Tengudake

This is the first announcement of Tengudake (天狗岳) hike on 17-18th June.

Tengudake (Mt. Tengu) locates in the center of Yatsugatake area (Nagano prefecture), the altitude at the summit is 2646 m. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Tengu
Although the main destination is Tengudake, I am planning to climb little bit higher mountain Iodake (Mt. Io, 硫黄岳 2760 m) as well if we have enough time.

The details of the route are as follows.
*Day 1:
Karasawa kosen hut (唐沢鉱泉) - East-Tengudake (東天狗岳) - Honzawa onsen hut (本沢温泉)
Map time : 4.5 hours

There is a camping site at the Honzawa Onsen hut. This hut has nice open-air onsen at 2150m.
http://www.yatsu-honzawaonsen.com

*Day 2
Honzawa Onsen hut - Iodake (硫黄岳) - Neishidake (Mt. Neishi, 根石岳) - East-Tengu dake - West Tengudake - Karasawa honsen hut
Map time : 6.5 hours
After the hike, we will go to Onsen!

Depending on the situation, we can shorten the route.

Note that rain season will start soon.
Although I have alternative plans (e.g. Mt. Akagi (Gunma) and Mt Kyoho (Tochigi)), I will cancel the event in case of rain.

*Difficulty level: 3.5 out of 5.

*What to bring:
Hiking shoes
Rain gear
Warm clothes
Lunch and snacks (diner and breakfast if you are not going to order to hut)
Water (more than 2 L)
Onsen stuff
Backpack

*Expected Cost:
Hut : 8700 yen (with dinner and breakfast) / 5800 yen (without meal) / 600 yen (tent)
Car and highway transportation : 11420 yen highway toll per a car with ETC and gas for 520km (+ rent-a-car if we need)
Food (Up to you)
Onsen : 500 yen?
Club fee : 500 yen
Insurance

*I recommend you to buy insurance before hiking.
Mont-bell provides short-term insurance. (see, https://hoken.montbell.jp/aboutdomestic/activity.php )
It costs only 250 or 500 yen for two days hike!
Unfortunately, English site is not available but I can help you if you need.

*Please send email with your information no later than 12th June if you want to join us.
1) Your name.
2) Can you bring your car?
3) Do you want meals (dinner and breakfast) at hut?
4) Your phone number.

Report on Tengudake hike, 17-18th, July, 2017.

Day 1.
We (David, Anja, Noboru, and Kotaro) leave Tsukuba at 5 a.m. for Yamanashi and took Keno-do highway that is new highway. Thanks to this route, we could avoid Shuto-highway.
We arrived at the start point that is Karasawa hut at 9.a.m. and started walking.
For day 1, we took north way to Higashi-Tengudake via Nakayama pass.
After having lunch on the ridge, we arrived at the summit of Higashi-Tengudake.
The way down to Honzawa onsen hut was destroyed and very scary.
Finaly, we arrived at the Honzawa onsen hut which has the highest open-air onsen in Japan.
David and Anja stayed at the hut and Noboru and Kotaro stayed their tents.
It is surprising that weather was perfect even during rainy season.

Day 2.
We had breakfast around 6 a.m. and start walking from the hut at 7 a.m.
It was cloudy, but good condition for climbing.
We walked the different route to Higashi-Tengudake through Natsuzawa pass, Mikaburiyama, and Neishidake.
After Higashi-Tengudake, we went to the other peak, Nishi-Tengudake.
Then we started descending the mountain.
There are two view points on the route and we had lunch at the second (first from the top) view point.
Before the rain started, we came back to the parking lot.
The Karasawa onsen is very nice ryokan which provides good two kinds of onsen.

Finally I'd like to emphasize that the difficulty level of this hike is not 3, but 4.
We took Chuo highway, but it might be better to take Nagano highway to avoid traffic jam.