Yotei

---

Last yasumi (day off) we climbed to the top of Yotei-san with Martin, a kiwi mate from work...

The weather was looking good, but we hadn't seen the top of Yotei clearly for a good month prior, and have only seen it a handful of times since.

Our preparation consisted of zero physical training but maximum food organisation. The night before, we put together some oishie onigiri - bacon, capsicum, caramelised onion, salami and egg all wrapped up in tasty Japanese rice and squished to within an inch of its little riceball life to make a compact little package of deliciousness. Then, we ensured there was plenty of chocky stuffed into the pack in between litres of mizu.

The climb up took about 3.5 hours. We had a stunning day for it and stopped often for mizu breaks and to admire the scenery. Once at the top we were gobsmacked by the 360 degree views with absolute clarity. We could see for miles, three coastlines, Lake Toya-ko to the south, Sapporo to the east, down the end of the peninsula to Hakodate and all the little towns at the foot of the volcano.

Mt Yotei, (Yotei-san) is a dormant strato-volcano, 1898m high. It's Japanese nickname is Ezo-Fuji, because of it's resemblance to the Honshu landmark. We spent about 2 hours just lazily walking around the crater at the top & enjoying our pre-made feast! The trek down left us with screaming muscles for two days after, but nothing that couldn't be soothed by a local onsen...

---

Photos

Yoteisan in April
This is what Yotei looked like when we first arrived in Hirafu, mid April.

Yoteisan in June
This is what Yotei looked like the day that we trekked to the top.

Crater Kids
Taken just after we made it to the top...

Crater
Still sooo much snow in the middle of Summer!

Hirafu
This is our village (center of pic). Our house is at the very bottom right of the cluster of houses.

Kutchan to Iwanai
The larger town immediately behind us is Kutchan, (imagine Albury) with Iwanai on the coast (imagine Altona 1985).

Comments

[Sparky]

Sweet!
I visited Niseko (first time i'd been there in the summer months) with a friend in August. We climbed Yotei-san, but during the night we spent in the hut up there, the tale end of a typhoon came in and forced us back down through the mist. You must've been running if it took 3.5 hours to climb!