{"id":1778,"date":"2011-05-23T19:28:38","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T10:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2011-05-23\/1778"},"modified":"2011-05-23T19:28:38","modified_gmt":"2011-05-23T10:28:38","slug":"descending-into-a-volcanic-crater-sort-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2011-05-23\/1778","title":{"rendered":"Descending Into a Volcanic Crater (sort of)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>4000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nMountaintop Silliness<\/span>\non a hazy Mt. Kannabe, Toyooka City, Hyogo, Japan\n<\/div>\n\n

Trying to catch up on so much I've fallen behind on recently, this post continues from\n“A Bit<\/span> of Summer Volcano Skiing<\/a>”, from a short<\/span> trip\nto northern Hyogo Prefecture at the start of the month. As you can<\/span> see in the shot above, it was really<\/i> hazy,\nbut rather than humidity, it was from the kosa<\/i> “yellow sand” that blows\nin from China sometimes (As I described<\/span> in\n“Misty Evening in Rural Japan<\/a>”).<\/p>\n\n

After the grass skiing, we thought we'd head up to the top of the short\nmountain (it rises only about 120m) to see the volcanic crater at the top. We could<\/span> have walked up in five minutes, but availed ourselves of the ski lift.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2500 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nNo Seat Belts<\/span>\nit was slightly unnerving to sit on a moving<\/span> bench without any kind of failsafe\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>4000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nHeading Up<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2500 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nLooks Higher than it Is<\/span>\nand it doesn't even look particularly tall\n<\/div>\n\n

I can recall two appearances of similar shots to the one above on my blog over the years,\nMiyajima's Mt. Misen<\/a>, and\non Whistler Mountain<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/11, ISO 2200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nVolcanic Rock<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Upon disembarking, Anthony found a small<\/span> bit of volcanic rock. When I\nexplained<\/span> what it was, he was shocked that such a thing<\/span> wasn't in a\nscientific<\/span> laboratory or museum somewhere. I tried<\/span> to explain further that\nthe entire mountain we were on was nothing but solid volcanic rock, but it\ndidn't quite sink in. He brought<\/span> the rock home.<\/p>\n\n

The volcano is extinct now, but the thought is that it had been active\nfor many 10s of thousands of years, but about 20,000 years ago, it blew its\ntop in what must have been quite a cataclysmic<\/span> event, and left the top as a\n40m<\/span> deep crater...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>4000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nApproaching the Rim<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I wanted to climb down to the bottom, but the grade looked quite\ndifficult, so Fumie and Anthony stayed behind, as I tried<\/span> to go down at an angle so that it wouldn't\nfeel quite so steep...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>3200 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nJust Starting Down<\/span>\na tiny Fumie and Anthony peer over from above\n<\/div>\n\n

The entire slope was covered with long, dead, exceedingly<\/i>\nslippery reeds. Had they been<\/span> alive it would have been much simpler to walk\ndown, both because they wouldn't have been like ice under foot, and because\nthey could be grasped for support. But as it<\/span> was, it wasn't long before I\nwas<\/span> questioning my decision to attempt a descent.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

But then Fumie and Anthony found a path,<\/span> which though pretty rudimentary, was a lot<\/span> better than\nwhat I was<\/span> doing, so I moved<\/span> over to it and they joined me.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/10, ISO 720 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nOn The “Path”<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/10, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nHalf Way Down<\/span>\nthese photos completely lack a sense of slope and distance )-:\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>3200 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nResting at the Bottom<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

The rocks at the bottom were bigger than those dotting the slopes, but\nthe slopes were indeed rocky under the bed of dead reeds. If there<\/span> had been\nno rocks, the slippery reeds and steep slope would have made for more fun\nthan the grass sledding at Blume no Oka<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Anthony wanted to try to climb the slope straight up, rather than return\nby the relatively-safer path. I didn't<\/span> think it was a good<\/span> idea, but\nfigured he'd give up once he saw how steep it really was... but he\ndidn't, and by the time I realized<\/span> how dangerous a situation<\/span> we had gotten into,\nit was too dangerous to try to head back down...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>3200 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nUp<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>5000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nThe Slope<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

So long as we kept our feet burrowed under the bed of slippery reeds,\nand took steps carefully, we'd be okay (and when we had a good<\/span> foothold, it\nwas easy enough to pause for a photo<\/span>), but I worried<\/span> that if he lost his\nfooting, I'd either<\/span> have to stop him right away, or he'd take out my feet\nand we'd both slide down (with the unpleasantness of the aforementioned\nrocks an immediate risk). So, I made sure<\/span> to keep very close behind him so\nthat he'd not have any space to pick up speed if he slipped.<\/p>\n\n

At one point I looked back to find that Fumie had started up as well... I thought<\/span> she had gone to take the path. I suggested<\/span> that she would\nnot<\/i> like the climb and that she should return to take the path, but it turns out that she,\ntoo, had come too far to turn back...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>3200 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n( I wish I knew how to capture the sense of distance and elevation here )\n<\/div>\n\n

Amazingly, Anthony reached the top without killing us both, and after a final<\/span> challenge of a line<\/span> of brambles at the rim, we were safe.<\/p>\n\n

Fumie followed soon after...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2500 sec, f<\/span>\/3.2, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nCresting the Rim<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2000 sec, f<\/span>\/3.2, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nMade It!<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Even when she was a kid, Fumie was not the sporty type, so the thought of\nher making a climb<\/span> like this would have been out of the question until\nrecently, but she's been doing ballet for over 10 years now, extremely earnestly\nfor the last year or so, and is in amazing physical shape. Our high-tech\nbathroom scale that measures body fat and such spits out a “body age” among\nall its stats, and while mine thinks my body is a year<\/span> older than it really is,\nit says hers is 10 years younger. Amazing.<\/p>\n\n

At the top, dripping with sweat and scratches, we got a nice<\/span> breeze,\nand a view<\/span> of our hotel through some late blossoms...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 116mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nBlue Ridge Hotel<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Continued here...<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trying to catch up on so much I've fallen behind on recently, this post continues from \"A Bit of Summer Volcano Skiing\", from a short trip to northern Hyogo Prefecture at the start of the month. As you can see in the shot above, it was really hazy, but rather than humidity, it was from the kosa \"yellow sand\" that blows in from China sometimes (As I described in \"Misty Evening in Rural Japan\").<\/p>

After the grass skiing, we thought we'd head up to the top of the short mountain (it rises only about 120m) to see the volcanic crater [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}