The Chuo Alps Pt. I: The Ascent

That's right, folks, it's another multi-post series! This will most likely be my format going forward, with each story having two or three different posts. I think this is probably the best way to tell the rest of my story as looking back, some of those tales that were kept to one post had so much story left untold. That being said, this week's post kicks off the saga of how three gaijin managed to conquer nearly three kilometers of mountain.

Despite my love of movies, music and books, I've always considered a part of myself an outdoorsman. I've always enjoyed hiking and nature walk and Japan's beautiful landscape provided just the spark to kick that interest up. Thankfully, another of my companions, Joe, was an equally avid nature-lover and wherever we went, we talked of the mountains in the area we'd like to try and climb. We'd hiked up the mountains in Ohdairajuku and climbed Arashiyama, better known as "Monkey Mountain" to the east of Kyoto. By the time we reached, Iida, our penchant for long hikes was well-known throughout the group and as our language skills developed, we were able to communicate our interest in mountain climbing to our host families.

Another friend of ours, Shawn, shared a host family for a time with Joe and unfortunately had to leave the program prematurely. If you remember, he also was one of the few who made the "best worst decision ever" and endured the Yamanobe no Michi, a 15 kilometer hike from Tenri to Nara. He clearly shared in our enthusiasm for mountains and long walks and so before he had to leave, Joe and Shawn's host family, the Nashidas, arranged for us to climb the Chuo Alps located north of Iida.

As luck would have it, my host mother was also
an avid hiker herself and although she couldn't join us for the climb, she was able to provide me with the proper gear for the mountains. Despite the fact we were climbing in the middle of summer, we were assured the mountain would be capped with snow and had to dress warm for the occasion. We met on a Saturday morning, complete with layers of long-sleeve shirts, backpacks full with extra clothes and supplies, and a handmade onigiri lunch prepared by my host mother the night before.

The first part of our trip consisted of a good portion of driving, actually. Joe and Shawn's host father drove us a few miles north of the city through winding mountain highways to reach a bus station that would carry us through the expansive foothills of the mountain range. The bus ride was a short one, but the elevation increased rapidly and we could feel a chill setting in outside. We arrived at a lift station that would carry us to the climbing station to begin our hike. Here we are just before setting off.

We started marching for a few hundred meters into the expanse pictured behind us and as we stopped to rest on some rocks, our host father informed us he would wait there for us to finish our climb as he could go no further. He told us this would happen at some point and so we agreed to meet him again in about two hours. A short while later we came to understand why he chose to stop there.

Not long after we parted, the climb turned to a set of stairs roughly hewn into the face of the mountain, complete with the occasional rope handrail and a very suspect bridge. This was obviously the most difficult part of our climb yet and we did have to take a few more breaks before we made it to the top. I will admit we were a bit embarrassed when some people in clearly better shape overtook us on one of these breathers. However, this did inspire us to finish climbing the stairs.

When we reached the top of the stairs we found the ridge opened up to a pretty wide field and some boulders had been arranged as benches to be used as a rest stop. Off in the distance, the fog obscured what we figured was the mountain's peak, based on some nearby signs. We decided this was a good point to eat our lunches as we recharged. We had used a good portion of our allotted time on the stairs and debated whether we could continue on to the summit or not. As we finished up the last of our onigiri, we felt sufficiently confident we could get to the peak and back if we were quick. After coming all this way, it felt like such a shame for us not to see what it looked like from the top, so we repacked our equipment and headed off into the fog.