(五竜岳) Mt. Goryu Winter Hike

 

Booked for May. Fingers crossed for good weather (can cancel up to the day before)

Budget: JPY41,500 (~USD276)

• JPY11,000. Bus, Tokyo < > Hakuba (JPY5,500 one way)
• JPY17,000. Hakuba Sansou stay, with dinner and breakfast
• JPY4,500. Lift tickets, エスカルプラザ→アルプス平駅
• JPY9,000. Stay at Hakuba the night before. 

Hike Date / Difficulty (Elevation: 2,814m / 9,232ft)

• Target : 2025
• Difficulty: 5 out of 5.
• Route below is around 15.4kilometers, with an elevation change of ▲1,854m/ ▽1,854m
• Map Link 

When to Go
I am yet to see logs for winter, so I'd put May to early November as the safe periods. 

Special Notes

• Weather check: English / Japanese. 
• Live camera.
• Trailheads. I'm adding a couple, but the one in the map that I plan to do is the first one. 
• Alps-daira-eki (アルプス平駅). From here to Mt. Goryu's summit, it's a 6.5 hour hike, covering 7.5kms with elevation change of ▲1,567m/ ▽271m
• Train, Tokyo to Hakuba Station. 
• Train, Hakuba Station to Iimori Station (飯森駅). 
• Walk, Iimori Station to Hakuba Goryu Snow Resort. Google maps pin here. It's about 31 minutes, 2.1kms. 
• Gondola -> Lift, Hakuba Goryu Snow Resort to Alps-daira (アルプス平駅)
• Hakuba Happou (白馬八方). From here to Mt. Goryu's summit, it's a 7 hour hike, covering 8.1kms with elevation change of ▲1,465m/ ▽493m
• Train, Tokyo to Hakuba Station. 
• Bus, Hakuba Station to Hakuba-Happou Bus Terminal (白馬八方バスターミナル). 
• Bus schedule here, google maps pin here.  Bus runs from latter April to early October. JPY180, 5 minutes one way. It's also a 1.7km walk from Hakuba Station if you'd rather walk.
• The bus stops are not difficult to find - from Hakuba Station, just go out of the train station and turn left. The bus stop is right in front of the foot onsen. 
• Gondola Lift Adam -> Alpen Quad Lift -> Grat Quad Lift . Hakuba-Happou Bus Terminal to Happou Trailhead, map here. The lift will take about 15 minutes in total. One way pass will likely be around JPY2,000. 

Bus Schedule, Hakuba Station (白馬駅) <> Happou Bus Terminal (白馬八方バスターミナル). 

• 大谷原. No public transportation. Google maps pin here. 
• Mountain huts. 
• Paid. 五竜山荘. About an hour to the summit. 
• Free. None.
• Camping. Next to the mountain huts. 

Itinerary
Day 0

• Train/Bus, Tokyo to Hakuba Station. 

Day 1

• 07:00am. Hakuba area to Escal Plaza.
• 08:15am. Lift to Alps-daira eki
• 10:00am. Start hike.
• 03:30pm. ETA : Hakuba Sanso. Stay for the night 

Day 3

• 05:00am. Breakfast. 
• 06:00am. Start summit.
• 07:10am. ETA : Summit. 
• 11:47am. ETA : Alps-daira eki. Head back to Hakuba and go home.  
• Train/bus, Hakuba Station to Tokyo.