2013-03-09 檜洞丸

Short hike to Hinokiboramaru

The hike starts from Nishi Tanzawa Shizen Kyoshitsu (ride the 7:20 bus from Shinmatsuda station). Even though some snow remained and I was planning for a snow hike, the weather was extremely warm with no less than 12 degrees even at 1600m, and 20 degrees at 600m.

After 400m on the road make a right turn towards a small stream, the trail soon leads towards the ridge. The following 1.3 km follows a very easy trail with very little slopes. After reaching Gora sawa deai the trail gets steeper but without any technical difficulty.

All of a sudden we heard a loud noise, a darkish mammals running down the mountain slope. A wild boar was my first guess but it was a bit too dark and less massive. It stopped about 100m away from us on the other side of the valley. It was too far for a clear shot but after some research I found it was a Japanese sorrow (also known as Nihon Kamoshika) something I've never seen.

After reaching about 1000m in altitude small stretches of ice were to be seen more and more frequently. The sudden rise in temperature over the past week was not enough to make all the snow melt, especially the small portions of the trail which are on the North side of the ridge and sheltered from the sun for the best part of the day had quite a lot of ice. However crampons were not necessary and the other few hikers we met didn't have crampons either.

The trail remains relatively steep until the junction, 100m lower than the summit. There are a few chains which could be considered as decorations more than anything else. On the upper part the view towards Fuji and Asegamaru expands further and keeps that way on the last stretch to the summit. There are also quite a lot of wooden stairs and a wooden path on this part, the only stairs of the whole trail but not such a nuisance compared to those made of rocks. The snow piled up on the side of the wooden path and a some points it was nearing 50cm.

Since we walked quite slowly due to the icy stretches and because we took a lot of pictures under a cloudless sky, we reached the summit after 3.5 hours.

For the way down we took another trail, where we encountered nobody. One of my "not so popular" trails as I like those. For about 2km the trail is almost level but the amount of snow makes progress slow at times. Then the trail becomes completely different with very steep stretches along rocky slopes. Although technically easy it could prove dangerous due to the multitude of rocks that are just begging to fall down and waiting for the careless hiker to give the initial momentum by stepping inadvertently on them.

At one point we reached a relatively wide patch of grass almost level with an open view on the mountains of the South East, the view actually drew us closer although it was a few meters away from the trail which was there bounded by ropes at knee level. It was only when I passed it on the side that I realized the mountain had collapsed just a few meters further in a cliff-like pattern. A massive tree on the edge of the cliff had part of its roots hanging in the air, which proves that a landslide may have occurred not so long ago. This place could be fatal in case of heavy fog or snow storm.

The trail remains quite steep until reaching another stream, at this point we have to keep on the same side of it and the narrow eroded trail on the side of the riverbed could mislead hikers to cross the stream … and probably get lost.

The final few hundred meters are through an easy path which leads to the bus stop (written with a kanji I cannot read)

Overall this hike offers great views. The way up is technically simple unless when covered in ice. The way down is much less used and rock falls present a certain risk for inexperienced hikers.

More pictures here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2defguwskoy99rs/rIrl5VYSXQ?m