NATURE IN SHORT / Alpine meadows great spots to visit in summer

Kevin Short / Daily Yomiuri Columnist

For mountain fans, no summer would be complete without a visit to an ohana-batake, or alpine flower meadow. Some of Japan's finest alpine meadows are found on the ridges and upper slopes of 2,932-meter-high Shiroumadake peak, located in the Hida mountain range. These mountains, more commonly known as the Northern Japanese Alps, comprise a great range of 3,000-meter class peaks that include world famous Yarigatake and Hodaka (take or dake means "peak" in Japanese). The Shirouma mountains anchor the northern end of the range, with rugged Tsurugidake and the Tateyama peaks looming across the deep valley of the Kurobegawa river to the west.

For exploring Shirouma's alpine meadows, an excellent route starts at Sarukura, about 1,200 meters above sea level on the eastern flanks of the mountain. The path starts off by climbing steadily along a gravel forest road bordered by beautiful groves of tall Japanese beech trees (buna = Fagus crenata). Breaks in the trees afford expansive views of the peaks and ridges.

This easy trail comes to a sudden end about an hour or so into the climb, just above a small hut. The route from here is straight up the Dai-sekkei, a steep-sided ravine that retains a deep snow cover well into the season. Here hikers affix crampons to the bottom of their boots, and trudge for about two hours up the frozen snowfield.

The trail resumes near the top of the snowfield, quickly turning into a long lung and leg busting climb up to the ridge. As compensation, however, some of the mountain's most beautiful flower meadows are found along this slope. The color palettes here are truly amazing. Yellow dandelions (tanpopo) and buttercups (kinpoge) mix with deep purple-blue wolfbanes (torikabuto) and bellflowers (kikyo), delicate pink geraniums (furo), white sweetvetch (ougi), and deep orange-red lilies (kuruma-yuri).

Stopping to enjoy the flowers takes a good three hours from the top of the snowfield to the ridge, where two mountain huts provide meals and shelter for the night (about 9,000 yen per person for bed, dinner, and breakfast and a packed lunch the next day). The Shirouma Sanso, located at the southern base of the final slope leading up to the main peak, is the oldest mountain hut in Japan, originally constructed in 1907. Today the hut is one of the largest and best-equipped in the country.

The view from the top of Shiroumadake is panoramic, with the Sea of Japan and Noto Peninsula visible to the north, and rugged Tsurugidake off to the southwest. To the southeast, Mt. Fuji peeks out from behind the peaks of the Yatsugatake range. For those with a week or two to spare, a well marked hiking trail traverses the entire north-south ridge line of the Northern Japanese Alps, with mountain huts at convenient intervals all along the way.

Most hikers continue north from Shiroumadake, eventually descending to Tsugaike by ropeway and gondola lift. Hard-core alpine flower enthusiasts, however, follow the ridge southward. The exposed, windswept ridge is an extremely harsh environment, where plants keep a much lower profile than they do further down on the better-protected slopes. Bellflowers and a beautiful species of greenish-white gentian (Gentiana algida = toyaku-rindo) anchor themselves in tiny cracks that form in the bare rock.

The hardiest plant of all, however, is the komakusa (Dicentra peregrine). These tiny perennials in the Fumariaceae or fumitory family (megi-ka) are sometimes called bleeding hearts in English. Their pink and white flowers show four petals, the outer of which are expanded at the base but curved outward and upward at the tip. The grayish-green leaves are very tiny.

The komakusa survive by being willing to live on shifting, unstable gravel slopes that form just below the ridge, a micro-environment so harsh that no other plant will even bother with it. In the past, they were collected extensively as an herbal medicine for treating stomach pains.

The ridge trail is a knee-shaking series of continuous ups and downs, now climbing to the top of a peak, now dropping back down into a saddle. The route passes over Shakushidake and Yarigatake (a different mountain from the more famous Yarigatake to the south) before leaving the ridge to sharply descend the eastern flanks. Here again are abundant flower meadows, some dominated by tall white knotweeds (itadori-rui), others by tiny white and yellow avens (chin-guruma).

A great side benefit of this route is that it passes through Yari Onsen, featuring a small hut, tenting ground and roten-buro open air hot spring bath. The stretch of trail just above the onsen, however, is very steep, and in some spots chains and ladders have been provided to help hikers cross stretches of slippery rock. The final section from the hot springs down to Sarukura is also long and steep, and traverses across several snowfields en route.

The name Shiroumadake means White Horse Peak, and is sometimes (wrongly) pronounced Hakubadake. The name derives from a pattern of bare rock that appears on the mountain's eastern flanks as the snow melts in spring. This pattern resembles the figure of a horse, and in the past was used by farmers in the valley below as a sign that the time to begin working the rice paddies had arrived.

WRITER'S NOTE: The route described here is for experienced hikers in good physical condition. The elevation gain from Sarukura to Shiroumadake is 1,700 meters, and there are numerous crossings of snowfields and stretches of unstable or slippery rock. Less experienced hikers should take the gondola and ropeway from Tsugaike, then follow the ridge trail to Shiroumadake.

Short is a naturalist and cultural anthropology professor at Tokyo University of Information Sciences.