A Better Second Day on Chogatake

This is part two of my first attempt at Chogatake! If you missed part 1, click here to read it first!

After a night of fitful sleep, I woke up around 4am because the sun was up and shining into the room. I could already hear the sound of the hut’s front door opening and closing as people rushed outside to watch the sunrise. Jessica and Hunter woke up a few minutes later, and after some quiet discussion, we decided to head outside as well. We missed all the beauty yesterday, we had to get something out of this trip! Shoes sloshing on our bare feet, we headed into the chilly morning.

In front of us, the Alps were slowly waking up.

Behind us, Azumino City was beginning to stir.

This moment right here made the whole trip worth it. We watched as the mountains slowly got brighter and the clouds lazily floated by before heading back inside.

Packing Up

Fully awake, Jessica, Jesse, Hunter, and I held a little meeting about our options. The original plan was to spend another night on Chogatake. However, our spirits were crushed and their tent was still soaking wet, so we decided to head down that day. There was still one big problem though. Our shoes were soaked through!

Cut to four very tired, sad-looking foreigners crowded around a kerosene heater holding our hiking boots haha. We dried them for about an hour and they were decent. They didn’t slosh anymore at least! We took a while to pack everything up, taking care to separate the wet from the not, before Hunter and I headed out to the campground to collect our tent. Luckily everything was still there, even the tent pad we’d dropped outside in the confusion the day before! A few of the guy lines had slipped off their rocks, but other than that… totally fine.

The Summit

Backpacks packed, we took a quick break on the summit (2677m) for breakfast. It was shaping up to be a scorcher of a day!

• In the first picture, the Karasawa Hyutte is visible! It’s at the bottom of the bowl.
• The second picture is the majestic Mt. Yari, the 5th tallest mountain in Japan.
• The third picture is the hutte with Mt. Yari visible in the back.
• The fourth is just a nice picture haha.

The Way Down

We started down, spirits high! We made much better time on the descent, but our pace definitely slowed as it got hotter. I was so so so happy when we finally walked out to Tokusawa. My feet were sore and blistered and my shoulders were killing me. While we were resting, we bought some vanilla ice cream. No joke, best ice cream I’ve ever eaten.

That night, we hit up an onsen in Matsumoto City before making our way back home. The hot waters relaxed our aching muscles — definitely a must after a hard hike!

Thinking back

Jessica and I already want to go back, just to prove to the mountain that we can do it haha. However, we definitely need to get in better shape before we go, or book a night in the hut so we don’t have to lug the tent and gear up! And maybe see about going up a different trail… We’ll also aim to go in a cooler month, like September or October, because July-August is just too dang hot. We’ll see what happens!