Mt. Nantai

May 7

The night before we hiked Mt. Nantai there was a crazy storm with heavy rain and lightning, but we woke up to a rapidly clearing sky. A quick breakfast of tamago and croissants and we headed to the bus station outside our hotel. The round trip was 2300 yen each with another 500 yen donation to hike up the mountain itself, which is also a sacred site with a temple at the base.

The bus dropped us off right outside the temple and we headed in past the toilets and vending machine, registered as we paid our donation, picked up our good luck amulets, and headed through the first off many torii gates on the way to the top. The hike is about 8 miles round trip and 4000 feet elevation gain according to other blogs, which felt about right. The morning was cool, in the 60s, but the weather forecast for the summit was near freezing. We had 3L of water each and plenty of snacks, along with a few extra layers for up top. The hike was listed as "expert" due to the terrain. The first several stages were easy enough, with steps, a dirt path, and a stretch of asphalt road before we headed through a white torii gate and began the more strenuous portion of the ascent where we had to clamber over rough volcanic boulders for long stretches.

There were torii gates, shrines, and small huts all along the path, with a statue and large shrine at the summit. We were joined by maybe a dozen other hikers, mostly Japanese with two other lone Americans; it was not a busy day on the trail on a Tuesdays at the beginning of hiking season.

Tim had read that light crampons might be useful in early hiking season, which seemed excessive, but we were taken by surprise by the amount of snow on the trail. Given the rainstorm the night before and the freezing temperatures at the summit, there was a decent snowfall on the mountain that made stretches of the trail quite slick. There was also a lot of mud as the snow melted in the sun. One step forward, slide and fall down, hands in the snow. We got pretty jealous of one couple's crampons, and but most others had hiking poles that looked really handy. Lacking either we carefully sloshed through the snow and clambered over boulders before making it to the final stretch of red volcanic scree near the summit, hitting the final torii gate three hours after we started. It was easier to walk on the scree than the mud/snow, and that's saying something. 

Sliding action shot! Don't think I fell this time.

The views were fantastic, including nearby mountains and Lake Chuzenji. We pulled on all our gear but even then the wind was cold and biting, and after fifteen minutes of rest and a quick snack we hurried down to warmer weather in the forests below, our hands stinging from the cold.

The snow was just as slick on the way down, which was almost as slow as heading up. We finally finished around three in the afternoon and grabbed a delicious, hot (!) milk tea from the vending machine before catching the next bus into town.