Many years before, in a younger and fitter incarnation, I had caught the 5.00am train from Otaru to Hirafu and hiked up to the summit, around the crater and back down with enough time to catch the train back in the early evening. This time, however, there were five of us with a car so we camped the previous night at the small site by the trailhead.
We were up early and on our way by 7.30. It turned out to be a lovely day, though the views were occasionally partially obscured by cloud below us. We pulled steadily up the long climb to the crater, and strolled around to the summit, purple flowers of iwaume adding splashes of colour among the rocks. It was an airy promenade with the crater dropping away on our right and the clouds and farmlands far below us on our left. It’s a popular mountain so there were other hikers around but it didn’t feel crowded.
After a bite of lunch we continued around the crater rim to where our return path dropped down, and began the long knee-jarring descent. Taking it steady we were back at the camp ground around 4.30pm, where we packed everything up before setting off to find a well-deserved onsen and some celebratory ramen.
4 thoughts on “Yotei-zan Hiking (Hirafu/Kutchan Route)”
I hiked this trail today, biking 13 km to the trailhead from the place I’m staying and then biking back once I was done (don’t recommend this, I was dead tired on the way back). Yotei-zan was absolutely gorgeous on a clear day! It was my first time doing such a long/tall hike, but I never felt unsafe and made it down tired but completely fine. The trail was maintained well enough, although is overgrown in some spots (especially if you go towards the mountain refuge hut from the 9th station) It was a fun trail to go up, a little less fun going down (I was tired). Make sure to bring enough water especially if it’s a hot day! I was able to get started hiking a little before 6:30 am, which made the journey up very nice (the temperature stayed somewhat in place as my elevation increase offset the day getting hotter throughout the morning), but it was very hot on the way down which I hadn’t fully accounted for. I wasn’t close to being dangerously dehydrated, but I did wish I had more water. There were other hikers around but it certainly wasn’t crowded. I haven’t done that many hikes, but this is my favorite one so far. I’m staying in the Niseko area so I’ll probably do the Niseko Range Tarn loop sometime soon.
It sounds like a great day out – I hope the bike ride back wasn’t uphill!
I’m planning to do this hike this fall, but I wanted to be on the top for sunrise. So is it okay/normal to hike late afternoon (with a headlamp), so that I get to the hut around 21:00? I kinda want to avoid hanging out in the hut for several hours in the hut just to avoid hiking in dark.
Hi Kyrre, it’s not ‘normal’ to arrive after dark, but if you’re accustomed to hiking in the dark, then no problem – there’s no particular set time that you have to arrive at the hut. Just note that the hut keeper may have gone to bed by then though, so try to find them in the morning some time to pay your hut fees. Hope your sunrise hunting goes well!