Vietnamese guy conquers dozens of snowy mountains in Japan
Having worked in Japan for 8 years, Van Hoai is passionate about mountain climbing and has conquered dozens of beautiful snow-capped mountains in Japan.
Having worked in Japan for 8 years, Van Hoai is passionate about mountain climbing and has conquered dozens of beautiful snow-capped mountains in Japan.
Nguyen Van Hoai, 28 years old, is currently an input quality inspector for a car company in Japan. He has worked in the Land of the Rising Sun for 8 years.
Having never had the opportunity to climb mountains in Vietnam, it was not until 2021 that Hoai became familiar with this sport in Japan. Before that, Hoai was passionate about photography. When he saw the amazing photos taken on Karasawa and Tateyama mountains, he decided to climb these two mountains to take photos.
After two memorable “first trips”, Hoai began to feel fascinated with the natural scenery and mountains of Japan. From then on, he climbed mountains regularly and achieved admirable achievements.
Until now, when asked how many mountains he has climbed, he said “can’t remember them all”. As for Mount Hoai, he has conquered more than 10 peaks, including: Karamatsu, Fuji, Yarigatake, Kitadake, Norikura, Tateyama, Kiso, Karasawa, Ibuki, Daisen, Arashima. There are many mountains he has climbed 3-4 times because each season has its own beauty.
Recently, the photo series of climbing Karamatsu mountain with friends at the end of December that Hoai shared on his personal page received a lot of shares and love from the Vietnamese climbing community.
Karamatsu is a mountain in the Northern Alps with a fairly gentle terrain. From the foot of the mountain, visitors can travel by cable car to the starting point. After more than 2 hours of climbing, the group reached Happo Lake - where they could see Goryu Peak with its steep, long snow-covered slopes - a scene no different from the mountains over 5,000m high in Nepal or India.
Even someone who has climbed mountains quite a bit like Hoai was impressed by this scene both visually and emotionally.
The most dangerous moment the group overcame was when they reached an altitude of about 2,400m, the group encountered the windward slope. The wind was blowing very strongly at over 20 m/s. The wind blew sideways, the mountain slope was narrow, there were valleys on both sides, and the terrain was collapsing, making the risk of falling into the abyss quite high. Combined with the colder than expected, it took the group more than an hour and a half to cross this mountain slope.
“The weather forecast that day was light wind and the lowest temperature was only about -7 degrees Celsius, but in reality the temperature dropped as low as -20 degrees Celsius. The bone-chilling cold at night can make people lose sleep if they do not bring enough warm clothes. At the same time, the drinking water brought along is also prone to freezing, so the group had to regularly boil water to replenish and warm the body.”
Having extensive experience climbing mountains in harsh weather, Hoai was not worried about himself, but he was quite worried about his friends when they passed through this windy mountainside. There were moments when some of them were exhausted by the strong winds, had low body temperature and intended to turn back down. But with the companionship of the whole group, the members all successfully overcame this challenge. When the campsite appeared right before their eyes, everyone shouted with joy.
Because of the windy part of the mountain, the group's progress was slower than expected. The group quickly set up tents and climbed to the summit 30 minutes away, just in time to catch the sunset.
“It was an amazing feeling, hard to describe, standing on top of Karamatsu mountain watching the sun set right in the middle of the famous Tsurugi mountain, making everyone forget the hunger and fatigue after a long journey. The sky was golden with the last rays of the day dyeing all the surrounding mountains covered in white snow. The whole group high-fived each other when they successfully reached the summit and took advantage of every moment of the most beautiful sunset to capture the wonderful moments.”
The next day, the group woke up at 4:30 am to cook and clean the tents in time to climb to the sunrise spot at 6 am, a 20-minute climb from the tent site. At 7 am, the group started down the mountain.
The special thing about this journey was that when the group went down from the top to the campsite, they met a man who was also looking for a place to set up camp.
“At first, my group thought he was Japanese so we greeted him in Japanese. But surprisingly, he was Vietnamese. No one could imagine that they would meet a fellow countryman in this place. The group quickly helped him set up a tent because it was quite dark and cold. Then the group invited him to dinner with 2 hot and sour hot pots and a bottle of Whisky.”
That is also one of the "benefits" that Hoai thinks mountain climbing has brought him.
“Climbing gives me a completely new experience – to relax, immerse myself in nature to temporarily forget the hustle and bustle of life, to admire breathtaking sceneries that not everyone has the opportunity to admire.
Mountain climbing also brings me new relationships, new friends with the same passion all over Japan and Vietnam. At the same time, this is also a sport that trains me to be persistent and determined in the face of difficulties and challenges" - Hoai said.
The 28-year-old man shared that in the near future, he plans to climb Mount Fuji again, although he has climbed it twice. The previous times he felt “unsatisfied” because the weather was not ideal. In the more distant future, he cherishes climbing some famous places in Nepal such as Everest Base Camp, Annapurna Base Camp.
