As I look at the dog curled up lazily in front of the log fire, it’s still surprising to think she has been up all 100 this year. That was never the plan for 2008, but somehow I got diverted from the original purpose and the dog became the raison d’etre.
Here’s a brief summary of the 100 mountains:
Total distance hiked: 1,080 km (max. 55 km in one day)
Total elevation climbed: 103,600 m (max. 4687 m in one day)
Most mountains in one day: 5
Total days of hiking: 60
Days taken off work: 14
Number climbed at night: 21
Number of dog complaints: 14
Total transport cost: Yen 651,000 (car rentals, tolls, gasoline, trains, buses)
Total accommodation cost: Yen 159,000 (incl. Kyushu + Hokkaido holiday mode with Kin)
Most beautiful?: Ridge between Sugoroku & Kasagadake
Most ugly?: The summit buildings of Ibuki
Injuries: Amazingly, none for me, & just sore paws for Hana
Lowlight?: The few aggressive alpha-male dog-haters
Highlight?: Being with the dog, and meeting so many friendly people as a result
Hanameizan 
Amazing. I thought I was the only one to keep track of this type of data. I checked and during the 2007-2008 snow-season our total elevation climbed was 41,500m, total distance hiked was 422 km. My wife burst out laughing when I told her Hana put in more than twice the elevation and distance. Super-doggie indeed!
Compared with the minute-by-minute records of some Japanese hikers detailing even how many calories they ate where and when, I think we’re relatively sane.
Your distances/heights in the winter are amazing as plowing up through fresh snow is surely far harder than hiking on dry rock.
Quite incredible – and all in 8 months. Hope both you and Hana are enjoying a well-earned break!
It certainly feels good without the self-inflicted pressure of going out every weekend, but I don’t think we’ll be getting fat any time soon! With such a great forecast, I’ll take Hana for a run up Iodake early tomorrow morning – the colours are spectacular right now.
I’m looking forward to more photographs and stories of your mad exploits this winter.
So … the existential question – is there life after the Hyakumeizan??
Not as we know it! I’m not going to start blogging about cafe food and other trivia, but it would be a shame to lose touch with readers. So, the dog and I will just have to find some other mountains to climb.
I hope to start another blog, which I’ll link to from here. Will let you know when it’s ready.
PS: Thanks, Capt’n, for your post about Weston being back in print – it was a fascinating read. I’ll have to hire some coolies next year.
Great to hear there’s another blog in the works, we always enjoyed following your and Hana’s adventures in the mountains.
By the way, we started our snow season this past Thurs. We went to Hakuba, hiked up Daisekkei and enjoyed some turns down. Really nice to get back out there on snow! The mountains around Yuzawa got a pretty good dusting of snow as well.