With today’s climb up Yakushi-san, I’m now a quarter of the way through the 100 Famous Mountains of Yamagata list. I must say, it has been everything I expected and more.

If you just go by the yamagatayama website or the accompanying book, to be honest, it’s pretty lackluster. Of course nothing beats actually going to the mountains to experience them for yourself, but I’ve found the information on Yamagatayama to be minimal at best.

This is obviously because they were limited with space, 100 mountains is a lot of information to pack into a small book (the website is another story though, it could have been designed much better in my opinion).

Either way, I’m trying to compile what I think is the important and interesting information people should know about the mountains of Yamagata. As each of the mountains were chosen due to their cultural significance, they all have interesting stories to tell. I see it as my job to not only discover these stories, but to dissect them and present them in an appealing way.

What’s next?

Next, I’m going to continue what I’m doing. This morning I got up at 4:30 to be able to climb the mountain before it got too hot, but even then I feel I was a bit late. Summer is the time to climb the taller mountains, and I think that’s what I’m going to have to do.

I still need to do Chokai, and am exploring my options at the moment. There’s also Jizomori-yama that is at a high elevation off Gassan. In terms of mountains climbable in summer that are relatively nearby, these two are probably my best bet. Otherwise I’m thinking I will have to wait until late September or October to hit up the other lower peaks, especially those in the Mogami region.