2015-10-10　甲斐駒ケ岳-鳳凰三山縦走

Long hike to Kaikomagatake and Houousan.
Improvement of several personal records.
1) 4106m positive elevation change (about 1000m more than previous record)
2) 26:10 map time course done in 1 day (about 7h more than previous record)
3) longest time spent walking with 16:30 (about 1h20 more than previous record) or 63% of map time
4) earliest departure at 12:16 AM (not sure but how much I "improved" over last time)

Also I climbed Komagatake Kuroto-ridge in 4:38 vs 9:40 map time (or 48%). The sky was barely getting the first light about 45 minutes before sunrise when I reached the summit 30 minutes faster than expected. It was -3 degrees and within a few minutes my hands were starting to hurt.

In terms of scenery it was good but the weather was as forecast, that is cloudy past 7 AM. A bunch of clouds barred the view around sunrise and I was deprived of the expected spectacle (expected for I could see stars through the trees while I was walking in the forest and past the tree lines I could discern the shape of the summit below a myriad of stars) unfortunately the only few clouds were right where I didn't want them. About 20 minutes before sunrise I decided that sunrise was probably going to be disappointing due to the clouds and the pain in my fingers prompted immediate action so I left (with still hope to get some interesting view a bit lower but that didn't work as expected)

After 8 AM very high clouds conquered the skies, which became completely white.

I maintained a fast pace but the ridge after Komagatake presents a lot of rocky parts requiring scrambling and especially when going downhill it is impossible to hurry. One particularly slow section got me wondering if I could really make it in time for the bus (the trail disappeared and I had to wade my way through pines, with dense branches scratching at me above waist level.

About 10 minutes after Yakushidake the trail all the way to Yashajin is relatively boring, entirely in the forest and it was the most trying part mentally since there was nothing more to climb, just get to the bus stop in time.

In the end I ran down to the bus stop and got there at 4:46 PM, the last bus being 5:21 PM I had a comfortable margin (only due to the cloudy weather without which I would have taken much more pictures and wasted time)

Although I felt slight muscle pain in the thighs for 2 days, physically I felt I could do more, if was tougher mentally (a few times I wondered why I was inflicting all this on myself, 2 or 3 times I briefly contemplated the idea of just calling it a day and laying down inside a hut, which didn't make sense since the following day was rain and strong winds)