Hiking in the Japanese Alps: as captured by a film camera

After completing the John Muir Trail, I felt like I could take on the world and tackle any single hike.

But on Day 2 of our through-hike across the Japanese Alps, I was ready to give up. The steep ascents and descents were killing me physically and mentally.

“If you want to quit, we will still need to walk another two days before we can exit,” said Nathan.

Another … two… days?!

Needless to say, I persevered and we reached our final destination, six days later.

We met Japanese hikers whom we shared meals and stories with. They were curious (often wondering how we knew about the Japanese Alps) and friendly, giving us tips and encouragement along the way. One of the most beautiful things we saw in the Japanese Alps was the sea of cloud, as pictured above.

The mountains here were unreal. The amazing thing about hiking in the Japanese Alps were that we were hiking along the mountain ridge. That meant incredibly steep ascents and descents. Chances were that very high point up ahead was where we were headed to.

This was the Dai-kiretto part of the hike, which we weren’t originally intending to do. However, a Japanese hiker encouraged us that it was challenging but not impossible. Most of the time we felt like we were rock-climbing along the mountain ridge.