Mt Yotei

Mt Yotei (羊蹄山, yotei-zan) is the Hokkaido equivalent to Mt Fuji - its conical shape and the dusting of snow it gets each winter makes it look strikingly similar. And if you haven't heard of it, you may at least have heard of the ski resort Niseko - this sits on a peak adjacent to Mt Yotei, and so from its ski field you can get a pretty good view of it. Mt Yotei has also been recently featured in the PS5 game Ghost of Yotei which I would love to play if the game ever gets a PC port. As for the hike itself, similar to Mt Fuji it can be done from 4 separate trailheads that sit at various points around its circumference. The two most popular are the Hirafu and Makkari trailheads. We chose to hike ours from the Hirafu trailhead with a round trip of 9 hours. After camping at the free trailhead campsite the night before, we began our hike at 5am. The climb up is all in the forest, and starts off rather gradual and forgiving. But soon it gets rather steep - like any typical Japanese mountain…