Ontake San: The trek

Hike date 23rd and 24th July 2005.

Ontake Mountain (3067 meters). 35.53°N/137.28°E, Japan.
Active Valcano, Last erupted 1979.

6:49AM : Took the train from Hirooka Station, Sanjay joined me at Shiojiri.
7:37AM : Reached Kiso-Fukushima.
7:50AM : Took a Bus to Ontake Sancho
9:20AM : Reached Ontake Sancho

9:30AM : Started trekking

Ontake San happens to be a very holy mountain, one can find pilgrims dressed in white climbing the mountain.

9:45AM : After trekking for 15 minutes I bumped into a group of piligrims who were offering their prayers, only to realize that I hit a dead end. We took the wrong trail, walked downhill and reached the parking area.

10:00AM : It was pretty cloudy to figure out where the mountain stands. Now I bid farewell to my intuitive abilities and used the little left over commonsense to figureout a map and head straight.

The trail was quite wide and flat for the initial 30 miutes of the climb. Latter it got narrow, rocky and steep.
Some how my stamina sounded all time low. I was resting every 10-15 minutes. The climb to the peak was suppose to take between 2.5 to 3.5 hours. Sanjay was oozing with energy and soon I lost sight of him. I started trekking at my own phase.

1:10PM : It was quite an ordeal when I reached the 2937 meter mark where the first mountain hut stands. I rested for a while and started my way up, still Sanjay was not in line of sight.

1:40PM : Now it turned out to be much steeper and I dropped the plan of heading any further. I squatted on the rocks, to find a gentleman who cushioned himself to slumber. Shortly I met Sanjay who already made it to the peak, I was having some food when a wave of sulphur smell swept, thats when I took notice of the hissing geysers.

2:10PM : I was a dead man walking when I reached the shrine. I was pleasantly surprised to find a sparrow strutting at that altitude.

2:30PM : We planned to climb down and reach the base to take the last bus, we met a lady who works in the mountain hut who spoke decent english and she visited India some 10 yrs back to trek the Himalayas. She advised us that it would be rather difficult to make it to the base in time for the last bus. But we decided to take our chances.

2:45PM: A 15 minute walk downhill and I was feeling dizzy and took the final call of hanging out at the hut for the night.

3:15PM: We reached the mountain hut and logged in. It was costing some ~7000Yen per night including dinner and breakfast. Sanjay and myself being vegetarians, we had to bargain for some veg-stuff.

4:30PM: It was the usual Japanese dinner time, but we deferred ours for 7:00PM and I took a shot nap.

6:40PM: I had severe convolutions and an upchuck bettered me for the rest of the day.

7:00PM: I had a paltry dinner and got into bed by 8:00PM. We were sharing the floor with some 50 pilgrims and trekkers.

Next Day

4:20AM: A slight commotion woke me up, to realize that they are up to watch the early morning sunrise from the top.

4:45AM: Soon I grabbed my camera and waded out of the hut. It was pretty cold. Shot some candid shots of the Sunrise for Ontake-san.

5:30AM: The morning breakfast got some life into me.

6:30AM: We had a posed in for some shots and started hiking down. At 7:15AM I took the first break and by 8:00AM we were at the bus terminal.

8:25AM: The bus was scheduled to arrive at 9:20AM so I strolled around the adjacent Tanohara National Park. Groups of Nature photographers wandered around.

10:50AM: We were at Kiso Fukushima station and took the 11:28AM train to Shiojiri. Slightly after Noon I was home.

Over all it was an experience unique in its own way.

Trekking : Mount Fuji 20030813

Mount Fuji (3776 meters) the tallest mountain in Japan. Japanese suffix mountain names with Yama/Dake(mountain) but Mt Fuji is called Fuji-san with reverence. The 5000Yen currency notes carry Fuji-sans Image.

In 2002 Nov when I first visited Japan and was travelling by the Shinkansen( bullet train) from Tokyo to Osaka, my Japanese colleague exclaimed "look look ..thats fuji-san". "A snow clad symmetrical ice-cone, looks interesting" is all I said to myself.

I clicked it when my horizontal velocity was 290Kmph.

As the Japanese adage goes "He who does't climb mount fuji even once is a fool and he who climbs it twice is also a fool", so we a batch of 6 not-so-seasoned trekkers were all set to figure out the truth behind the adage. We surfed the www for maps,tips,warning and after a couple of reschedules because of bad weather, finally waved the green flag. Our "Chelo Kuch Karte hey man" Sahu-san set out a plan : we will start trekking from Fuji-sans 5th station at 7PM and be there at the summit by early morning 3/4AM so that we can look at the sunrise from the summit.

(marked in RED "THIS POINT" is 5th station)

August 13th 2003

I left early in the morning to hike around fuji-san only to join the team which was scheduled to arrive at 4PM. I reached Kawaguchiko at 9AM took a bus and started hiking around. I couldnt figure where fuji-san is, just wondered "how come this Mountain vanish all of a sudden , or is it that I landed in the wrong place", I check my guide book and I was on track. I went around some interesting places "Zero degree Ice cave", and "Bat Cave"(will post on this later ) along the hiking trail. I returned to Kawaguchiko station to join the team. On seeing the team I thought they changed their plans and are on a lookout for a discotheque. We had a cool photo-session, had some soba/buck-wheat noodles and then took a bus to the 5th station. As the bus started gaining altitude we still had no clue of fuji-san. My daylong hiking left me with little glucose in my body so I was soon into a snoring session. We reached the 5th station at 6:30PM.

5th Station (2305 meters)

(from left : Deepu, myself, Sahu, Mahesh, Ganesh, Aditya)

Fooled around for a while : Some of the guys bought some sticks for 1000Yen to assist them in climbing. I purchased half a kilo of dry fruits for the trekking,logically I have no idea why I did this,anyway, before I reached the summit the covers went empty. We started our ascent from 5th station,we passed the 6th station after 40 minutes or so and then the trail was going zig-zag, I wanted to try some shortcuts but feared a fall. After some 60 minutes we realxed for 10mintes and started off. Well our Rambo(Ganesh-san) was doing fine at the moment, I guess his ultimate goal in climing fuji-san was to mail across those snaps to his fiancee (still trying hard to impress).

7th station (2700 meters)

We sensed that the winds started getting colder and colder and it started drizzling slightly. Once we reached the 7th station all of us unpacked our 100Yen raincoats. None having a clue how bad the weather can go just in a matter of few minutes.[ Each of these so called stations are nothing but small huts, one can relax/sleep for a while(at a cost) and buy some noodles or drink. A drink which would cost some 100Yen at the foot hill will end up expensive by some 500Yen. ] We could see large guided groups climing along, almost all of them looked very well prepared. we looked real shoddy with our 100Yen raincoats.

8th station (3250 meters)

Before we could reach 8th station the rain intensified, I was feeling the pinch. I no longer needed to take my water bottle, the heavens were generous enough. Well Rambo started to trail behind and was reluctant to moveahead. Mr Stamina(Deepu) coupled him and was literally dragging him. I was totally lost,could hardly make out where I am going, even my flash light couldnt penetrate more than a couple of feet, I just had to bank on my other senses, crawling around.My glasses slipped out and was luck to trace it. We reached 8th station and it was a great relief, we had a option to turn back as this was a point where there was the last descent trail. At 3250meters the air was going thinner and thinner. Some started feeling dizzy.

Had no clue of what the clock was ticking. We started our onward journey. All I knew from here was that I was literally crawling up the mountain rather than climbing for the next 500meters. I was just cursing myself why the hell did I plan to climb this inanimate piece of rock. Ganesh was pleading deepu to stop the ascent. Everyone were literally shivering.

9th station (3761 meters)

Finally between 2AM-3AM we reached the Summit hut(3761meters). The hut was crowded we managed to find some room. Most of our rain coats turned into rags. We bought some hot tea for 600Yen each to keep ourselfs warm. The hut owner told us that the temperature out there was -15degree centigrade. None had the energy to talk, so all went bang into a sleep. When we woke up after an hour, we were told that its going to get much worst. So we moved out of the hut.

Summit

We then took oneof the most priced snap at the summit. Right behind us was the crater which we could barely view. I wished that the descent would be a cakewake, instead it turned to be : Jack and Jill rolling down the hill only that I didnt break my crown. The descent was never ending. I slipped on the slippery volcanic rocks umpteen number of times. With my hope of reaching the 5th station looking bleak, I took my DSC and shot myself so that people can see my last animate facial experssion once my soul reaches the heaven/hell. The rocks were getting into my shoes. No one utters a word,everyone seem to be conserving their energy.

Descending trail

All my senses went numb for the rest of the day. All I could recollect is that we took a bus to the kawaguchiko station from 5th station and then reached home by some train. It took me 24hrs to reach out for the phone, call my mom and tell her that I am safe.

Finally we never understood the first part of the adage but for sure the second part "he who climbs fuji-san for the second time should be a real fool", only time will tell where I fit.