Mostly Japanese Mountains

Mrs. Caveman's Family

I have the most amazing and best in-laws in the world.

This is a story about my wife's family and their company. They are really special.

Biking and hiking to the clouds. Mt. Tateshina of 100 Famous Mountain fame in Nagano.

. . . about Tateshina

This is the highest of the mountains on the northern end of the Yatsugatake Range. It's one of two peaks in the range on Mr. Fukada's list of 100 Japanese Mountains. The other is Akadake at the southern end of the range.

It's a great mountain.

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 of Tateshina.

Starting and stopping point:

(Bicycle) Saku City, Nozawa (Hiking) Mt. Tateshina 7th Station Parking Lot

Peaks bagged: Mt. Tateshina 蓼科山　(100 Famous Mountain)

(First-time) peaks # ---

Getting there/getting around:

Obviously, I got myself there on my own power.

There is parking at the Mt. Tateshina Seventh Station Parking Lot.

You can get to within about a 40 minute walk of that by bus🚌. Chikuma Bus can get you to the Tateshina Bokujo--right next to the Shirakaba Kogen Ski Area in a little over an hour with one transfer. Start at Sakudaira Station on the Nakasendo Line. Take that to the Tateshina City Office and change to the Shirakaba Line to the Tateshina Bokujo. You can puzzle through the Chikuma Bus website yourself. I'd rather take my bicycle. 🚵

There is also parking at the Ogawahara Pass, but that road is closed from sometime in November until the middle of June.

Helpful Info

Weather Information:

Tenkura's weather forecast for Tateshina

Mountain forecast's forecast for Tateshina

Time and distance

Total Time: 8.5 hoursish Break time: :45ish Distance: 67 km (bike) 4.7 km (hike)

Elevation: Lowest: (Bike)673 m (Hike)1905 m Highest: 2530 m Total Ascent: (bike) 1,820 m (hike) 633 m TOTAL: 2453 m Total Descent: (bike) 1,820 m (hike) 633 TOTAL 2453 m

Technical considerations/difficulty:

The bike ride up is probably the most difficult part. It's a long steep ride with precious few flat spots. After the bike ride, hiking is a relief.

As far as the mountain is concerned, it is one of the highest points around so there is a lot of snow in winter. There are reasons the mountain huts up there close in winter!

You need some upper-body strength to get to the top as there are a lot of boulders with chains. That said, I saw the usual grandmothers climbing the other day.

The top of Mt. Tateshina is above the treeline and is very windy because it's quite wide.

Facilities:

There is a restroom at the parking lot.

There are two places you can stay and/or grab some food at up there. They both open sometime in April and you need reservations to stay. Right at the top is The Tateshina Sancho Hutte and a bit below the top is The Tateshina Sanso. The Tateshina Sanso also runs another Sanso and Camping area at nearby Futago Lake. Those facilities' info is at the same link.

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:

Hello cavedwellers.

Check out the video. You'll be glad you did. Hear me now and believe me later.

OK. That's out of the way. (You did like, subscribe and leave a comment, right? Right? I'll give you time to get that done.)

Thanks. Now, back to the mountain. It's a great mountain. I love it. You would to. You should climb it. Stop what you're doing and go now. What are you waiting for?

I got an itch that needed to be scratched the other day. Even though the weather forecast wasn't the best, I had to carry out a plan that struck my fancy. I've been doing a bit of hikeling lately (riding to a trailhead and then summiting). It occurred to me that I really needed to do that with my nearest of the 100 Famous Mountains, Mt. Tateshina. I have ridden to the general area and climbed before. Actually, my first major adventure after moving to Nagano was to do this and climb Tateshina. This time, though, I wanted to climb by a different trail. The reason for this seemingly redundant madness is that doing so would enable me to connect the dots on my footprints between Mt. Tateshina and the very northernmost trails of the Yatsugatake Mountain Range.

The orange lines on the map represent places I had walked so far. Mt. Takigamine is the furthest extreme of the Mountain Range and the last trail on the map. It's like the end of the world! (Not really, but the thought delites my inner eight-year-old.) The trail circled in yellow was the missing link between the rest of the Yatugatake Range and that mountain. That 1.5 miles stretch of un-trodden rock kept me up at night.

As of yesterday, this is what my progress on the Yatsugatake Range is. I have to do one over-nighter and I should be able to tie up all the loose ends from one end to the other.

This is what I did yesterday. The first screenshot shows the bike ride.

This is the hike.

The weather forecast for the day was clouds in the am followed by rain. I hoped to escape the rain by leaving early.

Departure time. 5 hours from this time I would be at the top of Mt. Tateshina.

From Nozawa, I got on the Tateshina Skyline. I didn't see another soul until I got on the trail. And, even there, I didn't see more than 10 people all day.

This is next to Misasa Lake. The first time I saw the sign showing those distances I thought I wouldn't be able to do it.

The red signs are telling you that the road is still closed ahead for the winter. It opens in mid-June.

It's a long, steep road.

JAXA (It's like Japan's NASA.)

The former head of JAXA, Kimiya Yui, is a graduate of the school I teach at. Everyone is very proud of that. He is about to make his second trip to the I.S.S. so new posters of him wearing a space suit have appeared on campus.

The end of the road . . .

This year, I didn't see any snow on the road even beyond this point.

The pass

Where I started hiking. The Seventh Station of Mt. Tateshina.

After riding so long, hiking felt great. I felt like attacking this trail.

The Tateshina Sancho Hutte just off the top. They opened on April 26 this year. They'll be open until November.

Sorry. No view today. On a clear day, it's gorgeous. You're stuck with just my ugly mug this time.

Just a little snow here and there.

This is the pack that one of the employees of the Tateshins Sanso carried up. It's filled with stuff they'll sell. No wonder everything is so expensive.

This is the last picture I took for the day. This is at the 7th Station Parking Lot where I started from for home. It had started raining heavily and I didn't bother messing with my smartphone until I got home.

Well, that's it for today. If you want to see what Tateshina looks like on a clear day, check out this blogpost on Tateshina.

Caveman out.

Pat B

I'm the caveman. My mancave is the mountains. Google dislikes me so nobody can find my blog. I keep doing it though, because I want to remember all the great places I've been able to see and I have a bad memory.

Mt. Tenyo to Gongendake hike. Cloudy day in southern Yatsugatake

S'up, cavepeeps?

I had some caveguests this week.

Unusual, I know. Many people have mancaves for social purposes like watching sports or playing pool. I go to my mancave to get away from people.

Honestly, there are approximately 10 people on this planet that I would welcome into my mancave. (And there are approximately ten people on the planet that would want to remain friends after hiking with me once. I lose more friends on the trail than anywhere else. Nobody calls me up after our first hike and says, "Let's do that again.")

But I digress. As I was saying, some of the few people I'm willing to hike with came to Japan this week. We did some hiking in Yamanashi from Mt. Tenyo to Mt. Gongendake. It was a nice time to catch up with my relatives.

. . . about the southern end of Yatsugatake

Yatsugatake, as many know, is a range of mountains mostly in eastern Nagano that is about 30km long and runs from north to south. The southern end is higher and is characterized by more boulders whereas the northern end is a bit gentler and has more flora. Mt. Akadake, in the south, is the highest point in the Yatsugatake range at 2,899 meters. Most people access Akadake from the north, west or east and the mountains around Akadake on those sides are quite popular. For this hike, we went up to Gongendake, which is about 3 km to the south of Akadake in Yamanashi. This end of the Yatsugatake Range also is quite beautiful but is not as crowded because it is a long way to get to Akadake from here. Our hike started in Hokuto City, Yamanashi at the Mt. Tenyo Parking Lot.