This
year, we went walking in the Kita (North) Alps. We aimed
to roughly follow the plan in the Lonely Planet guide between Murodo
and Kamikochi, but from south to north instead of the N-S trip the book
outlined - mainly because we knew a convenient way to Kamikochi having
been there only 3 weeks previously.
The route covered 6 of the "Hyakumeizan", or 100 famous mountains
(marked as yellow dots on the map), a list roughly equivalent to
Munro's Tables in Scotland, but merely selected by one famous climber,
and not strictly determined by height. We expected to spend about a
week, although the plans were not fixed in any great detail. Usually,
when we have headed up into the mountains for a multi-day trip, bad
weather has forced a change anyway! There are mountain huts (yamagoya)
at regular intervals and the day ends are marked by red dots.
After catching the 6:22am bus, 6:40
train to Shinjuku and 8:00 express to Matsumoto, we had another 30
minute train journey, followed by an increasingly scenic 70 minute bus
trip up the valley and were walking by 1pm. |
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Here is the obligatory view from the Kappa-bashi bridge
in Kamikochi, which we had to cross to start our walk. This view is
looking up the Dake-sawa valley, and the hut which formed our afternoon
objective was just visible right in the centre of this view but can't
really be made out in the photo.
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It was rather warm to start off, and we were surprised
and grateful for the occasional draught of cold air coming down the
hillside. Suddenly we came to this sign saying "shizen ku-ra-" (natural
cooler) and "wind hole" in kanji beside a rocky gully with cold air
gushing out of the gaps between the boulders.
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Halfway
up the mountainside a
fast lad (without rucksac) overtook us
and asked where we were going for the night. It turned out that he
worked in the Dakesawa hut,
so by the time we arrived an hour later,
there was a small private room awaiting us! This was a pleasant
surprise as we had been slightly apprehensive about the tales of huts
packed like sardines with 2 to a futon. It is not necessary to book for
any of the huts (a large group certainly should do so, however) and in
fact by finishing each day early we always managed to get a good spot
for the night, even though it was high season. |
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has a wonderful site,
overlooking Kamikochi, and we were surprised that it was so quiet. It
was a little cloudy so I made the mistake of waiting for the
morning to take a picture. By then it was drizzling lightly and there
was thick cloud! As we
started to climb, the cloud lifted. Here is a view back down the hill
to the hut through the mist. |
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Our target for the day was the Hotakadake range, and
looking up, we could see Maehotakadake (mae = front) towering above us.
The path skirted the peak and we did not bother with the detour to this
minor summit.
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Soon enough, we reached the main summit of Okuhotakadake
(oku = inner), Japan's third highest peak at 3190m - just a trifle
lower than Kitadake in the Minami
Alps.
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For
the first (but not
last!) time, we could now see the sharp spike of Yari-ga-take in the
distance. Down the other side, we stopped at the Hotakadake hut for
coffee,
before setting off on the last leg of the day to Kitahotakadake (kita =
north). |
On the
way, we met a raichou (ptarmigan) skulking in the shrubbery. We were
aiming to have a bit of a holiday on this trip, so stopped at the
Kitahotakadake hut for the night - again we were lucky enough to be
allocated a semi-private 2 person alcove. We stopped at about 1pm each
day which might sound a bit lax, but with breakfast typically at 5am
this still gave us a long day's walk! The morning weather tends to be
better than the affternoons, and an early arrival seemed to guarantee a
good spot in the huts, so this strategy worked very well for us
throughout the trip.
The Kitahotakadake hut again has a magnificent site, perched under the
summit (3106m) with views north including Yarigatake and the next
morning's first objective of the Daikiretto - reputed to be Japan's
scariest ridge scramble. We were a little nervous as we went to bed
that night.
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