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Towada-Hachimantai NP, Aomori
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Each Hakkoda “snow monster” starts with supercooled water droplets freezing onto Aomori fir. Snow builds over the ice, which grows into the wind and gives the trees their distinctive shrimp-tail shapes.
At this station in 2021, 13 participants built 2 igloos in 4 days, hauling 200 liters of water uphill to reinforce them. On day one, it was −13.8°C with 22 m/s winds; the reported wind chill was −35°C.
A study using snow detectors at both ropeway stations in the winters of 1992–93 found a surprise: steady winter-monsoon snow favored the lower station, while low-pressure storms brought more snow to the summit.
The Hakkoda Gourd Line’s figure-eight loop starts and ends at Sancho Park Station. In about an hour, the trail passes marshland and overlooks peaks in both the northern and southern Hakkoda ranges, plus Mutsu Bay.
Late spring and summer bring small, distinctive blooms to Tamoyachi Marsh on the summit trail: bogbean, hinazakura primrose, Hakusan rhododendron, kinkoka asphodel and kurogiboshi plantain lily.
As wind-driven ice and snow accumulate, Hakkoda’s snow monsters can trap particles carried in the atmosphere. Researchers have sampled snow and other precipitation near Tamoyachidake’s summit to study what reaches Aomori’s air.
Autumn color reaches the area around Sancho Park Station from late September and continues through October. The ropeway operator reports about 100,000 passenger trips in October alone.
Hakkoda Ropeway began service in October 1968; the summit walking trail was named the Gourd Line in July 1971; and year-round operation became possible in January 1983.
