August 1987
| With Sue and Nicholas away on holiday in the U.K.
I decided to do Yarigatake via the Kamikochi Valley route. Leaving
Tokyo on Friday evening I drove to Matsumoto, stopping for a prawn
pizza before carrying on to Shinshimajima. I slept for a few hours
on a futon in the back of the car, and got up around 5 a.m. on the
Saturday morning to catch the 5-35 a.m. bus in to the Kamikochi
valley. It was a beautiful day and by 7 a.m. I was on my way up
the valley past Tokuzawa and on to Yokoo. The approach to Yari is
really long, and the valley seems to go on and on. |
First glimpse of Yarigatake
Looking back down the valley
Yarigadake Peak, 3,180m
Yarigatake Sanso
Climbing Yari Peak using iron ladders
Yarigadake Peak
| Yari has a spectacular shape, but it is not until
you have been walking for nearly six hours that you get your first
glimpse of the peak. The last part of the climb is tough, and after
about seven hours walking I reached Yari Lodge. This is a really
big lodge nestled on the side of Mt. Yari itself, and must sleep over
1,000 people when full. From the lodge it is a 30-minute climb to
the top of Yari, but it is fairly steep and requires the use of
chains and metal spikes in the rock. Since so many people climb
Yari it is organised so that you go up one route and down another
i.e. a one-way system! |
Yarigadake Sanso
Ghostly Yarigadake Peak
| I had a restless night in the lodge in my sleeping
bag, tossing and turning becoming successively boiling hot and then
shivering. After a while I got up to find the toilet, which was
a Japanese style hole-in-the-floor and was pretty primitive. With
a torch on my head miners-style I had a dilemma as I was as sick
as a dog and had terrible diarrhorea. After half an hour I staggered
back to my sleeping bag feeling pretty wrotten. At this stage I
seriously thought that they would have to send a helicopter to get
me off the mountain, and having no climbing companions on this trip
I was not feeling very happy about the situation! As morning arrived
I was feeling a bit better and some Japanese climbers kindly gave
me some medicine which helped. It had been my plan to go along the
ridge to Kitahodaka and to make a 3-day trip of it, and whilst I
did go as far as Minamidake I decided to go back down and return
to Tokyo. I have not had a prawn pizza since that day!! |
Route away from Yarigadake towards
Kitahodaka
|
