Climbing the Stone Hammer, Mt Ishizuchi 石鎚 Part 1
-=Takoyaki-King=-
The highest mountain in Shikoku, Japan Part 1
Mt. Ishizuch, (石鎚 ishizuchi) is the highest mountain in Shikoku and west of it. 石鎚 ishizuchi looks a little like a hammer and the name translates as stone hammer. The mountain is an old dead volcano and is 1982 meters tall. This one is in the top 100 mountains to climb in Japan.
You start the journey from the neighboring mountain and ride a gondola to the base of 石鎚 ishizuchi, from there you walk through a dense forest path that carves around winding trees, cliffs and jagged terrain. The hike its self is fairly comfortable and special equipment is not needed, but you will see many people with expensive equipment.
The whole are is founded by a mixture of Shinto and Buddhism so you will find a mixture of temples and shrines on the way up, both these religions seem to love putting their structures in difficult high places.
Many of the paths are maintained with wood and dirt but its mostly worn down track from walkers. Some parts are more difficult to traverse. You are able to walk up and down the whole mountain with these trails and sets of stairs.
The trail and stair route, however takes twice the time compared to climbing big heavy iron chains. These chains are laid vertically along rocky out crops, steep slopes and small cliffs.
Taking the chain route cuts the journey in half and makes for a more interesting experience. Some of the chains are hung on steeper slopes and slipping is not an options. There is more risk of injury than death on most of the chain routes but you will have to be pretty clumsy to get into an accident, so I wouldn't worry, as some of the local hikers are up to 80 years old.
the chains are heavy, weaker people may not be able to lift them very much, but they make good supports on climbing the difficult areas. So that's end of the first part of this post
Thanks for viewing, my posts are about the journey, the process and showing my experiences. Don't hesitate to ask questions. All the photos are mine and can be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/takoyaki_king/ Follow me if you interested in photography and travel.
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