Climbing the sacred mountain

Flick and I have been talking about climbing Hakusan (White Mountain) in Ishikawa for months and months. Every time we plan to go we find that we're either too busy or that the weather is just too bad. Finally though, we had our chance this week - after a quick check of the weather we found that Tuesday would be an ideal time to go - and probably our last chance before we leave Japan on the 27th. I took some time off work and set the alarm for 4.30am, ready for the long drive to the mountain.

Hakusan is one of the three holiest mountains in Japan, along with Tateyama (3,015m) in Toyama prefecture and Mount Fuji (3,776m), which of course means that thousands and thousands of people climb it every year. We were a little bit worried that we might face a re-run of the dreadful queuing that occurred towards the top of Mount Fuji - hundreds of people caught in a slow, cold, soul-destroying shuffle towards the summit. Luckily though, we encountered very few hikers on the way up - going on a weekday definitely has its advantages. Plus the official climbing season doesn't begin until this weekend, so I think that helped us to miss the big crowds.

I'm so, so glad we were able to climb Hakusan before we left Japan - the view from the top was easily worth the aches and pains the next day! If you get a chance to climb it you should definitely go... and if you're feeling a bit more adventurous, why not try scaling all 20 of the highest peaks in Japan - click here to see the list.

What am I going to do without all these mountains back in the UK? No more snowboarding, no more climbing... That's it, I'm moving to Switzerland.

I loved this bridge at the start of the trail - very Indiana Jones.

Unfortunately, this was the view of the river underneath the bridge - terrible isn't it? The entire stretch of river had been dammed and channelled into concrete waterfalls. It looked bloody awful.

We encountered our first large pockets of snow at about 1,800 metres. It was so strange to see snow on such a hot summer day (it was about 27 degrees C at the bottom of the mountain). By the way, check out my awesome new hat - it's going to see me round South America next month.

This was a bit scary, as you can see from the look on Flick's face. The path crossed this snow-covered gully, which dropped down for around 100 metres on the left side. One slip and...

At around 2,400 metres there was an eerie, mist-shrouded plateau, covered in undulating ice and snow. It looked a little bit like a haunted sea. Creepy.

We were really surprised to find this massive hotel complex just below the summit - not exactly what you'd expect to see 2,600 metres up in the air, especially since there was hardly any sign of life on the way up. It was a little dis-heartening to spend 4 hours struggling up a mountain only to discover a comfortable, heated hotel lounge with a restaurant and post office annex - kind of takes the adventure out of climbing, don't you think?

It was overcast all morning and afternoon, and we were really worried that we'd reach the top and not be able to see a thing. Amazingly though, just as we were nearing the summit all the clouds cleared away to reveal some stunning mountain views. Then, just after we began our descent the clouds came back again - we were so lucky to get shots like this.

Here's me looking wistful and manly at the summit. The view was fantastic - you could easily make out the coastline of Ishikawa, and you could even see rain falling on the Japan sea.

And of course, no mountain in Japan is complete without a shrine at the top, especially one as holy as Hakusan. Look closely and you can just about make out Flick flashing some peace our way.

Flick celebrates reaching the summit. Yay! We did it! Of course, it took another 4 hours to get down...