Part 1 here
My alarm went off at 4:30 and I was immediately awake. The plan was to have breakfast by 5, grab a cab to the base of the hike, and be on the trail by 6am. The four of us were on a fairly tight schedule we had to be back at the hotel by 4pm to get on the bus. The rest of the people on the trip, including my 3 roommates, were still asleep. Their wakeup call would be a few hours later. Most were planning on heading up to a mountain lake called Happoike then on to the summit of a mountain called Karamatsu. Those who did more then their proportionate share of work finishing off the bottle of tequila last night, might only make it to Happoike.
After breakfast we piled in the cab and took off towards the mountains. The road up to the base of the trail was impossibly narrow and snaked its way through a dense forest up the mountain. The three of us sharing the back seat kept lunging into one another as the cab swerved around hairpin turn after hairpin turn.
At the base of the trail was a single building that sold supplies to hikers about to attempt the hike up Shirouma.
On schedule, we started on the trail just after 6am. It was fairly easy going at first, but even just a mile or so into the hike we had already started to get a look at some great scenery.
We were hiking up a ravine, surrounded on all sides by deep green forrest. At the end of the ravine lay the great snow field.
We made good time up to the snow field. We even allowed ourselves a 1 minute break to take a picture of the group.
From left to right, Stefan, this guy, Stevan, and Ricky the leader of the trip. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to come up with the best punchline to, "A German, American, Australian, and Filipino are climbing a mountain in Japan..."
Now I know what you're thinking, "Is he wearing pink camo shorts?" Answer. Yes. But it's worth a quick digression. See in Japan there is a whole fad going on to be stylish while doing stuff outdoors. These shorts, if there was any doubt, are stylish.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
Prosecution rests. Moving on.
Once we got on the snow field we picked up the pace. Ricky suddenly just turned it on and took off, leaving the rest of us to try and catch up.
I had kind of figured in my head we would all just regroup at the top of the snow field, but when I reached the top he was already off scrambling up the steep ravine that was the crux of the hike. This was also the most dangerous section of the trail. Steep walls on all sides with loose, snow, rocks, and boulders make it a rather hazardous place to be. Every few years some unlucky climbers are killed by rock fall in the area.
At this point I started to make a concerted effort to try and catch up with Ricky. I charged straight up the trail scrambling over things as fast as I could. After about 20 minutes or so I managed to get close enough for him to turn around and yell
"We are making great time! If we keep this up we could do Happoike in the afternoon!"
Jesus is this guy fucking crazy? I thought. Before I could say anything he was back off. Catching up to Ricky-who as it turns out is a serious triathlete and marathoner- was not going to happen.
I contented myself just trying not to stay to far behind, which still required moving at a very rapid pace. At this point we were well over half-way up the mountain and we hadn't even been hiking for more then two hours. Once we reached the crest of the ravine where things started to level off a bit and we could see the ridge above that led to the summit. We suddenly found ourselves in a sea of bright green mountain grass dotted with yellow, purple, and red wild flowers.
It was gorgeous...
Once we reached the top of the ridge we were treated to spectacular scenery of the surrounding mountains.
And off to the west the mountains gave way to the Sea of Japan (That would be the one between Japan and Russia).
The summit itself came to sharp point and was perched next to dramatic cliffs.
We made it to the top in just over 3 hours, covering over 5,600 vertical ft. We didn't stay at the summit too long, we had decided to actually attempt to try and make it up to Happoike before we had to get back to the hotel at 4. It was a bit after 9:30am when we started back down the mountain.
We moved quickly.
We made it back down to the snowfield and were quickly overtaken by a cloud rolling down through the ravine.
The cool mist was actually quite pleasant.
We made it back down to the base of the trail before 12:30. We even had time for a quick celebratory beer before we piled back into a cab. Ricky had worn off one of the soles to his hiking boots on the way down so we had to make a pit stop at the hotel in order for him to change boots.
Ricky told us that from the top of the gondola and two chairlifts the hike to Happoike was supposed to take 90 minutes. That of course would mean we wouldn't have time to go there and back and be at the hotel by 4pm. However, he thought we could do it in 30 minutes. Neither Stevan, Stefan, or I bothered to argue with him. In a tempt the fates kind of move Ricky decided to leave his pack behind since this was going to be such a short hike.
We got on the gondola about 1:15. Just before we got on the first chairlift we started to feel a few drops of rain. I decided to put on my rain jacket, which turned out to be rather prescient as the few drops turned into a full downpour while we were on the chairlift. Ricky's jacket was in his pack, which was nice and dry and back at the hotel.
By the time we reached the top of the lift we were all fairly soaked so we stopped in the mountain cafe to dry off, get coffee, and assess our options. We saw a small patch of blue sky in the distance and the rain seemed to have lightened up a bit. I had an extra soft shell jacket in addition to my rain jacket (after Fuji I was big into layers) which I lent to Ricky. Not fully waterproof but better then nothing.
We decided to continue on.
On the third chairlift we saw a bunch of people from the trip on the way down who,
A - were shocked to see us
B - thought we were crazy
This may have had something to do with the fact that we were the only ones going up the chairlift at the moment and the break in the heavy rain proved to be temporary. However, having come this far, rain or no, we were determined to see the lake. We reached the top of the lift and saw a long line of people waiting to get on the lift to go back down. Many without any rain gear at all.
Having lost some valuable time on the way up, we took off along the ridge-line trail at a mixed running pace. We made it to Happoike lake in just about 40 minutes.
And would you believe that literally the moment the lake came into view the sun parted the clouds and shone through.
It was some serious double rainbow shit. The lake itself was beautiful, and over the course of the 15 minutes or so we hung around the sky just opened up around us.
The lake reflects the mountains around it. Mt. Shirouma is there on the right. Where we were earlier that morning. The whole scene was stunning.
It got us to thinking what else would look good reflected in a pristine mountain lake, surrounded by scenes of natural beauty?
Let's just say the sun and the moon made an appearance.
We made it back down to the hotel by 4pm and even had time for a quick onsen and to pick up a few beers at the 7-11 for the ride back.
Quite the day.
Also note I stole a bunch of the pictures from Stefan (it's the better ones if you must know).
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