Climbing Youtei San, 羊蹄山, 1898m.

It had been raining pretty much non stop since Thursday, I went to bed to the sound of rain, and I awoke to the same sound. Friday night it was clear and looked like it would stay clear for Saturday - the day Aleisha and I had decided to climb Youtei San, the local mountain right in our back garden, also known as Ezo Fuji because it's reminiscent of Fuji San.

As I had to work in the evening, an early start of 6.45am was required. We were on the track up the mountain just after 7.00. There were a few cars in a car park and people heading up to the mountain also, so we began going straight up on the Hangetsu-ko side of the mountain. This is the most direct route and therefore the steepest. There were 9 stations to the summit, each fairly nicely spaced out. The path was muddy, full of boulders and gravel. The path was pretty sheltered by all the shrubbery and trees. 

At the top was a different story, server winds that felt like they would blow us off the track, from about the eighth station the cloud cover started to come down. I couldn't see anything at the top, there were piles of rocks that looked like the top, top. In Japan there is usually a marked sign with the height and name of the mountain you've just climbed. In the end we found one that looked like the one, took our picture and headed back for the shelter of the undergrowth.

Going down was a hard and took as long as going up. My knees were in agony for most of the four hours down. But there was no other option, down was the only option. The muddier sections were a challenge, I was grabbing on to the roots and plants, anything that would help me balance as I negotiated my way down.

We got down about 3 o'clock, our total hike time was eight hours, we didn't take proper breaks, just little ones at each station. It cleared up in the afternoon and the lower part of the mountain was actually a pleasure to walk in the sunshine. The climb was comparable to the Fuji and Bandai San climbs I've done in Japan.

I was now in desperate need of an onsen, we took the taxi up the hill to J-First, and into the blissful warm water of the onsen that over looks the mountain I had just climbed. Having climbed it, I now have a new perceptive of the mountain I see everyday.

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Climbing Youtei San, 羊蹄山, 1898m.