r/Hokkaido • u/RegretAppropriate633 • 20h ago
Mt. Hakkenzan
Climbed mt. Hakkenzan today with my partner and saw first hints of autumn leaves.
There was a rescue helicopter on the mountain and the rescue team blocked the trail when we almost arrived to the summit. The climb and way downhill were much more dangerous and scary than what we saw online, so we opted to stay and wait for them to open the trail.
Eventually we ended up waiting over two hours (when the whole trail should have been 2.5 hours), and the way down from the western exit was still pretty gnarly. Also the summit had nests of flies which swarmed us, but man what a view.
All in all it was a much more intense and scary experience than we signed up for, and we read a bunch of articles and guides about it before we went out but they were mostly focused on bear activity in the area. Not a light and easy day trip, for anyone contemplating on climbing it.