At an altitude of 2,450m/8,038ft, the main section of Tateyama-Kurobe alpine road is one of the highlights of the trip. Tateyama alpine range, which rises to an altitude of 3,015m/9,891ft, gets some of the heaviest snowfalls in the world. Moved using special snow ploughs, the snow builds up into impressive walls on either side of the road (which reached a height of 19m/62ft in April 2017!). A 500m/1,640ft-single file track is open to hikers; the other track is reserved for coaches.