Over the top

Defenitely the most memorable event of the past two weeks was climbing Tanigawa-Dake, a mountain-ridge north of Tokyo. In the Lonely Planet 'Hiking in Japan' guidebook it said that that climb should be done before the end of october, when the first snow starts to fall. Therefore, I wanted to go there as soon as possible, and because it seemed to be good weather on sunday 23 october, I decided to give it a try. An American girl who's also living in this dormitory and who also went to Mount Fuji with me was happy to accompany me again. Together we left the dormitory around 6.30 in the morning to take the train to Doai-guchi. Because we missed the fastest connection (maybe I should have packed my bag the day before ; ) we only arrived there around 11.30. We headed to the cablecar that would take us higher upon the mountain and when we arrived there it appeared to be packed with Japanese tourists. After standing in the line and taking the cablecar we could finally begin to climb to the first top. Tanigawa-dake is actually a ridge with several peaks. Most people just climb to the first top and then return to the cablecar, but the hike described in the guidebook would take us along the ridge over a few peaks and down to the next trainstation in the valley. It didn't seem that hard and after all: we had already climbed Mount Fuji, so how hard could it be? Getting to the first top wasn't that difficult. It took quite some time though and people coming down warned us that the last cablecar would descent at 17.00 o'clock. Since we weren't planning to go down through there we didn't really pay attention. It seemed to take about as much time to continue to the next station anyway, so it should be ok. When we were at the top, the strong wind filled the sky with clouds. If me and Jaime both had doubts about continueing, we didn't express them and therefore thought that the other one was sure about going on.
So we went on, through a mountain pass that became small, narrow and covered with snow. Instead of keeping on walking over the ridge easily we had to find our way around rocks, over peaks, through snow and along steep slopes. Because we were walking in the clouds we couldn't see much, and I could only guess how far the slopes went down on both sides of us. The nice weather of the midday in the valley had changed into a grey, cold, windy athmosphere that surrounded us at the high ridge. None of the peaks we climbed was higher than 1900 meters, considerable lower than the 3772 meter of Mount Fuji, but because this was much more to the north (close to Nikko) and a few weeks later than our climb of Fuji about seven centimeters of snow now covered the pathway. This made the climbing much more difficult and as the weather conditions worsened we became less and less sure about making it to the other station. Luckily there were some emergency huts where we could seek refuge. However, the first of those that we came across was more like a big half oil-drum with an entrance and no proper door. So we continued and after rain started falling we could only hope for a better emergency hut at the next peak. When we found it it appeared to be a big wooden cabin, much more comfortable than the half oil-drum. Since it had taken us quite some time to come this far and because of the weather we decided to spend the night there and continue the next morning. We had enough food and drinks with us, but the only protection against the cold was a blanket that was there at the cabin. However, it was much better being inside that dry cabin than outside on the cold, rainy mountain.
After the stormy night we continued. The rain had stopped and after a while the sun shone through the clouds. The rain had washed away most of the snow, so it was much easier to walk down now. It still took us three to four hours and once arrived at the station we had to wait two hours until the next train in the right direction. However, it was really nice to see that Japan also has small, deserted trainstations that can't be compared to Shinjuku, Shibuya or any metro/trainstation in Tokyo. We were really atthe countryside, but compared to the lonely mountain-tops even this little station felt hospitible and save - at least there was a vending machine where we could get hot cans of coffee! After the train finally came we still had to change three or four times before we got home maybe four hours later. We had missed all our classes of monday (for me that was just one, for Jaime that were three), our clothes were dirty, our shoes covered in mud and I had caught a cold but we had conquered another mountain, enjoyed (and suffered) nature and experienced an unforgettable adventure.