Mount Hakusan : 8,864 ft, one of Japan’s three holy mountains, tallest peak west of the Japanese Alps
My friend Rosie and I had been casually chatting about making a trip to the nearby Hakusan National Park to climb Mt. Haku. She sent a text to a Japanese speaking friend of hers to call the lodge and see if they had any availability, and in a moment’s notice we went from casually considering this trip to her friend saying she’d booked us a room in two days.
Our departure approached quickly without either of us putting much thought into what we were about to take on. At about 10:00 the night before we were leaving, I decided it would probably be a good idea to look up what exactly I needed to bring and what this hike was going to be like. We woke up at the crack of dawn the next day, hopped in my car and started our trip to the mountain. It rained the whole drive there, and the river to which we drove parallel was absolutely raging; so much so that I was feeling quite nervous about the high water levels and the amount of water gushing onto the road.
We arrived at the Ichinose Visitor Center where we struggled through the language barrier enough to determine there was one other person hiking the mountain in the rainy weather and there are indeed bears. Great.
We hopped back in the car to drive to Bettodeai parking area where we could leave my car for the two days we would be on the mountain. We were pleasantly surprised to pull into the parking lot and see at least ten other people getting their gear together to begin their ascent.
The hike began abruptly with steep stairs heading into the trees, signaling to us that we were indeed climbing a mountain. By the time we made it to the first bathroom hut we were drenched with what could have been rain and just as easily could have been sweat. We took out the map and convinced ourselves we had made incredible time and were almost to the halfway point. We were far from correct.
After a few more hours of hiking, we made it to a couple of small buildings and some benches sitting outside and figured this must be the second hut where we’d decided we would break for lunch. At this point we were actually halfway and the steep incline had us feeling some type of way. We plopped down, confused as to why the group we had been leapfrogging with since the beginning wasn’t also here, and dug into our food. We rested and eventually decided we ought to get back to it. We got up and walked about three minutes and saw the nice building where we were supposed to have eaten lunch. We stuck our heads inside and saw the folks who were hiking alongside us, enjoying lunch inside a warm comfortable looking area.
We kept on, breathing heavily, sweating steadily, and enjoying views of exclusively fog. Despite the less than ideal conditions, we were actually have a blast, telling stories of our short time in Japan as well as sharing tales from our lives at home. Rosie has a fear of heights, so I found myself chuckling as we walked along paths with steep drop offs to one side, and I’d look behind me to see her with a hand to her face, covering her view of the cliffs.
After about four hours we made it to the Murodo center where we were staying the night with plans to wake up early and see the sunrise from the summit. We took off our boots, set down our bags, and settled into clean clothes. After about ten minutes of relaxing, we decided to check the weather for the morning and were delighted to see a forecast of thunderstorms from 4:00-8:00 am. The exact time we would need to be hiking to the summit to see the sun come up. Though my knowledge of the outdoors is small compared to others, I am knowledgeable enough to know that one should not plan to summit a mountain during a thunderstorm. From our comfy beds about forty minutes from the top, we decided we did not get this far to not touch the summit, and with that we threw our dirty clothes, packs, and boots back on and started the march up. Our small break gave my legs just enough time to get nice and sore, so the forty minute push to the summit was not quite as cheerful as other moments during the hike.
We made it to the summit and, after a day of hiking in the fog, were amazed to be able to have a spectacular view. There was a beautiful shrine on the top, as well as a 360 degree view of the mountains surrounding us. We had a snack on the summit and had a good long laugh at ourselves for essentially our whole plan being thrown out the window, then we headed back down.
Though we set our alarms for 3:45 am to potentially hike up to the summit again to see the sunrise, when it went off I saw lightning flashing outside of the window. We went back to sleep and arose a few hours later to have breakfast and hike back down the mountain. We finished our two day excursion with a trip to an onsen to relieve our sore muscles. Our trip up Mt. Hakusan was less than ideal circumstances with constant rain and heavy fog, but it was nevertheless an amazing experience, and hopefully my first of many opportunities to summit peaks in Japan.
Noodles with Nicki 