The hike started peacefully with the first 30 minutes being a nice forest walk, which then progresses to a snow valley. I had put aside plans for climbing Mt Shirouma the previous week due to the extended road closure near the trailhead, so I was pretty happy to get to walk up the snow valley.
For the most part the ascend was gradual. The weather progressively got worse with winds picking up and visibility dropping to nothing as I continued though. After the snow valley the mountain opens up to what seem like a large flat plain.
Mt Hakkoda was previously the side of a military disaster where an entire army unit got lost and perished. Standing here in the large open plains in near whiteout conditions, it is not hard to imagine that over a hundred years ago, without the aid of modern GPS, one could wander indefinitely and not know where they are. Also something that is very misleading here is that although there are marker poles, they do not actually lead to the summit but seems to lead to a traverse along a different ridge. I suspect these are for skiers as often their goal is not the peak.
I got into a bit of a minor incident myself during the ascend after the snow field when I missed main trail. There’s a forested area which I was supposed to go through, and then it would have led up a rocky path that was free of snow, but I approached it slightly off course to the right. Seeing bits of vegetation, I had decided to avoid it and continue on the snow instead. At this point, the approach was getting pretty steep that I started to slip, so I put my crampons on. This route would have been fine had it been much earlier in the season when the snow was heavier, but now I could feel that in a lot of places, I was walking on a thin layer of snow just above vegetation that was about to break through, and that the grip of my crampons was tenuous. There was also a large crack that had developed that I had to work my way around. All in all, this last stretch was quite a bit of a struggle.
Postholing on the way back down got pretty bad and at one point one of my feet broke through the snow to find a gushing river underneath. Thankfully I didn’t fall all the way in.
Getting there
Stayed in Aomori the previous night. From Aomori, it’s a 40 minute drive to Sukayu. There is a free parking area that is rather large with toilets.
Car park: https://maps.app.goo.gl/mS7Nv2vpuzH3PcVBA
YAMAP track: https://yamap.com/activities/39644154
Lets Walk There 