This is the final part of my trip to the Karasawa Cirque! Miss a section? Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2!
I was staring at my watch, watching it tick time away, when my alarm went off. “Op, 5:30. Time to ‘wake up’ and check the sunrise.” Luckily for us, it was a crisp, clear day. The photographers crowding up on the large rock I’d taken night photos on yesterday stared at me as I awkwardly got out of the tent, limbs uncoordinated from lack of sleep, hair falling out of my ponytail and sticking up out of my neck/face warmer. I probably looked ridiculous! Grabbing my camera gear, I clambered over the loose rock field and set up shop on a smaller rock nearby.
Don’t get me wrong, sunrise was beautiful, but I’m not sure it was worth the extra night of freezing temps and endless shivering. Then again, when you’ve seen a sunrise on Mt. Fuji, will anything else ever come close?
One nice thing about the clear weather was being able to see all the hikers on their way up to Oku Hotaka-dake and the hut near the summit.
After sunrise, I worked on packing up the things in the tent while Jessica went to the bathroom. When she came back, we took down the tent, found that there was ICE underneath it, then finished packing our backpacks. This was it! Time to leave the Karasawa Cirque and its accursed rock field! I never ever ever EVER want to walk on loose rocks again.
The way down from the Karasawa Cirque
At one point, I stopped and looked back at the just visible campground in the distance — so beautiful. And yet… I thought about the rocks again and quickly turned back to the trail. Yeah, I’m done with you for now haha.
Honestly, I have no idea how I made it down that mountain. I felt like I was running on my last three brain cells; every step was half-thought out, the rocks more than willing to slip underneath my feet. I simply did not have the mental capacity to care where I stepped next.
And it seems I wasn’t the only one struggling this morning. On our way, we saw an old man actually fall off the trail. Luckily for him, it was in a wooded area; he tumbled a short bit before grabbing a tree and pulling himself back up. If it had been anywhere else, he could’ve fallen down a cliff!
Now, the easy part
Finally at Yokoo, we hobbled over to the benches near the bathroom, threw down our backpacks, and took turns in the bathroom. Now that we weren’t at such a high elevation and the sun was coming out, our 15 layers were definitely not needed. Nor were the spent kairo still stuck all over our bodies! It felt GREAT to shed some clothes and peel off the kairo. Suddenly we were 10lbs lighter!
The rest of the journey was an easy blur. We stopped once to look for Jessica’s glasses, which she’d forgotten on a rock on the way up, but no dice. Either someone took them or they got blown into the river during the storm on our first night.
Before we knew it we were back at the Kappa Bridge!
I bought this pin at one of the souvenir shops close to the bridge; I also have one for my Karamatsu-Dake trip last year! The kanji on the pin says 涸沢の紅葉, Karasawa’s fall leaves.
By the time we got back to the car, both of us were dead tired and feeling flushed. It ended up being a combination of sun and windburn, but we were convinced we caught colds from those freezing temperatures.
Looking back…
Definitely learned a lot from this three day adventure at the Karasawa Cirque, that’s for sure. I would definitely do some things differently, if I could go back in time, but overall I’m really happy I went! Also glad we went when we did; no joke, it snowed in the cirque TWO DAYS after we got back! Next step is to return next season and climb Oku Hotaka-dake!
