Climbing Mount Kinpu - Tama National Park
- September 11, 2005 (Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan)
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| I was invited to a hiking trip on September 11, and the invitation went like this: "We need 3 more hikers for the Sept. 11 hike to the summit of Kinpu-san in Yamanashi. The hike will start at 2360 m, climb for 2.5 hrs. to the summit at 2599m, then have a nice descent down to 1510 m. Total distance is 9.3km, hiking time is approx. 5.5 hours, mostly downhill. They don't come much easier than this, so if you've been kicking around the idea of going on a hiking trip, this is the one!". | To make the
hiking trip seem even more interesting, the invitation went on to say that "Kinpu-san
is one of the 100 famous / renowned / spectacular mountains
of
Japan, and the scenery is stunning". Let this be warning to you
all, do not make an attempt to climb Mount Kinpu! The picture to the top left is of fellow hiker Ben, who decided to take his picture with a random drunk foreigner sleeping at Shinjuku station. |
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| After getting up at an ungodly hour in the morning on a Sunday, we spent a fortune taking an express train from Shinjuku station to Enzan Station (JR Chuo Line). The weather report for the day was pretty decent, with little chance of rain and good potential for sunshine. Our hiking leader, Mark, is here approaching the first of the peaks we were to climb this day. | September 11, 2005, offers solid proof that Japanese weather forecasts can not be trusted. You would have to be either blind or severely retarded to miss the gigantic clouds that approached Mount Kinpu on this Sunday morning. It would soon become apparent to us that each of the clouds was carrying a rather significant portion of the Pacific Ocean. |
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| I have seen more beautiful views from my bathroom than I did during the six miserable hours we spent hiking around Kinpu-san. It was a beautiful day for anyone with a cloud fetish, the rest of us had to settle for the experience of hiking while being victimized by merciless forces of gigantic mega clouds. | After struggling in the rain for a couple of hours, we reached the top of Kinpu-san to find even more clouds. The rain was so heavy that you would feel drier swimming in a pool. There were no rain drops, but instead big buckets of rain falling from the sky and shaking the ground when crashing into either us or the mountain itself. |
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| I tried putting on my sunglasses to see if that would help improve the weather conditions. It turned out to be a poor idea, and the rain turned into hail for the few seconds that I dared to disrespect the misery that had fallen upon us. As you can see, the view from the top of Mount Kinpu does not fall into the breathtaking category. | The pictures on this page were all taken by my fellow hikers, who used waterproof cameras protected by gigantic plastic bags to take some pictures. We were able to take the above photos when the clouds took a quick break to regroup and to gather strength. Twenty seconds later, they were joined by new friends from the Pacific and tons of more rain. |
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| After climbing for about 6.5 hours, we went to a hot spring to relax for about 20 minutes. Then, we had to hurry back to Tokyo and I arrived home at about 10 PM at night. Oddly enough, everyone seemed to have enjoyed the hike as the misery was so complete in its perfection. We did not even experience a glimmer of hope or sunshine during the long hike, and this made for good teambuilding and certainly a hike that we will not forget easily (even if we try). | Writing this one week after the hike, I must still confess that I can feel pain in my knees. Tumbling down a mountain while wet and cold is not good on your knees, and your body will do its best to let you know never to do anything similar again. Now, if you ever decide to climb Mount Kinpu, do not say you have not been warned. The mountain and its axis of evil cloud friends are sure to be waiting for you. |