Mt. IIzuna

Thursday or Friday I often check the weather forecast. The forecast said it would be fine at the weekend so I decided to climb Mt. IIzuna, March 22.

Around 8:30 I got to the entry of the mountain, 'Ichino-torii enchi'. I found only two cars in the parking area beside a 'Torii' of IIzuna temple.

There was still some snow there and I wore crampons and got started to climb. When it is the season of snow you can go up straight along with the mountain ridge. It shortens the time a little. Still it need more than two hours walk up. This season snow is rather hard to walk easily, however I got trapped with my leg into snow to the knee several times. I really thought snowshoes would help on such conditions.

When I went up along the path, I met a couple of people. At last I got to the summit of Mt. IIzuna. It was a very fine day and no clouds in the sky. Only a man standing there I found. He told me he was staying there more than an hour because it was so fine that he didn't want to go down.

It was really fine and so beautiful day that I could see 360-degree view including North Alps, Myoko, Hiuchi, Sado island, Shiga-kogens, Azumaya, Asama, Tateshina, Utsukushi-gahara and Mt. Fuji! I heard later that you rarely see Mt. Fuji from the summit of IIzuna. What a wonderful view! I was so lucky.

I had my face badly sun-burned and it was so painful in a few days later.

Near lunch time there gathered many climbers, about twenty people. I unhopefully decided to leave there before they started to go down.

Mt. Motodori in Mure (744.5m)

Mt. Motodori is located in Hiraide district, Mure, IIzuna town. It is not so tough to climb. I went there in the middle of March and had some snow on the way along the path to the top of it. It will take a half an hour or plus if no snow.

On the top it looks like a crater and has a wide plain area. At the center of crater there is a shed and you can find 'a note' under it. People should leave a diary or memo on it. I wrote some comment of course.

From there you can see some part of Nagano city and Mt. Kosha-san between trees in the northern direction.

I believe you can enjoy sakura flowers there in April. It must be very good place to see sakura and have lunch.

Mt. Hijiri (1,447m)

There was still much snow around Mt. Hijiri although we didn't have it in the city of Nagno at the biggining of March.

I wore crampons on my shoes and started to climb. You will actually need snowshoes or wa-kanjiki to climb hills in this season. Snowshoes must be better. But I don't have each now yet.

I could find some traces someone left maybe a couple of days ago. It helped very much. If not, I should quit proceeding. But I fell a leg into snow sometimes.

It took about an hour to the summit. At last I was very happy there and saw very good view. I enjoyed 360-degree veiw from there. Mt. Myoko, IIzuna, Azumaya-san, Mt.Asama, Tateshina and North Alps. The weather was very good.

You will see the lifts and some skiiers nearby as there is a ski site and you can come to the top by using the lift, to tell the truth. However, I believe you never ride on such machines in order to be satisfied to see this beautiful scenery.

I recommend you to bring lunch boxes and spend a fun day off with your family there.