Tsurugi & Tateyama

Getting there:

From Tateyama station, take the cable car up to Bijo-daira, then the bus (timetables) to Murodo. This takes you the Hotel Tateyama, which also houses the cablecar to the Kurobe dam. The hotel website often has seasonal photographs which give some idea of conditions.

The route:

From the Hotel Tateyama, take the trail past the buildings (but remembering where the raicho onsen hot spring is for your return!) and head north-east across the jikoku-no-tani valley. You may find some of the routes are closed due to build up of toxic gas from the volcanic vents which litter the valley.

From the bottom of the valley it is an easy climb up to the Mount Bessan ridge via the Raicho Approach. There is a hut here (Tsurugi Gozen) which operates in summer, and the views are spectacular. There are two huts further on in the Tsurugi-zawa valley to the north, the Tsurugi hut and the Tsurugi-zawa hut. It takes little more than an hour to get to Bessan. From here you get your first views of the beautiful Tsurugi cone which awaits you.

You have the choice of either walking through the Tsurugi-zawa valley to the hut (the green route) or along the ridge to Tsurugi Gozen (red). The ridge is marked dangerous on the map, and although the route is not clear it is a relatively easy traverse. Either way, you come out on the south ridge above the Tsurugi-yama hut.

The route from here leads along the ridge and over Mae-Tsurugi. The northern side of this has a number of fixed chains, and features a steep descent at the bottom of which is a thin edge which leads to the bottom of Tsurugi proper.

The Tsurugi ascent itself is reasonably well marked (and is apparently very well traveled during the summer months). In busier seasons it is separated into an up-route and a down-route, with the up leading to the east and the down to the west. Both routes have fixed chains and guide markers in places, but these can easily be obscured by snow other debris - keep a sharp eye out, as a wrong turn can put you very quickly onto some precarious ledges with no hope of retracing your steps. After 100 meters of so, you top out onto a gentle slope leading to the summit. The climb from Bessan to Tsurugi took around 5 hours for me - on the downside I was going through thigh-high snow and digging out the fixed chains or rappelling, but on the upside there were no queues on the steeper sections..

Tsurugi is steep and made of crumbly granite. A helmet is advisable - I was under a near continuous hail of ice and pebbles for much of the climb to the summit, and I have heard stories of large rocks dashing down the slopes there. I also heard a number of rockslides on the nearby slopes and presume that the same thing happens on Tsurugi from time to time.

The view from the summit is indescribably beautiful. On a good day you will see the Sea of Japan to the north, the whole of the northern Alps (Shirouma, Karamatsu, Goryu and Kashima) to the east, the Tsurugi-zawa valley and beyond to Yakushi to the south.
I would also strongly recommend some sort of harness, both for confidence and for safety. Even just a simple long sling around the waist attached to a shorter sling and carabiner would make both the ascent and descent a lot more comfortable. Clipped into the fixed chains, you’ll feel a lot better (and will be able to leverage them to lean out and get a proper look at potential footholds).

The trek back to Bessan retraces your steps and through Tsurugi-zawa or along the Tsurugi-gozen ridge. Either way it will take around 4-5 hours, and the final climb back up to the Bessan ridge is a tough one at the end of a long day.

The final day leads from Bessan to the south-east along the Tateyama ridge, which comprises three three-thousand meter peaks. The trail is well marked, and while the elevation is quite high, the route itself poses relatively few problems. From the top on a good day you get good views of Mount Fuji and the southern/central Alps as well as the Kurobe dam in the valley to the east below. There are plenty of possible descent routes (both official and ad hoc) back to Murodo below should the weather turn or darkness descend - although given that it is less than a 5 hour walk from Bessan, the latter should not be a concern.

At the bottom of the ridge is the road back to Murodo, and the raicho onsen (Japanese highest hot spring!) that awaits you there. The hotel also has a number of places to eat, although be aware that these get very busy - you may be alone in the mountains, but there are huge numbers of tourists each day who come just to look at the mountains from afar.

Summary:

This is a great three day climb, but not for the faint-hearted and especially not out of season. However if you are confident in your abilities then out of season is a great time to go - you will have the place to yourself.

In season, I would recommend a simple harness and carabiner set and maybe a helmet. Out of season, you will need full gear - ice ice, rope, harness, carabs, slings and crampons. And a helmet for sure.