Tuesday, Oct 6
Today was another incredibly difficult day of hiking, just in a much different way than yesterday. We didn’t go nearly as far (just 9km/5.6mi) OR do any real ascent (we actually went down 300 feet during the day), but the hike was a lot of up (3,200 feet) and down (3,500 feet) over very difficult terrain. There were lots of chains and ladders and countless places where one false step could send you tumbling down hundreds of feet. We were on top of a ridgeline at 8,000 to 10,000 feet for the entire day. Yesterday’s hike was an endurance test. Today’s was a mental test.
The day started off innocently enough. The first few hours were lots of up and down, but nothing all that “technical” – no chains or ladders and I actually used my (bent) hiking poles most of the way. We went over several tall mountains on this part of the trail: Obami-Dake (3101m/10,173ft), Naka Dake (3084m/10,118ft) and Minami Dake (3032m/9948ft). This seemed pretty hard, but it was nothing compared to what lied ahead. We stopped at the hut just past Minami Dake for a quick break. I actually did this hike with less water than I normally carry because I knew I would be able to get more along the way. The huts will sell you a liter of water for 200 yen (~$2). Worth the cost to keep that weight off my back.
After our break, we headed out onto the Daikiretto. This was the start of the difficult part of the day. Lots of up and down, but this time you needed chains and ladders to get over a lot of it. There were plenty of places where the drop off right next to the trail was several hundred feet. You definitely did not want to miss a step here. Unfortunately, about halfway through, I started to feel a little bit nauseous. At first, Eric suggested I might be suffering from altitude sickness, but I didn’t think that made sense since we have been up at this elevation for 18 hours. Then, I realized I was really hot and perhaps overheating. Sure enough, I removed a layer of clothing, felt much better within a few minutes and was fine for the rest of the day. I guess I need to learn to better regulate my temperature when I’m hiking.
Back to the hike. The Daikiretto ends at a hut just before the summit of Mt. Kitahotake-Dake (3106m/10,190ft). We took another break here, had some lunch and I bought another liter of water. We all celebrated making it across the famed Daikiretto. I had read several online accounts about the Daikiretto. All of them made it sound quite challenging and dangerous. It was. You definitely wanted to pay attention to the “Os” (for OK) and “Xs” (for don’t go here) painted on the rocks. Some of the accounts I had read talked about a third marker, but none of us saw a skull and crossbones.
We were feeling pretty good about ourselves as we left this hut. We thought the hard stuff was behind us. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. If anything, the next stretch of trail was even more difficult than what we had just done. More ladders. More chains. More steep drop offs. Didn’t want to miss a step. I actually decided to try something different over this stretch: I tried not to use the chains. Eric had been talking about how he had not used the chains yet and I thought I would give it a try. It actually worked really well, perhaps better than using the chains. There were plenty of good handholds that didn’t move the way the chains did (especially when there was more than one person using a chain). I made it through the rest of the day really only touching the chains once.
Overall, I felt really good about the way I got through the difficult, more technical stuff on today’s hike. I won’t claim that I am “good” at this, but I am certainly better now than when I started. I really enjoyed the challenge and exhilaration of it and hope that I will make opportunities to do more things like this when I get home.
Having said all of that, this hike (and the one yesterday) really beat me up. There were at least two times when we all thought the hut we were staying at was just over the next peak – and it wasn’t. When it finally did appear and it was just one last (non-technical) downhill stretch, I slowed way down and just pushed through to the finish.
Was all of this worth it? Absolutely. The views were stunning. Being up on a ridgeline, there was amazing scenery in all directions. I particularly liked looking back towards Yari and thinking “Wow. We just did that. We were all standing on the top of that really pointed mountain less than 24 hours ago.” Amazing.
Not quite as amazing, but still pretty impressive was the hut just below Hotaka-Dake that we stayed in tonight. Like the one last night, it had TV and internet. There was also a library where we had dinner and a common area with a word burning stove. Beer for sale, which we enjoyed in the common room after dinner. The bathroom even has flush toilets with heated seats! To top it off, we are the only ones staying here tonight even though it has room for over 200. What a great place – and all for only 9,000 yen (~$100) per person, the same cost as all of the huts nearby.
One final comment about today: dinner was great. Good food, perhaps because it was more “Americanized” than many of the other places we’ve been. Large portions which was really nice after two long days of hiking. All of that was nice, but the real star of tonight’s dinner was the sunset. There was a layer of clouds both above and below us so the sun set in between. Stunning. Even the hut staff was outside watching so it must have been better than normal. A great way to end a long day of hiking.
But the day wasn’t over yet. As we were sitting around enjoying our tall boys after dinner, one of the guys on the hut staff who just happened to be an American from Utica, NY told us they would turn on the TV at 6:50 so we could see the weather and then they would play a 30 minute video showing all of the trails that lead up to this hut. The weather looks bad – Typhoon Melor is going to strike Japan sometime tomorrow. Could be an interesting day of hiking. The video showing the trails nearby was really neat and gave us one last chance to marvel at the hike we had just done.
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