Oku-Shirane-san:
On the 13th of Septembre 2003, I FINALLY climbed Oku-Shirane-san! YATTA !
One
early, fabulous morning (5h00) I left for my conquest of the highest mountain
of Nikko National Park (2578m). This time, I went with a friend -Hello Carl!
You will notice that the sky is a little cloudy but don't worry. It clears out
a little later one.
Like the first time I tried the climb, I first climbed Mae-Shirane-san. Carl and I began around 7h30 and we arrived at the summit around 11h00 right in time for lunch. I don't know how we did it, but we took a different path from the first time I tried. It was a lot less hard physically. You have to admit that the sight is magnificient! There was "a little" wind, so we had to put something warmer one.
Here
is the summit of Mae-Shirane-san with Oku-shirane-san in the backdrop.
-At the same place, a few minutes later (Picture from Carl)--›
After with climbed Oku-shirane-san. This section of the hicking was a lot easier than I though! The clouds were low and we were constantly surrounded by a thick fog. A few minutes later we saw the blue skies! The landscape was fantastic. I told myself that it was well worth getting up early in the morning so as to have enough time for this climb.
Here
is both undeniable AND ireffutable proof that we succeeded in conquering the
mountaint. There was a lot of wind and if we had lost our footing we would have
fallen down into this valley.
Climbing
down was hard on the legs just like last time. We began by going down to Goshiki-numa
(the lake) and then climbing Goshiki-yama (the mountain).
You
can't deny that the sight from the summit of Goshiki-yama is impressive! We
were tired by this time, but happy. All in all the day had gone well up to this
point and we only had one last task ahead of us - going back down...
We
were finally going back to Yumoto-Onsen. The last time was really difficult
-more like hell on earth- on my legs. This is something that didn't change the
second time around. Some sections were muddy and slippery. Others were full
of huge rocks covered in green, slippery gunk.We were quite happy when we finally
arrived at the end of the path...around 17h30.
In conclusion, I say that if you are vacationing and have time, go hicking here because it's well worth it - include the "suffering" we endured.
