Just arrived at the first night's lodging. Until last night, the plan was to camp the first night, but stay in a mountain lodge the second night. But it seems that a patch of bad weather has hit a day or two earlier than the forecasts had originally predicted.
It rained on and off on the way here, which included riding three different trains and a bus before our hike actually began. We had to get up around 6, get on the first train around 7 and we still didn't arrive at Kamikochi until 1PM.
The hike for the first day was planned at 3.5 hours, but even with the rain, we made it in 2.5 hours. The route we're taking is really a two day route, but making it in that time means starting the first day of hiking around 7 or 8 AM, instead of 1PM.
Our room is pretty similar to the one Bri and I had when we stayed in Kyoto: bunk beds, with 6 or so people per room.
Tomorrow, the climbing starts to get steep. Today we covered a lot of horizontal distance, but from here on it will be more vetical.
Day 2
Didn't get too much sleep. One of our roommates was a snorer and another was a teeth grinder. We probably went to bed around 8:30, got up around 4AM, and were on the trail before sunrise. At this point, the trail was still easy going: mostly gentle inclines or flat patches winding next to a stream and through a forest.
After 2 hours, the sun has been up for an hour and the trail finally gets steep. We have 4 and a half more hours left.
The next four and a half hours are a steep ascent to about 2800m above sea level. That is where our lodge for the night is. Michi is exhausted by the time we get there, but I still have enough energy to make it to the peak another 300m above us. Last 50m or so of ascent is accomplished by fixed ladders, chains, and spikes driven into the spear thrust of rock that gives Yarigadake its name (yari mean "spear" in Japanese, and dake is one of their words for peak or mountain).
The view is spectacular. I can see Mt. Fuji in the far distance, and I can see down into the valley that we have just spent the last two days hiking through to get here. There is still snow in a few patches, but most of the immediately visible valley is a mess of tumbled down rocks and boulders from pea sized to UPS delivery truck size, with smatterings of grass sticking through here and there. I'm up above the treeline, and it truly seems like the mountain range surrounding me lives up to its name of the Japanese Northern Alps. The steepness of the mountains, their height, the placement of the treeline, everything jogs my memories of my 10 day stay in Switzerland back in the summer 2004.
The climb down to our lodge plays havoc with my knees, and I collapse onto the futon for a few hours of rest before dinner at 5.
Day 3
We get up at 4 again, hike up a different ridge in total darkness, lighting our ways through the rocks, along the path, and away from the 100, 200, and sometimes seemingly 1000 meter drops with headlamps. The sun rises at a little after 5, and we haven't made it to the peak yet. We get there just after the sun has popped over the horizon.
We both expect to find the top crowded with hikers wanting a glimpse of the sunrise from 3180m, but find only a few other people insane enough to have risked a twisted ankle, broken bones, or death to see that sight.
We hike back to the lodge, and begin our long trek back: 21km from the lodge back to the bus station. This is the beginning of around 8 hours of descent that will bring us down to about 1450m meters above sea level. It starts to rain again about 40 minutes from the stop, and we find that there has been a minor mudslide that morning which has belayed the buses. Apparently the mudslide was not bad enough to block the road and trap us there, like the one in the same area earlier this year that left 900 people stranded. But we are delayed and do not return to Tokyo until around 10PM.
Cheers,
