Climbing beautiful Mt. Norikuradake in springtime snow. Sledding down!

 

. . . about Mt. Norikura

Although this mountain is over 3,000 meters, thanks to the highest bus stop in the country (at 2,700 meters), climbers can find this beautiful mountain easily accessible during the summer months.

Norikura is in the southern portion of the Northern Alps and borders Nagano and Gifu Prefectures.  Due to the large amount of snow at the high elevation, you can ski there all year.  That is, if you don't mind skiing up before you ski down.  All of the ski slopes with lifts are down lower and are barren of snow during the summer.

Mt. Norikura (乗鞍岳 in kanji) is one of the 100 Mountains on Mr. Fukada's list and offers a great panorama.  The view of Ontake is especially impressive.

Area:

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

Starting and stopping point: 

Sanbontaki Falls Parking Lot at Sanbontaki Resthouse

Peaks bagged: Asahidake (朝日岳) ~ Kodama (蚕玉岳) ~ Kengamine/Norikura (剣ヶ峰/乗鞍岳)

(First-time) peaks # 1,020~1,022

100 Famous Mountain #49

Getting there/getting around:  There is parking at the Sanbontaki Resthouse.  There is also bus service to and from there.  

The Japan Alps website has information for public transportation to the Norikura Tatamidaira Trailhead, which is quite close to the top.  Contemplating the time, money,  and aggravation of changing from train to bus to camel to the back of a sherpa just makes my head hurt.

Japan-guide also has information about public transportation.

I parked at the Sanbontaki Resthouse because that's as far as private vehicles are allowed. I could have taken a bus from there but I was happier to walk.  For one thing, I go to the mountains to get away from people and schedules.  For another, I'm a cheapskate.  And lastly, I go to the mountains because I like to walk.  Why pay someone for the privilege of doing less of what I enjoy?

FWIW, if I went there by public transportation, it would take over 7 hours.  To get there via public transportation from Shinjuku would take just about the same time.  I was able to drive there in 3.  Gas and tolls were less than trains and buses would have been.

Helpful Info

Weather Information: Norikura Weather  mountain-forecast dot com report (English)

Time and distance

Total Time:  7:55 Break time:  :31 Distance:  23.6 km

Elevation:  Lowest: 1,755 m Highest: 3,026 Total Ascent: 1,476 m  Total Descent: 1,476 m

Technical considerations/difficulty:  

Hiking from where I started makes for a fairly long hike with a large change in elevation.  That said, roughly the lower half of my hike was on pavement.  Even after that, when I was walking on the trails, it was still a steady ascent with no boulder fields, no ropes, no chains, and no ladders to speak of.

Much of the hike is above the treeline so it would be very hard to get lost, I think.  It was easy to see long distances because snow covered everything.  When the snow is all gone, I'm no sure the effect on visibility.  Even so, there is a bus road that winds high up into these mountains so that would make it hard to get lost.

There is a hiking trail on the lower half of my route but it is closed due to snow during winter.

Facilities:  

There are porta-potties here and there.  Near the top of Norikura, there is an emergency hut.  There are lots of streams and rivers so water shouldn't be a problem.

Here and there, there are mountain huts.  There is also an observatory for cosmic ray research run by Tokyo University.

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:  

This was a special mountain.  They all are, but some days are better than others.  I'm really happy with how the plan came together.  I was able to play in the snow but, except for about 5 minutes on the top, spent the day just in my t-shirt.  (I had pants on, too.  Get your minds out of the gutter.)  I felt so good and the conditions were so amenable that I was able to cover about 15 miles in a day and didn't feel like I broke a sweat.

I'm glad I remembered my sunscreen and sunglasses.  It's very easy to forget these in winter.  Snow can give you a worse burn than a day at the beach.  Blinding light reflected off the sun is no fun, either.

I should have paid more attention to my feet.  I went in three-season boots because I didn't anticipate much cold.  It turned out to be fine, but my feet did get wet from walking in soft, slushy snow.  If I broke a leg or something and had to spend the night on the mountain, I could have been in danger of frostbite with wet feet after the temps dropped.  I think I will wear winter/water-proof boots next time in the snow.  A spare pair of socks would be a good idea, too.

Speaking of wet feet, I am so glad I made the extra little trek to see the Sanbontaki (Three Falls)!  That was cool!  Indeed, my feet did get wet because I wanted to get some pictures that I wouldn't have been able to take without walking in the water.

Last thought:  If you can get to a mountain like this on a weekday or in the off-season, I highly recommend it.  Since it was a weekday and I stayed away from the bus crowd, I had the trail to myself almost all day.  When I got to the onsen, there was only one other guy there.  As I was leaving the onsen, the bus showed up and I scooted home.😉

Here are some pictures:

This is the starting point, the Sanbotaki Resthouse.

I started out with an eye to using a variation route that would begin above the ski trails.  Above the lifts, though, the brush was very thick and the snow-covered streams made me re-think that plan.  I decided to descend a bit and hike up the road instead.

I love running water.  This is a great season for me.

The trail from the Sanbotaki is closed due to snow.  I stayed on the pavement until getting past the Kuraigara Sanso.

After a few hours, I hit the Kuraigahara Sanso and then entered the trail just beyond it.

You can stay there, by the way.  You can take a bus there, too.

Norikura Kuraigahara Sansou

They have some nice merch.

This is the beginning of the trail.  I encountered other people here.  They were either putting on crampons or putting on their skis.

What a great morning it had been so far.

Behind me are the rest of the southern Kita Alps.

I didn't sink into the snow too often on this day but when I did, it was up to my thighs.

I couldn't understand all the people wearing goretex and balaclavas.  I was quite warm enough in a t-shirt.

This torii is at the top.

The marker

These days I've been eating a lot of satsumaimo (sweet potato).  Bake one of these suckers in tin foil for about an hour and you've got a great, sweet snack.

What do you think I brought my pillow for?

Watch the video!

Not far from where I parked is the Sanbontaki Falls.

It is the confluence of three separate falls into one river.

They are VERY cool.  I'm glad I made the extra trip.  Don't miss them if you go to this area.

They were so cool, and I wanted to get some pictures so badly that I happily waded through the stream.

Well, that's it for today.  Take care.

Don't forget to like, subscribe, tell your friends about me and buy me some coffee.

One of my favorite youtubers always says "Hit the like button.  It's all I care about."  I'd rather you hit the paypal button--but I'm a greedy SOB.

Caveman out

More of the Kita Alps here Jonendake and Hotaka

Third time is a charm. Caveman catches Mount Five Hundred on third try. Gohyaku yama in Niigata. 五百山、新潟県

 1,000

. . . about Mt. Gohyaku and the environs

Mt. Gohyaku is not actually the main attraction for this area.  This area is known as the East Mountains of Nagaoka City.  Gohyaku is kind of like the ugly little sister to nearby Mt. Nokogiri.  That is a very popular mountain with nice views.  You can see the Sea of Japan to the west and snow-capped mountains to the east.  Nokogiri (鋸) means sawtooth in Japanese.  It's a popular name for mountains.  This hike also took in Mt. Onikura (鬼倉), which means "Demon warehouse."  That mountain has little to recommend itself for.

Being near the Sea of Japan, this area gets a tremendous amount of snow and most of the forestry roads are still covered with snow now (early May).  There is still snow on the mountains, but most of the trails are void of the white stuff and the mountain flowers are springing up while the snow is still melting.

I picked this mountain just for its name.  I'll write much about that later in the post.  For now, I will get the details of this particular hike out of the way.

Area:

Location:

Mt. Gohyaku, Nagaoka City, Niigata

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.

Starting and stopping point: Mt. Nokogiri Parking Lot

Peaks bagged: Nokogiri (鋸山) ~ Onikura (鬼倉山) ~ Gohyaku (五百山)

(First-time) peaks # 1,017~1,019

Getting there/getting around:  

I drove.  I don't think there is public transportation.

Helpful Info

Weather Information: 

Mt. Nokogiri's weather forecast

Time and distance

YAMAP's estimate: 6:20

The Caveman's actual time   Total:  5:27 Break time: :24  Distance:  11.4 km

Elevation:  Lowest: 215 m Highest: 765 m  Total Ascent:  1,087 m Total Descent: 1,087 m

Technical considerations/difficulty: 

The hike to Nokogiri is straightforward with no ropes, chains or ladders.  From Nokogiri on to Onikura and Gohyaku it's a different story.  The trail is not used much so it's easy to get lost.  There are several areas with ropes and it's easy to slip.

Facilities:  

There's a porta potty at the parking lot.  There is also a waterhole just behind the parking lot.  There are no facilities on the trail.

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:  

Something that was interesting was the evidence of wildlife.  There were several--I mean like 10 or 20--piles of scat (poop) on the trail.  I had assumed they might be from tanuki because of the shape and for the fact that groups tanuki tend to poop in the same place.  BUT, while I was eating lunch, I was crept up on by an anaguma--Japanese badger.  Perhaps the piles of poop were from badgers.  Unfortunately, the badger got spooked and ran away before I could get my iphone out to take a picture.  Truth be told, I was as freaked out as the badger was when I first saw it.  

Let's get some pictures out...

Well, cavekids, I finally did it.  I have had my eye on this Mount Gohyaku since January of 2022.  This was my third attempt to climb it.  

Mt. Gohyaku is not the tallest or most exciting mountain I have climbed.  I climbed it just for its name.  Let me back up a few years to explain.  

My hiking app, YAMAP, keeps track of various statistics.  One of them is a running tally of the number of distinct peaks one has summited.  Around the end of 2021 I realized that I was going to pass the 500 mark soon.  

I wanted to mark the event in a special way and searched to find out if there are any mountains in Japan named 500 (gohyaku in Japanese).

There are!  I found 2.  One is this one I climbed the other day.  It's in Niigata Prefecture.  The other is in Nagano.

Neither mountain is very high.  I was living in Tokyo at the time and assumed that the conditions wouldn't be too different from mountains of similar elevation in my local area.  Heck, most of the mountains in the Okutama area are higher than both of the mountains named Gohyaku.

When my app read 499, I got up early on a January morning and took a shinkansen to the other side of Japan to climb the Gohyaku in Niigata.  At Nagaoka Station, I grabbed a taxi and told my driver where I wanted to go.  He looked at me and my backpack with an expression that said, "Really?"

Well.  I discovered that the conditions on the ground in Niigata were different than in Tokyo.  I hadn't taken into account that the Sea of Japan side is colder than the Pacific side and that it gets more snow.  

A lot more.  

I mean a lot.

This is what I faced when the cabbie let me out.

No wonder he'd looked at me funny.

It was useless.  I was totally unprepared.  I had no snowshoes.

Since I had invested so much time and money already, I decided to go as far as possible.

You can see that I only made it 900 meters or so in almost an hour before giving up.

That is my leg in the snow.  It's over my knees.

It was a gorgeous day, but futile.

I gave up and walked the 6 or 7 km to the station and then went home with my tail between my legs.

The good news is that a week or two later I rented some snow shoes and was able to do the other Gohyaku in Nagano.

(Now I have my own snowshoes--two pair, actually.  I use them all the time.)

Fast-forward to 2025 and I was now approaching my 1,000th peak.

It was a no-brainer that Gohyaku should be the one to do it on.  After all, 500+500=1,000, right?

Well, since it was winter, I wanted to make sure this was possible.  I've done a fair amount of hiking in the snow since my first failed attempt but wanted to be sure about the snow conditions.

Through YAMAP, I found a guy in the local area in February and started to ask him about the snow conditions.  According to him, even though the snow was high, it was stable and that you could traverse the area on skis or snowshoes.

I was psyched!

This time, I was driving.

If I ever find the guy that told me the snow was ok, I might punch him in the nose.

This is what I found when I got to the area.

It's not the depth of the snow that was concerning me.  It is the wrinkles and waves that you see.  There had been some melting and the shape of this snow is a sign of danger of avalanche.  I already had decided to give up on hiking before I reached the trailhead and when I talked to some locals they were astonished that I had even thought of hiking in Nagaoka that day.

Drats.  Thwarted again!

That was in March.  Now it's May.

I went back to Gohyaku yesterday during Golden Week and finally knocked it out.  I'll put a few pictures of it here.  It isn't the most photogenic of the mountains I've climbed.  It wasn't the highest, either.  I am kind of glad it was a challenge, though.

Remember this picture?

This is the same spot yesterday.

January:

May:  (This time I could drive by here.)

The trailhead is actually about 1,000 meters up the road from where the taxi dropped me on that January morning.  I didn't even get that far that morning.

This is the trailhead.

The sign has all the typical cautions.

"Make sure you're equipped.""Did you bring water?"

"Man-eating bear on the loose this week."

blah blah blah

Lots of interesting flora

Nagaoka City in the foreground.  The Sea of Japan behind it.

Hanatate Pass (花立峠)

There was a looooot of poop up there.  Seriously, there were like 20 piles like this.

I saw one of those bear bells in the middle of one of the piles.  I wonder what that could mean.

Mt. Onikura doesn't get much attention.

It's just as well.  With a name means "Demon Warehouse" it probably needs an exorcism.

There were ropes on that side of Nokogiri.  It was easier to get lost and the footing is not so great.

There were really a lot of people there.  And they were all locals.

I was surprised when I showed up at this parking lot at 6:30 that I was not the first person there.

I really was not expecting to see this many people when I came off the trail.

The water hole is called something like "Fountain of Youth."

"The Fountain of Youth"

1 cup will give you 5 years

2 cups will give you 10 years

3 cups is the limit

On the way home, I dropped by the Aso Onsen.

It's a nice place.

I'd never seen this deal at an onsen.  I don't know why not.  It makes perfect sense.

It's a package deal for a a bath and lunch.  (Not available during holidays, though.)

Well, I guess that's it for my report on Gohyaku.

I do still want to reminisce a bit.  I had thought about putting up some of my favorite pictures to date but the task is too overwhelming.

It is kind of cool to look back.  My footprint in Japan looks like this.

There are two dots on the northernmost island of Hokkaido.

Most of my footprints have been in the middle of Honshu.

A few hikes show up way down in the southwest on the island of Kyushu.

I used to live in western Tokyo and most of the miles I've put on my boots have been there.

I feel a kind of territorial need to not leave un-broken lines on my footprints so I can trace my footprints from Tokyo Station to Kanawa, Mt. Fuji, Shizuoka, around Lake Hakone, around all the Fuji Five Lakes, to Saitam, Gunma and Nagano.

I moved to Nagano two years ago and have been trying to do the same type of thing here.

There are so many mountains.

They are always calling me.

Statistics are kind of fun.  Now I have climbed 1,019 peaks.  Many of them I have done more than once though.  I think I have actually summited some mountain or other about 1,600 times.

I've climbed a mountain in 18 out of the 47 prefectures in Japan.

I've climbed the highest mountain in Japan, the highest one on Hokkaido, on Kyushu and of several prefectures.  I've climbed the 4 highest mountains in the country.

Since 2018, my total elevation climbed is now 465,932 m (290 miles) and I have walked 6,572 km (4,083 miles).

I've burned 925,000 calories.  (Why am I still carrying 20 extra pounds?)

As far as the mountains I have climbed the most, Mt. Kokuzo, a little hill near home is #1.  I have climbed that 39 times.  #2 is also in this area.  Hiraofuji has been summited 12 times.  (Two of those times I carried my bicycle to the top.)  #3 is back in Tokyo.  I showed Mt. Hinode some love 10 times.  Makiyose, Otake, Aso and Mito were all climbed 8 times.  Jinba, Iwatakeishi, Onuta and Akaru (in Nagano) came in at 7.  Kumotori, Takanosu and a host of others at 6.  Among a long list of 5-timers are Daibosatsurei and Nanatsuishi.  There are too many on the lists of 2, 3 or 4 times to think of.

I'm glad that YAMAP keeps good records and I'm glad for this blog.  I know not many people read this.  (Actually, I doubt anyone has read this far on this post.)  I have a bad memory and I want to be able to recall all these amazing experiences I've been allowed to have.  Someday I won't be living here and/or I won't be able to do all this physical activity so I want to be able to savor it as much as possible.

Interested in Nagano's Mt. Gohyaku?

That's all for today.

Caveman out

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