Geri was in Hokkaido for a bit, staying in Furano, and I’d been wanting an excuse for a while to go for a hike to take some photos of the brand new Kamihorokamettoku Hut. Completely rebuilt in 2022, the hut promised to be a huge improvement over the previous leaky, rusty, rickety old hut.
So it happened that Haidee, Geri and I went for a hike to the hut, via Kamifurano-dake.
The day we did the hike, the parking lot was heaving with hikers. We had to park on the side of the road. just down from the parking lot.
We’d been to this trailhead a number of times in the past both in winter and summer, so once we were all geared up, we started the familiar hike up towards the Ansei Crater Valley.
With good visibility, the valley ahead of us stood out sharp and clear. This valley above Tokachidake Onsen really must be one of Hokkaido’s most dramatic scenes.
We crossed the dry volcanic stream, and carried on up the Furano-dake trail, which was, as usual, rocky in places. Geri entertained us with her stories of life in the UK since leaving Hokkaido.
We made good time up the Furano-dake trail portion o the hike, and soon made it to the Kmihoro Junction. Here, we took a left, towards the east, so that we’d climb straight up the central ridge to direct to the Kamifurano-dake summit.
We’d hiked this trail previously with Geri, but it was part of a Furano-dake to Kamifurano-dake loop, so we’d only ever hiked down the trail. Hiking it again reminded us of the hard work that had, years gone by, gone into forming a useable trail up the mountainside – the wooded steps were quite impressive, if not rather dilapidated and washed out.
The views across to the steaming Maetokachi-dake were impressive. Large plumes of sulphur gas wafted up into the sky.
The climb continued, and conditions underfoot continued to become more sandy and volcano-like. We finally caught up with Sam, a friend of a friend who was slowly making his way up to Kamihorokamettoku Hut for the night, hefting up lots of camera gear. He looked to be in good spirits.
Not far from the summit, we crossed a narrow part of the central ridge, with incredible rocky backdrops and still amazing views of the Ansei Crater Valley.
The summit arrived quickly after that. Group photo was in order. The last time we’d all been up on Kamifurano-dake was on the Daisetsuzan Grand Traverse.
On this trip, however, Kamifurnao-dake was not the main objective. The Kamihorokamettoku Hut was. So we carried on another one hour return, plus half an hour at the hut. It was great to see the new hut up close. The interior still smelled like fresh pine. It was a really nicely built hut.
The return back to the trailhead at Tokachidake Onsen was straight forward. Great views, and it was great to spend a good solid amount of time with Geri before she left back the UK.
