RANCH TO OKUSHA I was very sorry that I got up an hour later than planned. Picked him up at the bus stop near his home and left for Togakushi. Mt. Togakushi has two main entrance, one is Togakushi Okusha and the other is Togakushi cow ranch. As it would be helpful later, we dropped a car at the side of the gate of the ranch and walked through the camping site to Okusha for about 40 min.
We visited Okusha and prayed for safe and got started to climb it up. Soon we met a steep hill and cleared it then there appeard some of the dangerous points, called Chain spots. We took some breaks on our way to the most dangerous spot, Arino-Towatari.
ARINO-TOWATARI I have ever heard of it and it was true that it is the most dangerous, scary and challenging. Ito san had climbed this mountain several times so far so he was very good to pass it by. I followed him a dozen minutes behind. The weather was so fine that we could see the bottom of the cliffs in the both sides of the ridge as well as beutiful sceneries around the mountains. I tried not to look down the hill and walked a bit by bit like a waddling baby. It took more than 20 minutes untill I completed it. Then I felt very fine and knew I conquered it at last.
Some people say this spot is one of the most challenging spots in the mountains including Nothern Alps. I think so, too.
We reached Happou-Nirami and took a break. We enjoyed the amazing view there and saw Mt. Asama, Azumaya, Shiga ranges, Sekita ranges and Kurohime. It was a nice spot to take a picture.
SUMMIT TO SHELTER After 10 min walk we saw the summit of Mt. Togakushi and passed it by without any break because it doesn't have a peak and so not so good point. We took a quick lunch time on the way and walked on the long lined ridge for the north direction. There was a point of triangulation where it seemed to be the summit of Mt. Kuzuryu. About two hours later than we left Happo-Nirami, we got to Ichi-fudo evacuation shelter. We met a dozen people taking breaks there. It was a good shelter to take a rest.
KORI SHIMIZU SPRING You can go for Mt. Takatsuma from the location but we went down along the Oobora-zawa, a small river for the cow ranch we parked our car. After 10 minute walk we found a very nice and cold spring, called as Koori-shimizu. You can drink water there and it is so cold that you could freeze beer can.
From Ichi-fudo to the cow ranch it took more than an hour and there were several chain spots on the way.
SOBA SOFT CREAM Finally we got down to the cow ranch and saw a lot of cows as well as a lot of people walking and sight-seeing cows. Ito san baught me a soft cream and it was great for my exhausted stomach.
I think I would have stopped and gone back in the front of Arino-towatari. I appreciated Ito san inpired me a lot to proceed. It was a six hours and a half course and we left there around 3 pm for Nagano and had a drinking party we had planned.
Mt. Togakushi is one of Hokushin-Gogaku. But this one is relatively tough to climb notably on the most scary chain spot as well as Mt. Myoko. Finally I have climbed the four mountains of Hokushin-Gogaku and the rest is Mt. Myoko. I am now planning to climb it in this season.
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