Taking the Rough Trail on Mount Ishizuchi

What?
Mount Ishizuchi (石鎚山) is a 1982m high mountain, making it the tallest point in western Japan. It is listed as one of Japan’s 100 famous mountains, as well as one of Japan’s Seven Holy Mountains. I’m not sure why it is sacred, but it will most definitely have something to do with Kukai’s training and pilgrimage. There are several routes up to the top, all of them which converge at a point before Ishizuchi’s famed chains – three sections of steep rocky vertical climbs of 33m, 65m and 68m long (they can be skipped though by short detours). Most people venture on either return trips from the Joju Cable Car Station (石鎚登山ロープウェイ山頂成就駅) or from the Tsuchigoya Hut (土小屋). We however decided for a climb starting a little east of the lower cable car station, from Nishinokawa (西之川), passing through a lush forest and the huge Tenchuseki Rock (天柱石) on to the top.
Where?
Located in Ehime Prefecture (愛媛県) on Shikoku Island, the mountain is fairly difficult to access by public transportation despite its popularity. If I’m not mistaken, there are 4 daily buses from Iyo-Saijo Station (伊予西条駅) to the Ishizuchi Cable Car and no buses at all to the Tsuchigoya Hut trailhead. We however opted for the easier choice, which is just to take a car.
URL
Visit Ehime Japan Ishizuchi Mountain Range Official Website Travel Japan

Let me start this entry with a few referencing flashbacks.
A few years ago, after I got hold of my driver’s license, the genius idea for my first solo driving trip was to go to the island of Shikoku and its impossible small roads.
One of the main goals was to climb Mount Ishizuchi, however after breaking my finger in the nearby Omogo Gorge I went kayaking instead. I have no regrets about that first driving trip, but Mount Ishizuchi has always been in the back of my head.
Another time I went to visit the smallest of main islands, was when my Belgian friend decided to return to Europe and we had a kind of goodbye hike on Mount Miune. Pretty similar to that, again another Belgian buddy has decided to return home, but before he did, we decided to do a final climb. In Shikoku. Towards the top of Mount Ishizuchi.
Ok, enough flashbacks.

Mount Ishizuchi is quite a popular mountain, so to avoid a too big of a crowd, we decided to climb it on a Friday. The weather was absolutely great: comfortably warm, no wind, few clouds. So we departed from our local hotel early in the morning and started climbing.
We chose for the approach from Nishinokawa through Tenchuseki (labeled as “rough trail”) because unlike my trip up Mount Akita-Komagatake, I wanted to have a real climbing experience. I deliberately kept the pace quite slow as I didn’t want to burn the engine too soon – we had 1600m of vertical walking to do.

I am happy for that choice. The trail did have some rough patches, in the sense that the climbing was occasionally steep, or in the sense that the trail sometimes wasn’t all that clear (although if you kept eyes on the pink ribbons, it wasn’t too difficult to keep track of the route). For my buddy – whose legs are still young and could keep a quick pace – the roughness of the route was something entirely different: the myriad of rickety bridges along the way. I thought they were a hoot, although one or two of these bridges did seem ready to retire rather sooner than later. One of them was half tied to trees on both banks of a small river with ropes seemingly affixed by a toddler, another existed of three beams of which only the center one didn’t move. Some bridges already gave away and were just built over by new ones – maybe it wasn’t important whether the new bridge was firmly fixed in place.
I loved each and every one of these bridges though. It’s a small thrill – not to be compared to for example the chains and ladders at the Yatsubuchi-no-taki trail – but a thrill nonetheless.

A wonderful waterfall.

Some color along the way.

Can you still call this a bridge?

A lot of small inhabitants along the bank of the river.

Other highlights of the way up included a few small waterfalls along the way, a few spots that seemed to beckon us for a refreshing swim, and the majestic Tenchuseki which was unfortunately impossible to capture on picture. It as actually a huge stone pillar-like rock protruding from the mountain. From the looks of it, it must be around 20m high, but because we were walking under coverage of foliage all the time, its presence hit us out of nowhere.

All this – the bridges, the waterfalls, the obelisk-like Tenchuseki – happened as my buddy would call it “on the pre-hike”. Because eventually, this route would converge with the more conventional approach to Mount Ishizuchi, and thus with a trail that is much more populated.
This conventional approach goes via a pretty broad, easy to walk path, interrupted by three sections of huge chains. In the olden days this seems to have been the only way up. Now it’s possible to just go around by steel stairs. I personally wanted to do at least one stretch of these chains though. That’s the whole reason why a broken finger kept me away all those years ago. I know chains are not my friend’s favorite climbing tools, but I honestly thought the first stretch was a breeze. That’s also why I didn’t feel guilty about convincing my buddy to also take on the second section of chains.

I should feel ashamed.

Because this second stretch must have been double the distance. I still had great fun, but I can fully understand the reaction of my friend: freeze when looking down.
By sheer willpower though he persevered, but skipping the third section of chains in favor of the stairwell was only a logical choice.

Now, ever since the point that we got onto the conventional track, the mountain was covered in clouds. Given the otherwise perfect weather, we were a little bummed out with the prospect of reaching the top without seeing anything.
And then something ethereal happened. On the last 20 steps upward, suddenly the clouds broke and let through heavenly light – you know, these rays out of the clouds that might as well come from alien spaceships trying to abduct you.
We stepped out on the ridge to find the most of the clouds on the other side of the mountain gone, giving us a near perfect view over the surrounding mountains and the city of Saijo.
While we had officially reached the top at this spot, there is a rocky bulge called Tengu-dake which is the actual summit. Getting there is kind of risky though, not in the least because of the amount of foot traffic for such a small razor’s-edge-ridge-path. So not unlike Mount Fuji, we decided that Tengu-dake was best to look at from a distance, and we had a well deserved lunch break with an absolute stunning view.
At the point that we decided to head back towards the cable car station, clouds crept over the ridge of the mountain, obscuring the wide vista’s we were enjoying until then, but clearing up the path previously covered in mist. It was as if the 500yen my buddy dropped in the mountain shrine actually paid off.

The path to the cable car station took us longer than expected. Unfortunately, it was also rather drab with stable and less stable wooden stairs along most of the way and barely any views to speak off. It again confirmed that taking the rough trail was the right choice.
This latter part which took us around 2 hours I think couldn’t spoil the great experience we had until then though. Until now I have only once hiked the same mountain twice, but with other approaches to the top that speak to the imagination, I might as well take on Mount Ishizuchi again in the future.

Getting off the cable car, getting into car, arriving at our hotel, something was waiting there that would make this day even more legendary: onsen and an ice cold beer.