Following last week-end, you will find in this article all the practical information (mountain lodge, access…) regarding Myōkōzan (妙高山) and Hiuchiyama (火打山). General facts Myōkōzan, also called Echigofuji (越後富士), is a 2454m (8051 ft) high active stratovolcano located in the Niigata (新潟県) prefecture. Hiuchiyama stucked between Myōkōzan and Yakeyama (焼山) volcanoes is not a volcano [...]

Weather forecast was constantly changing last week-end to finally lean towards quite nice weather. Decided at the last minute, we went for a snow hike/snowshoe to Kurofuyama (黒斑山) facing Mount Asama (浅間山). The first part of the itinerary, which leads to Kurofuyama”s cliffs, was quite easy. Regularly walked by hikers the snow was packed and [...]

Following last snowshoeing week-end, you will find in this article all the practical information (mountain lodge, access…) regarding Mount Naeba (苗場山).

The fog is thick. It seems to come out of the ground to mix with the clouds. Everything is humid, the air, the ground, plants; everything is in perfect harmony. Plants have their routs in the water. The rocks, spread in the middle of the bog, covered by a water film are shinning. The water of this wetland plays with the mist to merge with it[...]

Following last hiking week-end, you will find in this article all the practical information (mountain lodge, access…) for hiking around Mount Asama.

The storm hits us, lightnings strike, thunder is loud, it rains cats aand dogs. It takes no more than a minute to get completely soaked…[...]

I let my friend organize this week-end’s 2 days hike. At first we were supposed to to the Kita-Hotakadake (南穂高岳) – Minami-Hotakadake (北穂高岳) traverse. As the weather forecast was bad for the two days of this diffcult hike, the plan was changed to Hiuchiyama (火打山) and Myōkōzan (妙高山) which is easier and were the weather forecast was at least all right on Sunday.

The past weeks with all the tragedies in Japan I was not in the mood to go climbing mountains. But last week-end the need to take a break and relax became too strong. With a friend we decided to go to Akadake (赤岳) in Yatsugatake (八ヶ岳) range, while snow conditions are still good[...]

Wow ! We have to climb that wall ?
That was my first reaction when we arrived at the top of Maehotaka (前武尊) and discovered Kawaba-Kengamine (川場剣ヶ峰) summit, the first and “most technical” summit we had to climb in our plan to traverse Jōshu-Hotakayama (上州武尊山). Not very difficult, I was not expecting that [...]

Although comfort and reception quality has improved over the past few years, spending a night in a mountain lodge in Japan is often an experience that you don’t want to repeat twice. Expensive (about 9000yens including dinner and breakfast), accommodation conditions are often simply unacceptable. Sometime dirty, food not always good they are often over-crowded. A lot of mountain lodges accept more reservations than they have space [...]