Cloud-grabber Mountain: A Survivor Story

Kumotori-san, 雲 取山, on the border of Tokyo, Saitama prefecture, and Yamanashi prefecture literally means cloud-grabber mountain. It is the highest point in Tokyo and a short 1-hour train ride from the glitz and glamour of one of the largest cities on the planet. It is also in the beloved and too-frequently-visited Chichibu-Tama National Park. My fellow hiking partner, Daniel (you may remember him from the Asamayama hike), and I decided to brave the everchanging weather, rise above the stratus clouds and plow through the amoebic cumulus clouds in order to catch a few peeks of the surrounding peaks.,

The hike to Kumotori-san is a 2-day affair, complete with summiting about a half dozen peaks along the way. It isn't too difficult...even you, yes YOU, could do this hike. You just need to pack up your camping gear, bring some food, and be sure to not forget the water. Yep, simple, right? Well, not exactly.

It was getting dark after about 4 hours of hiking on that first day, and we were nearing our campsite--an area right next to a small cottage (6000 yen/night) out in the middle of nowhere where you can stay and eat and replenish your water. Being the robust yenny-pinchers that we are, we had previously decided to take the true and cheap route by camping (300 yen/night). There were only about 20 minutes left of hiking until we could finally settle down for the night. That's when it happened. I remember it vividly, viciously. It struck like a viper and tightened like a boa. Muscles I never knew I had were congregating and glowing in pain like fireflies in a 7-year old's Mason jar. I was immobilized; my legs turned to knotted oak trunks. I was miles away from any sort of civilization, and I was cramping up.


In that circumstance, I did what any real man would have done: I rubbed my leg over and over again with a comical, painfully silly, and pathetic expression on my face while saying "Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!" I finished the last gulp of my water, and I limped my way towards Base Camp 1 (it's not actually named that...I gave it that name to add drama).


Once we reached Base Camp 1, we set up camp. Base Camp 1 was not what we were expecting. The cottage was nothing more than an abandoned, boarded-up building with no sort of clean drinking water. We made a crucial mistake--we assumed. We assumed there would be water...that we would be fully hydrated (with extra to spare) for the 8 hour hike the next day in the stifling heat. Instead, I wrestled in my sleeping bag that night praying that it would rain so that in the morning I could collect the water from the pans I set out and not hike the remaining portion with cramps that felt like death and could only be healed by one, H2O.



The next morning we woke up to no avail. It didn't rain, there was no water. We were going to die. We started our hike with no real plan. In about 5 minutes our plans changed when we came upon a brand new hikers lodge. It was our oasis on the mountainside with enough clean water for a blue whale to find refuge. I downed about a gallon of water and filled my 2 liter bottle for the remainder of the hike. Sure, we felt kind of stupid for not figuring this out the night before, but in actuality, I never felt better. The rest of the hike went splendidly. Ironically enough we had breathtaking views of Mount Fuji from the top of Cloud-grabber Mountain. This is very strange considering about 99% of all summer skies are covered in a thick haze. We also saw a couple snakes, a horde of monkeys, and some deer walked by our tent during the night.