Mostly Japanese Mountains: #hiking #Japan #hikinginjapan #登山

Starting and stopping point: Top of the ski lift at Kawaba Ski Area

Peaks bagged: Kengamine (剣ヶ峰) ~ Hotaka (武尊山) ~ Nakanodake (中ノ岳)

(First-time) peaks # 888, 889 + 890

Getting there/getting around: I drove. There are many bus tour/train options. Check out the Kawaba Ski Area's information (in Japanese.) Tour Information

Map: 山と高原地図16TANIGAWA-DAKE 谷川岳苗場山・武尊山

Weather Information: Mt. Hotaka Weather The Kawaba Ski area also has weather information about the suitability for climbing each day. Unfortunately, they post this only on the Japanese side of their website. Click on the bottom right of the screen to the right of "Kawaba Life" where you see "天気情報".

Total Time: 3:56 Break time: :36 Distance: 6.6 km

Elevation: Lowest: 1,847 m Highest: 2,158 m Total Ascent: 670 m Total Descent: 670 m

Technical considerations/difficulty: During the winter, you need spikes, and depending on the conditions, an ice axe or poles and maybe snow shoes. I wore just crampons yesterday and was fine. I did kind of wish I had an axe but not that often.

Facilities: There is nothing on the trail. The ski area, of course, has a lot of restaurants and shops. The ski lift starts operating at 8:30 and the last chair down leaves at 3:30. The ski area is open from December to April. For hikers, the lift (in 2024) is ¥1,200 each way.

The lift opens at 8:30, but if you want to get on it right at that time, be a little early. The ski area requires you to fill out and submit a paper hiking plan and to rent a Cocoheri, if you don't have one already.

What is Cocoheri you ask? It's a portable safety beacon in case you get in a jam. The name is a play on the words for "here" (coco) and "helicopter" (heri). It's provided by a outdoors insurance company called JRO. cocoheri link When I was on the mountain and saw the potential for avalanches, I understood why the ski area demanded that you have a cocoheri with you.

I've carried JRO insurance for years. Unfortunately, all of their paperwork is in Japanese. Legalize is bad enough in English. Seeing as it's Japanese legalize, I really hope I never have to put in a claim!

Thoughts/observations/recommendations: I'm not usually a fan of using ski lifts or the like when hiking. It feels like cheating and makes what I want to be a cheap hobby cost money. Time available and weather conditions determined that the ski lift was the only possibility to knock this mountain off the list during this season.

Enjoy the pictures. Do check out the videos, too.

I'd love your feedback on what I'm doing. I do this blog primarily for

myself so I can remember all these places I've been. If I can make something

interesting for you, though, I'll be even more happy.

Look!

Two lifts to get to the trailhead.

Just off the lift!

That peak over there is called Kengamine, (Kenga Peak). It is a little confusing because I took this picture from beside another peak of the same name. There are so many Japanese mountains with the same name.

There is actually another mountain called Hotaka on the list of 100 Famous Mountains. They usually call this one Joshu Hotaka as a way to distinguish it from its taller brother in Kamikochi. "Joshu" refers to this area.

That is Mt. Hotaka

Looking west toward Niigata.

The top of Hokata

These cracks give one pause for thought. If an avalanche started, hoo boy.

Have you ever contemplated the power of snow (ie, water) and gravity? A cubic meter of water is a metric ton. Can you imagine the volume of wet, heavy snow on the sides of these ridges?

The contours of the snow surface were also concerning in spots. I'm told that when the snow surface is wrinkled, wavy or dimpled and when you can't guess the topography below the snow, the likelihood of avalanche is higher.