Houmanzan Redux

Today we climbed Houmanzan, a mountain in Dazaifu City, south of Fukuoka. I did this climb last year, and it almost spelled the end of me. Considering my recent weight loss and new interest in working out, I was stoked to give this another go.

OK, so of the 6 people I went with, I reached the top in 5th position. But a climb that took more than 3 hours to complete last year took me about 100 minutes this year. And having learned from my previous hikes with Patrick Cox, an experienced hiker, I paced myself very well this year and rested a total of about 10 minutes during the climb, mostly in 1-2 minute chunks.

I also sweated like crazy. Almost the entire time up I had hair wet with sweat. The back and shoulder straps of my backpack were soaked. My shirt would have been soaked, but as it's a rock-climbing shirt, it has great sweat-dissipating properties.

But what surprised me even more was the climb down. Going up you mostly just use your thighs and lungs. It's hard, but it's mostly aerobically hard. Going down however, despite having gravity on your side, you use far more of your muscles, as balance is a much greater issue. Rocks at odd angles good steps do not make. And on top of the stabilizing muscles that work themselves to death ensuring you don't fall, there's a lot of wear and tear on your knees, and some degree of mental concentration devoted to not breaking your neck. For me, as well, the constant looking down served only to cramp my shoulders completely.

That said, it was a workout par excellence. I sweated like hell going up, but I sweated much MORE going down. Sweat literally dripped continuously off my nose, or off my forehead only the inside of my glasses. I had deliberately made my backpack a little heavier, toting 1.5 liters of water, my camera bag, sandwich-sized ziploc full of peanuts, 2 small flashlights, and my new Combat Desert Jacket windbreaker. I figure that all in all it weighed about 10 pounds.

According to the various sources I checked, I burned anywhere between 2400-2700 calories today. That made me feel good, because later it was buffet time.

But before we get there, a large portion of the downhill climb was done with a calf muscles on the verge of cramping painfully. Added to this was the knocking of my left knee, twice, on different rocks. Needless to say I'm in a little bit of pain, even now.

After the climb, we headed to an onsen in Futsukaichi City, south and west of Dazaifu, but actually on the JR/Nishitetsu rail lines. Famous for some sort of muddle looking back and the panoramic rotenburo outside baths, I had none of this on account of onsens doing strange and unpleasant things to my skin. Instead, I had 15 minutes of massage as the masseuse kneaded away my cramped shoulders.

Dinner was the onsen's also famous buffet. 1800 yen, and worth every damned penny (or yen, as it were). Here, I probably ate all the calories I burned today.

Pics here, for those interested.