Mt Hoken - Gokuraku Ridge (宝剣岳極楽尾根)

March 14 2026

Mt Hoken, Central Alps, Nagano, Japan

2931m

Gokuraku Ridge (Grade 2+ Alpine Route, ~5 pitches, IV+ Crux)

Approach

After ascending the steep snow slope to the Hoken-sanso hut, we began descending onto the east side of the mountain - breaking trail as we headed towards the bottom of the ridge

Kaoru belays us up on a cam anchor as we near the start of the first rock pitch.

Kaoru ascends a mixed chimney pitch (grade ~III) using cams and trees for protection.

The Pyramid

We get the first glimpse of our main climbing objective for the day, the grade IV+ 60m rock pyramid. We Initially planned to split this into 2 pitches, setting up an anchor on a large ledge around half up up, but ended up completing the entire pyramid in a single pitch, belaying off a sturdy rock at the top

The view from half way up the pyramid - some excellent dry tooling placements towards the top of the climb

A drone shot of the pyramid taken by Takumi - Kaoru is leading and I am belaying towards the bottom of the pyramid

Summit

The difficulties of the pyramid behind us, we now had to traverse a ridge to make it to the summit of Mt Hoken

Fog rolled in and visibility became very poor, so we were thankful that the worst of the climbing was behind us

The view looking back from leading the first pitch of the ridge. After 2 pitches or so the difficulty subsided and we put the ropes away

Obligatory photo on the summit after sharing out my Kendall Mint Cake

On the way up we used a cable car to reach around 2500m, however the final cable car ran at around 4:30pm - we reached the summit at 5pm, meaning we had to walk down. After a quick rest and some snacks we began the descent, eventually reaching the car at 11pm - a long but rewarding day out