Minami Alps 3 day hike: Shiomidake + Kitadake

by Neil Marston, photos by
Leshek Zbroniec
Apart from Paul who was running
around like a headless chicken because of a last-minute hitch
with his hike plans we (Ascelin, Craig, Lester, Les and myself)
had the relatively easy task of meeting at Shinjuku station at
9pm ready to queue for the best seats on the night train to the
Alps. The night train arrives at 11:20 so I had time to catch
up on my train spotting, a hobby I have neglected for the last
28 years. Luckily Lester returned from his hat buying trip with
a few beers so the time passed pleasently and we had the best
seats on the train.
We had to change trains in the
middle of the night and then take a bus to the start of the walk.
The bus was noteable for two things, firstly the price: 2,200
Yen for an hour on a bus is surely a record even in Japan. Secondly,
I managed to fall asleep for the first time in the night and was
woken by a jolt. My initial reaction was that Paul must have been
navigating since the bus was no longer on a road but driving along
a small track. Apparently not - it arrived on time at our destination,
a hut in the middle of nowhere.
Our first days hike was quite
easy: 5 hours, climbing roughly 1500m to a mountain hut. The trail
initially followed a river crossing it several times on bridges
that had seen better days. I comforted myself in the knowledge
that the bridge was unlikely to collapse under my weight - although
I weigh 20kg more than the average Japanese man, I am a feather
weight when it comes to hiking ... I only have a 30 litre rucksack,
a third of the size favoured by most of the hikers we met. The
threat of a 5m fall to the river below suddenly seemed less important
when a football-sized rock flew across my field of vision, narrowly
missing Craig's head. Time to move on. After that we left the
river behind us and starting climbing the valley side through
quite a pretty forest. It was about this time that Lester started
complaining of blisters, which on inspection were suprisingly
well developed for an hour of hiking. Luckily he was with a caring
group who drugged him up and lent him a second pair of socks before
setting off again.
By lunch time we had reached our
hut. Having not slept more than a couple of hours the night before
it was a case of "when in Rome" - I slept for 3 hours
before waking up to the pleasant suprise that the weather had
now cleared and there was a reasonable view of the surrounding
mountains. Unlike Tsukuba-san, according to the report in the
Alien Times, it was not the "smell of the forest, like a
woman's scent, that brings the mountain to life" - indeed
to me mountain tops in Japan tend to smell very much like the
rest of Japan .. of cigarettes. Instead it is the views that make
the climb worthwhile so we and especially the photographically-minded
members of the group made the most of last hours of light to admire
the views.
Our leader, Paul, decided that
to make up for the short first day we had to cover 14 map hours
the second day. Most of the hikers we talked to thought this was
impossible, but we set off optimistically reasoning that since
the weight of their packs reduced them to walking like ducks,
their advice was probably not that valuable, especially since
we didn't need to take cigarette breaks or come to a concensus
about which order to walk in and who would carry the flag etc
etc. Indeed by 12 o'clock we were glad that we had got up so early
since the perfect weather and good visibility was quickly becoming
swirling mist.
The views on the second and the
third day once we had reached Kitadake were stunning. There were
mountains as far as the eye can see or that the humidity would
allow us to see (about 100km) including Fuji-san and several groups
of mountains that Paul helpfully told me were the Kita Alps, which
are of course to be visited in two weeks time on another Paul
led trip and again in the first weeked of September on a trip
that I am organising, if I have been persuaded to stay in Japan
that long. It was also quite nice to have a birds-eye view of
the rest of the days walk along a broad ridge. Not quite the 5*
thriller we had been promised, but it was pleasent enough anyway.
At lunch time on the second day
we reached a mountain hut were we decided to stay for the night
to make the most of the better weather the next day. Apparently
Paul had forgotten all his previous experiences in mountain huts
when booking in ... he asked if we could be near the door so we
would not wake people up when we left at four in the morning.
While commendable in sentiment, his comment was going to have
an ironic ring to it 13 hours later at 3 the next morning.
Even when I have been in bed since
8 the previous night, I am probably easy to annoy at 3 in the
morning but our fellow hikers did their best to make sure that
they were as irritating as possible. In the end they did too much
and it was just funny ... the person that repacked their rucksack
about 5 times individually wrapping each sock in super-crinkle
poly bags, the woman who had a torch hanging around her neck which
pointed everywhere apart from where she was looking (presuming
that she was not looking into any of our eyes), the people who
decided to check whether it was possible to walk through the door
without opening it ... may noisy cars forever disturb their sleep
and trains run through the night a couple of yards from their
house.
We had been promised beautiful
clear skies the next morning, but as I suspected at the time this
forecast was more a guess than based on any weather forecast.
So we set off into the mist passing the early risers and cheerfully
greeting them with "Sumimasen" and "Ohayo gozaimasu".
We were due to meet up with Tadashi's group of hikers on the summit
of Kitadake, which was still 5 and a half hours away so it was
full steam ahead. Soon the conditions slowed us down and we ended
up walking closely together tying not to lose anybody in the mist.
Even then we were still making good progress and by 8 we had reached
the hut where we had intended to spend the previous night.
Paul and I set off for the summit
to meet with Victor's group as quickly as possible leaving the
others to finish buying postcards and join us later. The rest
of the hike has already been well reported by Iulia so I will
end my account here.
It only remains for me to thank
Paul for organising the weekend and my fellow hikers for making
it so enjoyable. See you in the Kita Alps?
PS: If anybody wants to buy a
massage chair I have one available. Ideal for easing away the
stresses of the day and aches from carrying rucksacks.

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