2014-05-17 妙義山縦走

Day hike to Myogi-san

We pitched the tents at Michi no eki, it is just at the foot of the mountain and so quite convenient. The drawback is that there is a lot of traffic and it is very noisy.
From there one can see the sunrise, however the only few clouds there were turned out to be in the alignment with the sun and it ruined my pictures...

We started walking before 6:00 AM and it was already warm. At first there is nothing much to say about the trail: dense forest and zero view, then we passed a well decorated temple and after a while we reached 大の字 where we had a plunging view towards the parking lot.

From there I put on my helmet and we quickly reached the chain area (actually there are numerous chains almost everywhere). The whole mountain results of volcanic activity and appears to be made of a single bloc with lots of footholds everywhere. At parts the slope exceeds 80 degrees and chains are beneficial. All chains are solidly anchored in the rock and reliable.

We passed several summit and globally had a good view towards most directions, sometimes with vantage points towards the peaks we passed or those we were about to pass. We had a unobstructed view to the South and a few clouds to the North which occluded the summit of Asamayama. Some snow covered mountains also appeared in the background.

When we got to a particularly steep downhill stretch of about 20 to 25m we seized the opportunity to practice rappel. Another party was there using only the chains and some of them were not wearing helmets and were afraid of going down... it says everywhere that this trail requires both experience and endurance so why do such people go in spite of their weakness? Unfathomable.

We then took a trail with ropes going down towards a normal trail. There we met a lot of tourists. We took the longer trail to go down to the parking lot. It had more chains and passed through 3 giant natural arches made of rocks. Each was over 50m high and impressive. About that time I ran out of water and blamed myself for taking just 3L... shortly after we reached the parking lot where the second party had brought the car.

We then went to an onsen that had a 200 yen discount until the end of the month, and it just cost 310 yen. Cheap but of good quality.

Overall it was a short technical hike providing numerous vantage points with vertiginous plunging views and great sceneries in all directions. A great experience but not suitable for people with vertigo or lacking strength or unfamiliar with rock scrambling.

More pictures here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t0u544cmdhe8125/AACIrXLJgl4i_GMn3H4tZwm_a