The first time I did the Motoyama Route was one early spring, at the tail end of April as the Golden Week holidays started. The summer trail was still under a meter or more of snow, but it was firm enough to walk on without needing snowshoes and relatively easy going. Enough people had been up to leave clear tracks to mark the way, though as the weather was perfect it was simple enough to follow the ridge up while enjoying the amazing views. Only at the top did we begin to occasionally break through the snow where it loosely covered the creeping pine bushes.
At the summit another climber was listening to his radio (it’s quite common for hikers to play radios to keep bears away). By chance, I just caught a brief news item about a Spanish solo hiker who had been rescued by helicopter from the central Daisetsuzan mountains after getting lost attempting a traverse. My ears pricked up since the very same guy had contacted me a few weeks before asking for information. Not knowing his skills and experience (and not having done it myself in winter) I had just mentioned that it was still proper winter up there at this time of year and potentially a serious undertaking, but I never heard back. It turned out that he had got lost but was able to inform his family, who then contacted the Spanish Embassy who in turn alerted mountain rescue. I just hope they didn’t present him with a large bill ……
My next trip up the Motoyama Route was in late autumn. This time it was harder going thanks to some early snow that had since melted but turned the trail into a muddy and slippery ordeal over the tangled roots of the sasa bamboo up on the broad ridge. As the sasa grows above head height on both sides of the trail, we didn’t even have any views to uplift the spirits so we slogged on up to the summit ridge. Here, though, perfect weather treated us again to the panorama of peaks near and far. After negotiating the sasa trail once again on the descent we enjoyed some late autumn colours as we dropped back down to the trailhead.
5 thoughts on “Muine-yama Dayhike (Motoyama Route)”
NOTE!! The Motoyama Route was almost impassible as of mid-Oct. 2024. Six of the seven kilometers are fine, but there’s a 1km stretch north of the junction with the Usubetsu Route where we were swimming in sasa with almost no sign of a trail. We met a man who had turned back. We pushed through and made it to the junction and then the summit, but allow at least an extra half hour up and an extra half hour down. We almost lost the trail a few times, and in some places the sasa covers sudden drops. I imagine that this section is even worse in midsummer. Do not attempt this route unless you have an intrepid group, extra time, and top-notch map-fu.
Hikers from the Usubetsu Route noted that it was also in poor shape, but we can’t imagine it could be as bad as our bushwhack on the Motoyama Route.
This is one of the finest mountains in Sapporo for autumn colors, but Mid-October was two or three weeks late.
Thank you for the timely update Mike! I’ll add this as a note to the post.
You’re very welcome. Keep up the great work!
Thanks Mike. That section was bad enough even when it was maintained. It’s a popular objective so I’m surprised it has been allowed to deteriorate to that extent.
Sure thing, Rick. It looks like they’ve been maintaining most of this route. We saw sasa cuts that looked only a couple of years old. Maybe they’ll get to this last section eventually.