Kirara Mountain

Justin scared us with his announcement for this club hike: “Expect snowy and icy conditions. Proper hiking boots are necessary along with crampons, warm clothes, wet weather gear, water, lunch and towel.” The meeting time was also 7.10am! We were so glad that we did drag ourselves out of bed at 5.30 on a public holiday as the hike was phenomenal. Our guides were the sweetest two ladies. They have been walking in the Chubu Mountains for 40 years, are now retired and spend all their free time hiking. In short, they know the place like the backs of their hands including all the secret routes and little-known tracks. In addition to showing us a lovely quiet forest track up to the peak of Kirara mountain (in the Suzuka range), we were treated to freshly-brewed coffee en route and home-cooked soup at the top. What a treat! We have decided that on future hikes, we too will cook. We’ll start with a boil-in-the-bag up Nagiso-san.

Although there was a bit of snow, it turned out that we didn’t need crampons and wet weather gear. Glorious sun shone the whole day long. This meant that we never did get to see June (pronounced Yu-ne) use her ice pick axe and scary Norwegian crampons.

Enjoy the photos!