Mostly Japanese Mountains: The snowy "rock" "hammer"--100 Famous Mountain, Mt. Ishizuchi, Shikoku, Japan. Highest in western Japan

S'up?

This report is on a supercalafragilisticexpialadosiously cool mountain, Mt. Ishizuchi.

I met someone really cool on this trip. He is so cool that I actually interviewed him. I've posted that video on YouTube. Make sure you find the link for it in this post. It's about halfway through the post. That guy, Mr. Furukawa, is a real hoot.

. . . about Mt. Ishizuchi (石鎚山)

This mountain is the highest mountain in western Japan. It is 1,782 meters tall. Ishizuchi means rock-hammer. This is probably due to the shape. It's pointy and bent at the top. Ishizuchi is one of the 100 Famous Mountains of Japan and is considered one of seven sacred mountains in Japan. It is really cool.

Area:

This is in Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku.

Ishizuchi Range information

Location:

Map: ***If you want a link to the latest Yama to Kogen map, comment and I'll get you a link. This link is to a printable topo map of the Ishizuchi area.

Starting and stopping point:

Parking Lot by the Pont Omiya Bridge

Peaks bagged: Zenjagamori Tsurugi Ishizuchi(Misen) Tengudake

(First-time) peaks # 1,088~1091

Getting there/getting around:

I drove. There are buses from Iyo Saijo Station. See this site for transportation information.

Helpful Info

Weather Information:

Tenkura (Japanese)

Mountain forecast dot com

Time and distance

YAMAP's Estimate Time: 11:09 Distance: 13.9 km

The Caveman did it in: Total Time: 9:02 Break time: 1:45 Distance: 15.1 km

Elevation: Lowest: 428 m Highest: 1,982 m Total Ascent: 1,988 m Total Descent: 1,988 m

Technical considerations/difficulty:

This is a long, steep hike. There are 3 or 4 long sections with challenging chains and one vertigo-inducing knife ridge.

The ascent of 1,988 meters is more than a mile. In other words, 663 flights of stairs, 7 trips up the Eiffel Tower or 6 trips up the Burj Khalifa. Put in some time on your stairmaster before attempting this.

The distance and risks can be mitigated. If you hike during the season you can take the chairlift and significantly cut down the time and distance. Even doing that, Alltrails considers that a "challenging route" with an estimate of 5~5.5 hours and an elevation gain of 927 m. The sections with chains can all be detoured or skipped altogether. The knife ridge can be skipped by foregoing the last peak, Mt. Tengudake.

Facilities:

Ishizuchi dot com has information about the ropeway, ski area, transportation and some of the lodging in the area. There is an onsen by the shrine above the ropeway.

Ishizuchikanko dot com also has lodging information about the area.

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:

Wow, what a great mountain and what a great day I had here. I'm sure in other seasons, it would have special types of beauty. Going in the off-season, I got to experience beautiful snowscapes nearly on my own. I didn't see more than 5 people the whole day.

If you want to save money--or if you go in the off-season as I did--you can climb from the bottom of the ropeway. Don't do this unless you're ready for a long trek. The ropeway costs, I believe, ¥2,400 for a roundtrip ticket. (The website says ¥2,200 but I was told by a guy I met the other day that it is ¥2,400.)

(Along with all the regular stuff such as maps, headlamps, boots, feet, and brains, . . .) don't forget:

Sunscreen on mountains with lots of snow. The snow reflects the snow a lot.

Let's look at some pictures:

The entrance to the Ropeway

Self-service parking lot. Put ¥500 in the red box.

Japan has random cuteness everywhere.

Like much of Japan, there are several abandoned buildings. 😥

Not much to see for the first hour or two.

This is 31 degrees fahrenheit.

Ishizuchi Shrine Jojusha

試しの鎖 "Trial Chains"

These chains lead to the peak of Mt. Zenjagamori. The chains leading up from this side are quite long but if you circle around to the other side, there is a shorter series of chains to the top. Even those are challenging enough!

These are the chains on the other side. I went to the top of Zenjagamori from here.

This is the top of Zenjagamori. It gave me vertigo.

I posted a short video of it. I was too nervous about hanging on and not falling off that the video probably isn't the best. I was too scared of looking down to point my smartphone down!