Shirouma-dake to Ogisawa is a four day circuit along the mountains near Hakuba.
25-Sep
Bob, our host from Hakuba Ski Condos kindly gave us a lift to the start at Sarukura. From here it’s a long 1700m climb up to the huts at Hakuba-sanso. The trail is OK but relentless. Took us about 5 hours for the climb. On the way we passed Hakuba-jiri-goya hut. The crew here were dismantling the hut for winter. It has been crushed by the snow load a couple of times, so they dismantle it each year.
We set up the tent in the clouds that had been lifting all afternoon. Didn’t look too promising for views from the top. We headed up to the summit of Shirouma-dake (2932m) anyway and got one of the most spectacular views and sunset ever.
The clouds had lifted and a wind had sprung up, so very cold night.
26-Sep
Up bright and early, well 7am. Nearly everyone else had already gone😒. We headed south over Yara-Ga-take (not the same as the mountain near Kamikochi) more great views.
From Yara-Ga-take the track heads along the ridge for a few km. Then the notes said “steep 300m drop”. What it should have said was almost vertical face, covered with loose shale, chains and narrow ledges. Basic rock climbing needed. It was beyond us, so rather than end up stuck half way down, or worse, we turned back.
Instead we camped at Tengu-diara hut. Which is most of the way back to the track out via Yari-Onsen. Another cold night with low cloud.
27-Sep
The cloud disappeared around 2am and the wind swung around. We could smell the sulphur from the onsen which was kms away. Dried the tent out and set us up for a great sunrise. Didn’t even have to get out of the tent😁.
As usual we were the last to leave 😜
The other 6 or so campers had packed up their wet tents and were long gone. We waited till the tent was dry and slept in 😇.
The track back to Hakuba is a long rocky descent. We had to drop 1700m just to get back to the road. Very slow going, less than 1km/hr. About 1/3 of the way down is Yari Onsen. A hut and open air onsen in a spectacular gorge.
Lots of the trees on the way down had started to change colour for autumn. More of a show for Pauline as I’m colour blind🤔.
All up it took us about 6 hours for the descent. Waiting at the end was an enterprising local taxi driver. We had picked a day to come back when the buses don’t run and he knew it. So a taxi ride later we arrived back at Hakuba. Tomorrow is a rest day so the legs can recover.