Fukushima-ken：

Aizukomagatake 会津駒ケ岳 2133m difficulty~3 scenery~4 15/08/06Got up at 4 this morning to start our climb by 5 am. My legs were still pretty tired from yesterdays asent of Hiuchi. The climb is very steep pretty much right from the beginning. Haurna was feeling a bit under the weather and decided to head back down to chill at the camp site. After a couple of hours of climbing up dirt, tree roots and rocks I eventually came to a wooden path and first views of surrounding mountains and clouds below me.

After another 20mins on the wooden path I found a good rest spot and sat to eat some rice balls, chocolate and rehydrate. Just before getting ready to head off again Haruna came trudging up the path. Ohh you made it! She said she felt better once she got back down to the car and decided to try and catch up to me. So we continued up stopping now and then for photos of the landscape before arriving at a mountain hut and a large pond. From here it was just another 20mins up to the summit and spectacular views for hundreds of miles. We made it to the summit in 3hrs 14mins with a few breaks to chat, catch breath and take photos.

On a very clear day you are able to see Mount Fuji from up here but unfortunately not today. I could however see some of the peaks in the southern alps way down in Nagano with the aid of binoculars. We hung around near the summit for an hour or so chatting to other climbers including a group of 5 very talkative elderly ladies, eating noodles with hands (forgot chopsticks) and dodging the huge bees.
There were loads of bees, dragon flys and other insects flying around near the top and we were lucky not to get bitten by anything. We made our decent at a relaxed pace as our quads and calves were killing by now. Made it back down to the car in 1hr 40mins to pack up our camp and drive back to Fukushima.