(三頭山) Mt. Mitou Winter Hike

One of the three famous peaks of Okutama, Mt. Mitou has a great free mountain hut close to the summit. This is a very flexible hike, and can be a short day hike, a long day hike or even an overnight one. I've personally done it as a fall dayhike and winter overnight hike. 

For this post, it is not much of a guide, as we played it by the ear. The plan was : stay the night at the free hut -> get up early and walk as much as we want -> exit when we want and walk to the closest train station. 

Budget: JPY3,570 (~USD34) from Tokyo

• JPY1,980. Tokyo to Ogouchi Shrine. 
• JPY1,590. Train, Shiotsu Station -> Tokyo

Hike Date / Difficulty (Elevation: 1,531m / 5,023ft)

• March 16-17, 2019
• Difficulty: 3 out of 5
• Route below is around 18.8kilometers, with an elevation change of ▲1,758m/ ▽2,007m (9h10m, overnight)

When to Go
Anytime during the year!

Special Notes

• Weather forecast: Japanese. 
• Trailheads. There's quite a lot of trailheads to choose from, and you'll almost surely end up with a road within an hour or so of a bus stop/train. In our case, we ended up 10kms away from the closest train station. 
• Ogouchi Shrine (小河内神社). Google maps pin. Just put it in google maps and you'll be on your way. 
• Train, Tokyo to Okutama Station. 
• Bus, Okutama Station to Ogouchi Shrine. 
• Yuzurihara Post Office (棡原局前). Google maps pin. 
• A bus runs from Uenohara Station. 
• Uenohara Station (上野原駅). This is not even a fair statement to consider it a trailhead, but this is what we used. We walked from Yuzurihara Post Office to here. (a mere two hour walk)
• Mountain huts. 
• Paid. None.
• Free. Yes!!! Just about ten minutes next to the summit. 
• Camping. None really,, though there's an official camp spot in some trailheads. For the actual hike, I'd say there are plenty of wild camp spots though. 

Itinerary
Saturday

• 02:00pm-ish. Arrived at Ogouchi Shrine and started our hike. We started late because I knew that the mountain hut was close enough, and our target was to get to the mountain hut before sunset. 
• 05:17pm. Arrived at Mt. Mitou summit. Took plenty of pictures, and went down to the mountain hut (about ten minutes away). Had our dinner and settled in for the night. 

Sunday

• 06:27am. Started the hike. 
• 06:46am. Arrived at 大沢山. 
• 09:19am. Arrived at 丸山山
• 12:30pmish. Arrived at Yuzurihara trailhead. 
• 02:40pmish. Arrived at Uenohara Station. 

Our first summit!

The top of Mt. Mitou. Very snowy, and given that it was close to sunset... chilly. 

The marker. 

Got into the mountain hut. 

The next day, we got into our first summit pretty quickly. 

With very few sections with a nice view. Unfortunately. 

The ridge had plenty of snow throughout though. 

Oh, a deer! I think. 

One of the most useless markers. 

A dusting of snow everywhere. 

These things puzzled us, until we saw a deer using its horns to dig through the leaves/snow. 

We've lost enough elevation that there's no sign of snow. 

Another summit!

And a cute restroom marker at Uenohara Station.