Up, down and all around (Mt Kurai and Mt Kaore)
Hike date September 8, 2026
Mt Kurai and Mt Kaore have been on my list all year but this was my last chance to visit with winter closing in on this region of heavy snow. These mountains are accessed from a ski resort in Takayama, Gifu prefecture. The trailhead is a 3-hour drive away so I suppose I should be grateful for the earthquake that woke me at 1AM and got me out of the house by 3. It was around freezing at the trailhead at 6:15, and I cursed myself for not visiting in a warmer season when I could have slept comfortably in my car.
With a trailhead at 900 metres and the summit of Kaore at little more than 1,600 you would have thought this would have been an easy walk. However, one of the things that had put me off coming this far was the sheer length and difficulty of the hike. Although there are no dangerous points, the hike involves more than 25 km of walking and the endless series of ups and downs along the trail mean you end up climbing over 1,700 metres.
The walk begins climbing up the side of the ski slope before heading into the forest where the melting ice had turned the trail into a bog. The autumn colours were superb but the path soon headed upwards into the thick forest. Parts of the boardwalk were treacherously slippery and I was forced to walk through the thick mud, which soon turned my boots and trousers into a mess. After a couple of hours, 5 kms and 600 metres of elevation gain I was standing on the summit of Mt Kurai with its numerous warnings of recent bear sightings. Undetered, I set off downwards along the undulating ridge line that reached a full 7.4 km to Mt Kaore. Unfortunately by this time the cloud had come in and I was doubting my sanity as the path headed up and down with none of the promised views. The notice board at the trailhead had called this a walk in the sky, but all I had was a walk in the clouds. At one point I seriously considered turning back home, but I had driven this far and continued onwards. The conditions worsened. As the day warmed, the fragments of ice in the trees began raining down and I was soon wet and cold. My gloves, shoes and trousers became soaked as I continued, with parts of the trail overgrown with thick, wet bamboo grass.
Still miracles do happen and my arrival at the summit coincided with the appearance of the sun. I was preparing to head down towards safety and warmth when the mist started to clear and mountains like Mt Ontake, Norikura and Haku began to appear out of the clouds like ships on the sea. Despite all the hardships and the long, hard walk I really felt like the luckiest guy on earth. I only met five other people in the whole of the nine hours I was hiking.
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