Time Planning

After a series of trainings we have now an agreed time plan for the challenge. This is what our team has committed to go after. Pure walking time (i.e. without the break during the night) shall be below 24 hours!

がんばりましょ!

Trainings Hike, May, 6th

We were in the meantime pretty much used to getting onto the train at 5am in the morning. I had a Starbucks coffee from the convini knowing from the last time that all the coffee shops are still closed. The critical element this time was the rain. The weather forecast predicted a 40% chance of rain and we were wondering if we would get the wet 40% or the dry 60%. To make it short: we got a lot of the wet side of that day! To see it positively: this gave us a great training as we know now how it is with beautiful weather and with rain. We haven't tried snow, yet ....

We (Tom, Hans-Peter and myself) were joined by Kamata-san who we know well from the yearly Renge Onsen ski tour. The plan was to hike from CP7 to the finish - in total about 20km and 1300 meters in altitude. We started at Suruga-Oyama where we tried to see our eager friend from the train station (see training report of April 19th) but he wasn't there. It was raining when we started around 7:30am. We walked up a small valley until we came after about 2 hours to Furoo-san, the mountain of eternal youth. I wonder how young we will feel during the trailwalker event on that mountain after km 80. From that mountain the trail continued as a very beautiful path along the whole ridge towards Fujii-san. Various spots on that ridge must offer very beautiful photo opportunities of the famous mountain. However, this time only our imagination allowed us to see it.

We arrived after about 5.5 hours of a lot of up and down walking at the YMCA Yamanakako. It was raining during 4.5 hours of the total walk and we and our material were thoroughly wet. This allowed us to get a feeling for the hiking on wet terrain and with cold weather. This was at least one positive aspect. The vegetation was beautiful, too, in the rain and the spirit in the team was high.

But to be clear: we sincerely hope that we will have at least for some part of the trail good weather!

Trailwalker Training to Yamanakako (May, 6th 2009)

Kurzbericht Start - CP4 vom 3.5.

Nach dem gestrigen Training mit T.Balk (von Start bis CP4) gebe ich hier einen kurzen Zwischenbericht ueber unsere (ca.) Zeiten.

Start 8:15h
CP1 10:15h

15 min (Fruehstuecks-)Pause am CP1

CP1: 10:30h
CP2 13:00h

30 min (Mittags-)Pause am CP2

CP2 13:30h
CP3 14:15h

15 min (Snack-)Pause am CP3

CP3 14:30h
CP4 16:40h

Alles in allem ein super Tag !! Habe heute keinen (!) Muskelkater...vielleicht dank unseres ersten Trainings ?! oder einfach nur der flacheren Topographie wegen ?

Wie dem auch sei .... hier just fyi meine (fuer mich neuen) 'Erkenntnisse' aus der gestrigen Wanderung:
a) genuegend warme Klamotten fuer den Abend-/Nachtteil mitnehmen
b) einige Locations von Getraenkeautomaten
c) Joggen/leichtes Traben zwischendurch lockert die Muskulatur
d) mein 'persoenlicher' Mengenbedarf an Trinken und Essen...
e) Mineralgel fuehrt (bei mir) zu Durchfall ... :<
f) ein Gefuehl fuer die Distanz ... (Fazit: es wird ein verdammt langer, harter erster Tag !! - wir haben am 22.5. nach CP4 ja noch knapp 30km !!)
g) Training 'lohnt' sich auf alle Faelle !! - wegen der Orientierung sowie der Staerkung der Wandermuskeln (Schwerpunkt: bergab !!!) - haette ich nicht gedacht
h) wenn's geht, waere sicherlich eine 'Nachttour' mit Lampen evtl. lehrreich ?!

Liebe Gruesse
Heiner

Kurzbericht vom 26.4. - von CP1 zu CP2

Wie geplant starteten wir (Karina, MaxTaro + Tom) gestern Morgen um 7:00 und erreichten kurz vor 9:00 Tonosawa (1. Station nach Hakone Yumoto mit der lokalen Hakone „Bergtour-Bahn“). Der „Einstieg“ von der Route No. 1 in den Wandertrail war auch diesmal wieder – dank des ausgezeichneten Karten- und Bildermaterials von Oxfam – problemlos und vom starken Regen des Vortages war auf dem ‚Trail‘ kaum noch etwas zu spueren. Schon nach 2 Stunden erreichten wir Mt. Sengen, wo wir uns eine halbe Stunde Pause goennten. Es passierten uns mehrere Wandergruppen, von denen ich die ansprach, bei denen auch „gaijins“ mitwanderten (bzw. liefen, s.u.).

Schon bei der 1. Gruppe wurde ich fuendig: Ja, man trainiere fuer Oxfam. Zielzeit: 21 Stunden. Dann kam die 2. Gruppe (3 Auslaender, 1 Japaner) den Berg heraufgelaufen - ganz offensichtlich beim trailwalkertraining. Zielzeit: 15 Stunden!!!!!!! (im letzten Jahr hat diese Gruppe anscheinend noch 17 Stunden benoetigt .... ) - nur als info, ohne weitere Kommentare ..... – oder sollten wir unsere Zielzeit doch noch einmal ueberdenken????????

Gegen 12:00 kamen wir 3 dann auch schon im Ashinoyu Flower Centre (CP2) an, wo Naoko mit dem Auto auf uns wartete ...

FAZIT: Die Strecke vom CP1 bis zum CP2 (9km) sollte das Team Firmenlauefer in ca. 2 Stunden bewaeltigen ...

tom

Trailwalker Training 2 (April 26th, 2009)

(click on the picture to view the fotos)

Correns donates 100'000 Yen

Correns Corporation in Japan donated the amount of 100'000 Yen to Oxfam to support the Firmenläufer team.

Thank you very much!

Trainings Hike, April 19th, 2009

On a very beautiful day we went for our first training hike. We, the firmenlaeufer team with Tom Nolting, Hans-Peter Musahl, Heiner Pape and myself. We got strong support by the "habituée" Trailwalker Thomas Balk.

Trailwalker Training (April 19th, 2009)

(click on the picture to view the gallery)

Taking the train 5:15am on a Sunday morning is hard - especially since all the Starbucks on our way were still closed! Around 7:15am we arrived in Sengoku in the Hakone area - pretty much in the middle between checkpoint 4 and 5 of the trail. Our plan was to hike until checkpoint 7 - Suruga-oyama which means about 36km and 1200m in altitude. This hike brought us soon onto a beautiful mountain ridge from which one could see mount Fujii very easily. It then went steep downhill to a very beautiful place with the Daiyuzan Saiji-ji temple. From there we had to take a forestry road bringing us to a small village called Yagurasawa. After Yagurasawa we came to places with fascinating names such as the "21st century forest" or the "central square" which is everything but "central". Very beautiful forest trails led us finally to Suruga-oyama.

After some negotiation with a young station manager we could finally enter the super special express back to Tokyo to arrive there around 6pm happy, but tired.

Oxfam Fundraising Party, April 17th, 2009

On the 17th in the evening we had our fundraising party and also had the chance to celebrate Hans-Peter's birthday. The party was perfectly hosted by Christine and Hans-Peter. Many contributed with salads and sweets and other very delicious treats. Thomas W. was the barbecue master, Tom participated with a series of Codeo beer kegs and I got an authentic Swiss Raclette oven and cheese directly imported from Switzerland. The party was a big success - and with this goes a big thank you to all the guests: in the course of the evening we raised 150'000 yen for Oxfam! Great!

Oxfam Party (April 17th, 2009)

(click on the picture to view the gallery)