Dewa Sanzan II - Don't try this at home: Climbing up Gas-san in bad weather

I didn't get too much sleep that night as the said wind, howling over the roof. As i opened the shutter to peer into morning light i was quite disturbed seeing no more than a light grey flatness. The shukubo was covered by clouds piling up at Gas-San and it rained from time to time. I was quite undecided what to do. There was no more bus for Tsuruoka and the weather really looked bad, despite the forecast reporting about good weather today.

So i waited for nearly three hours, but nothing changed, it even got worse. I could have called a Taxi, but that would have cost me around 100€ and i would go the opposite direction i wanted to go. So finally I decided for going over the mountain top. As the people at the shukubo didn't try to hold me back, i thought to myself, it will be ok.
But it got hard.

I lacked the appropriate equipment, especially boots and trousers, which would have been no great trouble, if weather had been better. But it started to rain again just 10 minutes after i had put on my backpack weighing around 10kgs and settled off. My jeans soon got soaked and the nice wooden planks, changed to a stone path even worse than the steps the day before. Sight was about 5-10 meters at the best.The higher up I came, the stronger the wind got, and it went cold. Balancing on the stones which were itchy and wet, i more than once nearly got knocked down by sudden blasts. The only thing preventing me from turning back were some other guys who went up too. Their equipment was much better than mine, only none of them seemed to care for their heads, as they didn't use theirg hoods, or anything, one of them wore a baseball-cap.

After two hours walking at a military pace (official walking time: 3hours for 5km and 600m height difference) i reached the mountain top, on which there is Gas-san jinja (Gas-san shrine). This one was closed as had been all the other huts on my way up (strange thing buildings suddenly taking shape out of grey nothing). At least i found shelter behind the walls surrounding the shrine. I was exhausted and hungry, but i had nothing to eat, so i went on down the other side, towards Yudono-San, the third mountain, which you luckily simply pass by descending. At noon rain finally stopped and after about one hour later i got beneath the clouds, offering less winds and higher temperature. On the way to Yudono-san Jinja (shrine) a small river went along the path, but as i already got used to balancing over slippery rocks this was no major obstacle for me. But i realised i steadily got weaker, and lost security of my step. Finally i went down some ladders (slippery too) after which i got to Yudono jinja and finally got some rest.

Yudono jinja is not a building like the other shrines but an about 3 meter high orange rock, from which a hotspring is pouring down. To worship it, you first receive a blessing by the priest, rub yourself with sacred paper, then you may walk it up along the warm well. Leaving, there is put up a small basin where you can soak your feet in the hot spring's water, which i did just gladly, before descending farther to Yudono-san hotel, which i thought to stay at, without having seen it. But as they charged 8500 Yen for a night in this run down concrete block dating probably from the 60ies, i decided to go to Yamagata-town directly, despite being totally exhausted.