Report
Jo and I booked a last minute trip to Japan and wanted to make the most of our time there. We saw that unfortunately, it was typhoon season and so we opted to head to the northern island, Hokkaido. We spent a fun few days driving around and exploring, but one of the crowns of the trip was the trek in Daisetsuzan National Park to the highest peak on the island, Asahidake.
We slept in the nearest town we could and got to the base first thing in the morning. I can’t remember how much we paid for the gondola but it was a nice luxury to have gain some easy elevation. It’s a straight shot to the summit from the gondola station, we joined the train of other tourists, put our heads down and marched our way up there. It was cool to see the steam from the thermal vents on the way up. The whole national park, and region in general are all volcanic: steamy vents, hot springs, hot pots.
We made it to the summit. Enjoyed our summit drinks and envied other hikes snacking on Jo’s favorite, inari. We didn’t have a nailed down plan when we got up there, but given how good we felt, we decided to continue the trek to do a loop back down to the station. After a steep descent off the crater, we continued along the ridge hitting a few more peaks. It was a beautiful hike, with awesome views of craters and Japanese tundra, some of which had started to turn autumn colors.
After a few miles we got off the ridge and started back down towards the gondola station. We made a fun pit stop at a hot spring along the trail in which hikers would soak their feet. It was a super hot little pool. We had our soak, ate some lunch and continued on our way. The rest of hike went fine, it could have been a mile shorter, but overall it was a top 10 hike in my book and a sweet summit to add the the list.
Photos
Stats
| Elevation | Prominence | Mileage | Vertical Gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7516 | 7516 | 7.87 | 3163 |
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