Range: Myogi (妙義山）Mountain: Mt. Hakuun (白雲山）
Highest peak: Somadake (相馬岳) 1,104m
Myogi-san is a versatile mountain range, which can offer simple nature walks, to challenging mountain hikes, and expert level rock climbing to Mt Hakuun's Somadake peak and Mt Kondo's two peaks. Just make sure you know which route you're on & don't be overconfident in your own skill here!
I was warned about this mountain by several friends and experts alike. Although only 1,104m at its highest point, this mountain is possibly the most deceptive, treacherous and dangerous course I've ever been on. That said, there are safer, alternative routes to the top that don't involve hanging for dear life onto a chain above a deadly drop.
Live to battle another day - My first failed attempt to Myogi's Somadake Summit
In the late spring of 2018, I decided to challenge myself on this prominent mountain. Having conquered other challenges such as Mount Kita, I thought it was prepared for little ol' Myogi-san. I was wrong...
To quickly sum up this fail, the first part of the hike went well until I reached a small shrine about 75 minutes up the trail. The path ended and all that remained was a 80 degree wall with a long chain dangling down it beside a tall tree. After seeing another hiker grapple his way upwards, I did my best to muster up the confidence to begin the climb, but only about 2 meters up, my sweat towel fell out of my pocket causing me to climb back down. Already exhausted from the surprisingly hot spring weather, at this point I realized I was a bit out of my league, and decided it would be wise to retire for the day and rethink my strategy. When I reached the base of the mountain, I found a detailed climbing map, and saw there was a slightly safer course to the top for next time. Still, I felt a bit ashamed for backing down...
The first summit to Somadake
About two months later, my friend Sneha joined me on this challenge. We arrived in the early morning at JR Matsuida station, and took about a 15 minute taxi to the entrance of Myogi Shrine. We could feel the steep incline as soon as we passed under that first tori gate. We climbed a steep flight of stairs to reach Myogi shrine. From there, we veered off to the right, and that's where the hike began. The course already started off steep, and the incline only increased the closer we got to the top. A bit further up the hill we arrived at the first chain rope. This wall was steep, but it was nothing but a preview compared to the expert course. Once we reached the top of this hill, we were beside the 大 "big" kanji sign. If you think you're ready for the expert course, reaching this sign is your first trial. If it seems too difficult or scary, its best to take a more safe route. As neither of us had any climbing harnesses or rock climbing experience, we planned to take the steep but less dangerous route to the top. However, one big obstacle was in our way...
Crossing a landslide
About half a year before our climb, a typhoon triggered a landslide which knocked out about 4 meters of the trail. Unfortunately the hiking map we had wasn't updated for this, and the only other paths to the top was the dangerous rock climbing path or to start from the other side of the mountain (which would take us about 5 hours to get back to where we were). I had brought a pick axe with me and after thinking over our options, and seeing a Japanese hiker go across it with no accident, we decided to test out the narrow, sandy ledge. I went first. It took a lot of focus and caution, but thankfully I made it to the edge without any incident. Next was Sneha's turn. She slowly and carefully walked one foot in front of the other, gripping her right side into the sandy mountainside. As she made her way across, another Japanese hiker saw us crossing the ledge in the distance. She was only a step away from my arm's reach when suddenly he yelled out in a panicked voice, "危ない！危ない！ダメ！(Dangerous! Dangerous! No good)!" Of course, yelling something is dangerous to the person WHILE they are doing it can do nothing but cause that person to lose focus and make a mistake --- and thats exactly what happened. Sneha looked behind, reacting to the loud panicked voice, and lost her footing. She suddenly slid down the side of the hill but was saved by an odd tree root that caught onto her pant leg. This incident caused the panicked man to scream louder, whom I was ready to throw my pick axe at, but instead I stepped back onto the ledge, stabbing the axe into the ground, and lowered my hiking pole towards Sneha. She was able to grab ahold of it, and pull herself upwards and back to secure ground. Minus a ripped pant legging, Sneha was miraculously unharmed.
Steep, but secure
We gave ourselves several minutes to catch our breaths. Now we had made it across the most dangerous road, we could begin our ascent up the steep "Taruwaki-zawa" course (タルワキ沢 ). Still pumped full of adrenaline from the near-fall, everything that came after seemed easy. Make no mistake, this path was still quite a workout, but in comparison to what came before, it felt like a walk in the park. About an hour and a half later, we had reached the top of Myogi-san's Somadake peak. After a few victory photos, we slowly made our way back down, this time taking a different exit, and ended up somewhere along route 196. We eventually reached a nice hot spring, which was a good reward after such a challenging hike.
Alone on the expert route
Despite all the perils during my last hike, I had the need to challenge myself on the expert course and finish what I started on my first attempt. This time - I came better prepared.
In the summer of 2019, there were two things I had bought while visiting Canada. The first was a set of crampons for some extreme winter hiking, and the other was a sturdy harness and carabiner set, which I bought specifically so I could tackle this mountain without risking my life. It wasn't until the early April of 2020, that I finally attempted this climb. Tokyo had not yet declared the first state of emergency, and so I cautiously travelled back to Matsuida station, with mask, gloves, and bottle of hand sanitizer. I made my way back to the entrance and spared no time moving up the mountain. I quickly reached the "big" kanji again, and tested out my gear. The edge of the sign was atop above a big drop, but with a gorgeous view of the area below. This was nothing compared to what was to come.
About 30 minutes later, I had made my way back to the shrine and chain wall. (奥に院）According to the map, it seemed that this was the biggest challenge of the mountain. I carefully made my way up the wall, hooking up the carabiner to the long chain that was securely bolted into the rock face. I was especially nervous here, as there had been a fatal incident only 6 months prior.
The wall on Okunoin
Eventually, I had reached the top of the wall, and no longer needed the harness. I continued onward until I reached another small chain rope. This one I was able to scale up without much challenge. From there, I got a small break from chains and ropes. There was a nice viewpoint on the edge of the cliff. As I pushed myself further to the top, the width of the path began to narrow significantly and the drops below started to grow more sharp.
After walking along the top of the mountain ridge for a few minutes, I quickly reached a cliff where the path just seemed to end. To my left was another chain up about a two metre "Bibiri rock". （ビビリ岩）I didn't seem like much of a challenge, but I decided to not take any chances and put my harness back on. It was a good thing I did - the chain continued over the top of the rock, and moved diagonally across the exposed cliff, with more than a 500m drop below it. If I slipped here, it would be the end of me. I pulled the chain hard, making sure it was still bolted in tightly. As long as I had my harness, I was relatively safe, but as I was moving diagonally, I had to reach from left to right to move the carabiner into the new position. This took a while. Although I'm sure I was only on that cliff for no more than three minutes, it felt like an eternity to me. Knowing I still had a long treacherous route ahead, there was a part of me that wanted to just go back, but now I was in the thick of it.
The viewpoint above Okunoin, the dangerous diagonal climb along Bibiri Rock.
I pushed forward up until I reached a long narrow column, called the "dorsal fin rock" (背びれ岩) which is like climbing vertically up the razor edge of a knife (or the back of a shark fin as the name implies). There is only one word of advice here - don't look down... or left, or right. So, I just focused on my hand & feet position and that was it.
Climbing upwards on the dorsal fin (背ビレ岩）
From the top of the dorsal fin rock, I had to make my way across another chain rope ledge, and then down another steep rock cliff. "When will these chains end?" I wondered. Because I was incredibly careful every step of the way not to slip, the hike was taking much longer than expected. Also, I had passed by one hiker several hours before and didn't see another soul on the mountain for the rest of the day. I was completely alone on the top of one of Japan's most ruthless mountain faces. Still, step by step, hook by hook, I made it off the last chain. My upper body was completely exhausted and shaking from hanging on to dear life for several hours, and yet I had more to go.
Thankfully from this point onwards, there were no more chains, and I reached the summit of Somadake alive and well. But, it was already 3:30pm, and I still had a long way down and absolutely did not want to be caught on this mountain in the dark. I quickly moved down the Taruwaki-zawa course that Sneha and I took 2 years prior. Thankfully within that time, a giant ladder pathway had been built over that landslide, so it was just a straight path back down.
I reached the bottom fairly quickly, and made it back to the station right before the sun had set. As I waited for the train, I had never felt more happy to be standing on solid ground.
The May 2022 attempt
I went again in Spring of 2022, to introduce one of my friends to the challenge of "kusariba" climbing. However, despite the weather being good that day, the previous day was heavy rain, making the course and rocks very slippery. We also took a bit too long to reach the Okunoin wall, so we made a safe choice to turn back. Still, we had a fun journey and took an extended intermediate course down, taking some nice pictures at the Dai-no-ji sign.
October 2022 summit
I wanted to test out a new selfie stick invention for an upcoming movie project with a more challenging hike. Since the alps were a bit too far (and expensive) for a weekend journey, I retook the course on Myogi. I think next time I want to try the other side of the mountain. The helmet camera worked well, but I think it would work better with a full 360 degree camera. Click here to see the video.
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