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Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
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At Ohbako, the Nisei-charomap joins the Ishikari—but an upstream water intake leaves the channels with very little flow in winter. Snowshoers can then walk close to the towering column-jointed gorge walls.
Along the winter route toward Nisei-charomap River, water seeping from the cliffs builds an icicle field about 10 m high and 200 m wide. Its shape changes each year: alternating freezes and thaws help the icicles grow.
Near Ohbako, delicate frost crystals can cover the ceiling of an old tunnel test-bore. Water inside the rock hollow is warmer than the outside air; its vapor rises and turns directly into ice crystals.
The frozen Nisei-no-shiki-omap waterfall is also known as “Blue Wolf.” Its Ainu name means “the thing in the middle of the gorge”; one interpretation pictures 3 tributaries as a body, with this stream as the torso.
The name Sounkyo echoes the Ainu place-name “Sou-un-pets,” which the Hokkaido Forest Office explains as “a stream with many waterfalls”—a fitting name for a winter walk among frozen cascades.
A 2005 visitor-centre snowshoe report found many Ezo marten tracks. Long bounds and shorter, wandering steps suggested a dash followed by a search, turning fresh snow into a record of the forest’s unseen night life.
On one snowshoe outing, wind rocking an old katsura tree made its branches creak like the oars of a boat. It’s an unexpected soundtrack to a quiet winter walk through Sounkyo’s woods.
Sounkyo’s columned cliffs began with a major eruption about 30,000 years ago. Hot volcanic deposits piled up to roughly 200 m thick; as they cooled and hardened, regular cracks formed the striking columns snowshoers see today.
