and great scenery, you will be well served. Surrounded by countless waterfalls and sakura flowers during the spring cherry blossom season, you will be breath taken all along until your reach Nanatsugama-Godan-no-Taki (the last and biggest water fall of the trail). This last one ranks among the top 100 waterfalls of Japan.

TRAIL RUN COURSE DETAILS – 10KM COURSE

PART I:
From: The car park near Point 1 (see map below)
To: The Nanatsugama-Godan-no-Taki waterfall near Point 18
Distance: 4km (Uphill)

PART II:
From: The Nanatsugama-Godan-no-Taki waterfall near Point 18
To: The car park near point 1 (see map below)
Distance: 6Km (downhill)

The entire course will take you about 4 hours hiking / walking

The Nanatsugama-Godan-no-Taki waterfall

On the way up to point 18

Course details (In Japanese)

Access:
The valley of Nishizawa  (Nishizawakeikoku / 西沢渓谷) is located by the Fuefuki River (笛吹川) in the north side of Yamanashi. It is a part of Chichibu-Tama-Kai National park (秩父多摩甲斐国立公園) where you can find a lot of other very beautiful similar trails and hiking courses.

Get there by Car:
From Shinjuku station (Tokyo), follow the Chuo Expressway until Enzan station.  You will then need to head north on the road 38 until you reach the road 140 which will lead you directly to the trail starting point upper north.

Get there by Train:
From Shinjuku station (Tokyo), take the JR Chuo line until Enzan station. If you take an express train, you can get there in about 90 minutes (3190 Yen) . A local train will take you up to 150 minutes and you will need to do at least one transfer along the way (1460 Yen).

From Enzan station, you can ride the bus directly to Nishizawa Keikoku trail. The ride last about 1 hour and will cost you 1020 Yen each way. !!Attention!! There are only 6 bus rides available per day from December until April.
If you choose to take a cab, it will cost around 5,000 to 6,000 yen one way. It is worth considering if you are travelling in a group.

For more information on the trail and the location, please check the following link (in Japanese only):
http://www.city.yamanashi.yamanashi.jp/kanko/seeing/29.html

Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (France)

Japan Triathlon is usually focused on providing you information on races located in Japan, however, this time, we would like to introduce you a race of its kind: The “Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc“. This event was covered by NHK last October 31st 2009 to follow Tsuyoshi Kaburaki, a  world-class mountain race runner.

Covering a total of 3 countries (that in itself can give you an idea of how long this race), this race is also referred as UTMB. It is a mountain ultra-marathon race which takes place once a year in the Alps and crosses France, Italy and Switzerland. Its course goes around the Mont Blanc and is also called the “Tour du Mont Blanc”. The distance varies each year between 150 and 160 km, with a total elevation gain of around 8500m. Some believe that it is the most difficult foot race in Europe.

While the best trail runners manage to complete the loop in slightly more than 20 hours, most runners take between 30 to 45 hours to reach the finish line.

The route follows basically the Tour du Mont Blanc hiking Path, that is usually completed in 7 to 9 days by hikers.

COURSE SUMMARY:
Starting from Chamonix (1035m), the trail goes up to the Col de Voza (1653m) to reach Les Contamines (1150m). It then climbs to the Croix du Bonhomme (2479m) before going back down to Les Chapieux (1549m). The path then runs up to the Col de la Seigne (2516m) to enter Italy, follows the ridge of the Mont-Favre (2435m) before going down to Courmayeur (1190m). From that point, the course will climb again to the Refuge Bertone (1989m) and Arnuva (1769m) before reaching its highest point, the Grand Col Ferret (2537m), which also marks the border with Switzerland. The path goes down again to Praz de Fort (1151m) via La Fouly (1593m) before reaching the third life base, Champex d’en Bas (1391m). The final stretch includes two rather low cols: Bovine (1987m) and Les Tseppes (1932m) separated by Trient (1300m). On the way down to Vallorcine (1260m), the trail enters back into France and goes through Argentière (1260m) before finishing at Chamonix where the race started.

The “best” Video Clip we could find on the race

Informative video on the race

For this year’s event, Tsuyoshi Kaburaki from Japan managed an impressive performance and ranked 3rd out of over 4000 participants.