Mt. Iwate-san

Somewhere in the midst of dealing with natural disasters (both in Japan--survived my first typhoon! and tuning in to news of the devastating hurricane in the States) I found a beautiful wkd for climbing Mt. Iwate--at 2038 Meters--this mountain near Morioka, was rumored to be more difficult/technical in some parts than MT FUJI!!! I found it to be quite doable personally, but to the untrained hiker (er, i fall into this category too!), Mt. Iwate is really nothing more than a steep hill in the middle of rice paddy fields. Here I am ready to start off on journey...may not look like much, but it proved to be an excellent workout!

Here is the park. Lots of green on this map---Iwate's grassy hillsides are so quaint! Very sound-of-music-esque. Here was the agenda:

1. We begin the ascent around 3:00 pm on Saturday afternoon. They figured between 3-8 hours depending on fitness/skill level---8 hours!? Come on people...

2. We would stay overnite at a small one room shack on the mountainside--only 100 meters from the summit.

3. We would awake at 3:00 AM to finish the ascent in time for the beautiful sunrise at the summit.

4. After snapping sunrise pics, we would head back down to ground level. Making this about a 15 hour endeavor!

Here is the lovely bunch of Iwate JETs packed and ready to sweat! ANd sweat indeed, it was a toasty day for a hike! I didn't complain much as I was the lightest packer (only 10 lbs of gear!). I also rationed my food and water perfectly--as I was even able to enjoy a nice snack down at the bottom...while waiting for everyone else to finish up! You can see that many people either missed the memo on NOT needing giant packs for a measly 2000 M hike, or these people got lost on the way to Mt Fuji. Packing lite was sheer genius.
Pretty easy to weed out who was serious about this climb. I took off, 2nd to Rick (guy in blue). We set a record pace..we were banking on somewhere around 3-4 hours, but we were clearly not giving ourselves enough credit! I ended up teaming up with this bunch of crazy hooligans for the ascent-their dialects make for an added challenge on the day. Nick (red hair) is fr Scotland (THE most indistinguishable English ever), Paul (in white tee) is from Ireland (his English is something of Gaelic or something...the hardest to discern among all Iwate JETs---sorry Paul!, and Mark (in black tee) is from Wash DC...no complaints! The group provided all the motivation and diversion necessary to enjoy this climb! Read on for final details on our times!

Need I say any more. Views like this were pretty motivating in and of themselves! This is actually taken somewhere on the descent, BUT I threw it on here, as it shows what the middle of the mountain looked like.

So I ended up being in the first group to reach the cabin/sleeper spot---- in just under 3 hours. I was also the 2nd person to finish the descent (in 1 hr 45 min! I was the first girl to finish in both categories as well--yep, truth hurts! Granola bars fr the States and some Japanese version of an energy bar--were all that I needed surge ahead!

This looks like something out of The Ring or Blair Witch--wish I could say that was the look I was going for, but nope--basically this one just didn't turn out! This should have looked A LOT cooler, but the extreme winds and sprinkles/fogwould made it difficult for the photographer. I think Paul took this shot, so I am blaming you buddy for not steadying those hands to capture this moment! Regardless, here I am at the summit-enjoying a beautiful sunrise!!!

This is one of the few shots that acutally turned out from the mountain peak. The wind died down and the fog and clouds magically cleared for a brief minute or two....which was all the reassurance we needed for doing the hike in the first place! It was a beautiful, albeit short-acting, sunrise but worth the hours and hours of complaining, cursing and calf cramps!

Melanie and I are in front of the mountainside cabin/shack we stayed the nite in. Not exactly full amentities or cocktail wet bar....this was a shack in the woods with THE most foul squatty potty I have ever used. Truth be told, we arrived at this cabin 2 full HOURS before anyone else reached it...so we had time to settle in and warm up. We finished before the huge rain/wind storm hit...unfortunately, many JETs were stuck in it and had to slug through pretty crappy conditions to make it to the Shack. Early bird gets the worm...

Damien and I actually look pretty good considering we are coping with hunger, thirst and exhaustion (only 4-5 hrs of sleep, followed by a few hours of hiking back down again!)

More of the same. Great pics wherever you look! Sigh--the monotony! This is my favorite pic as it shows the steepness of the trail. We really did scale this mountain! pic better than any other. Just gorgeous, as it shows the very steep part of the hill (made of volcanic ash chips--which give you absolute no leverage whilst walking. at times i was taking 6 inch steps..but even at a snail's pace--we were able to finish in record time!) Are we good or what!?Pictured below is the view from above the clouds!

So this picture is @ the summit. I am with my hiking pals---they were excellent coaches and motivators. Of course, I am sure the idea of getting "beat by a woman" was quite motivational for all men involved. Typical Anne, always pushing people just a wee bit outta their comfort zone!

So this is it: me @ the Summit! 2,038 Meters of gloriousness! What an amazing trip! Many laughs, many English conversations and many sore muscles tomorrow!