Location: North 37.12494, East 139.96307 (GPS at the summit)
Difficulty: YDS class 1,
Climbed August 16. 2016.
Information:
How to get there:
Locate the Tohoku Express Way running north from Tokyo, about 65 kilometer
inland, near the Shinkhansen railroad line. Exit left (north) in Nasushiobara onto
Hwy. 17. Follow signs for Mount Nasu and drive uphill to the end of the road where you
find a large (free) parking area. Park here, this is the trailhead, location
N37.12843, E139.97557, elevation about 1465 meter.
Route description:
The trail starts to the right hand side of the parking area when facing uphill.
Follow the nicely made trail as it gently climbs into the valley having Nasu (1915) up
on your left and the interesting looking Asahi (1896) up on the right hand side.
You will soon reach a broad col with a small hut, location N37.13065, E139.96219, elevation
1725 meter. Turn left and follow a good trail to the summit. Comments:
After completing our trip to the Japanese ultra prominent mountains, we had several
"reserve days" before our flight back to Norway. We decided to stay three days in the
city of Mito, north of Tokyo and do some sightseeing as well as a possible extra climb.
While Pål Jørgen stayed behind in Mito, Geir Åge and I drove up north-west
to climb this prominent peak as well as visiting the nearby Mount Nasu (also called Chausu), that
is featured on the list called "100 famous Japanese mountains".
We left Mito shortly after 0600 and were parked at the trailhead before 0800. The information
sign told that the hike to Sanbonyari
would take a bit more than 3 hours.
We left at 0800, made the first col in 30 minutes and enjoyed the good weather and the nice trail
across to Sanbonyari, arriving there at 0930. A few people were already there, we had also seen
some hikers along the trail, but overall, this trail had fewer people than the last
couple of peaks we had visited. We rested until 0940, walked back the same way, but included
a short side-trip to the 1896 meter summit of Mount Asahi.
From the col with the small hut, we then started a short
and pleasant ascent of Mount Nasu.
We were on this summit at 1110, another 1:30 since leaving Sanbonyari. This summit was quite
a bit more crowded, people may
take a rope-way gondola more than half-way up the mountain, then
ascend the final stretch.
This mountain smells sulphur, in fact the
gas is leaking out far down on the oppsite slope.
The last eruption was as recent as in 1963.
Leaving at 1130, we walked around the small crater,
then descended back down to the col and onwards down the valley to the trailhead, arriving there
at 1215.
