Mt. Senjo-gatake

This mountain locates at the border line between the northwest of Yamanashi Prefecture and the southeast of Nagano prefecture. It is called the queen of the South Japan Alps from the gradual shape of the mountain and a wide variety of Alpine plant vegetation.  From the summit, there are four main ridgelines that spread out and three depressions located among these ridgelines.  The four ridgelines are Umanose o’ne in the north, Senshio o’ne in the south from Mt. Senjo-gatake, Syo-senjo o’ne in the northeast, and Jizou o’ne in the west.  The depressions are Yabusawa, Syo-senjo, and Dai-senjo.  Despite its elevation over 3,000 m, it is popular as an entry level mountain among the South Japan Alps.   If hiking only Mt. Senjo-gatake, most approach from Kitazawa pass.  If you stay a night at Kitazawa pass, you can climb Mt. Senjo-gatake and Mt. Kaikoma-gatake.  The camping site at Kitazawa pass becomes very busy during the summer season.  Once the alpine plants in the area between the summit of Mt. Senjo-gatake and Umanose hut died out due to the deer habitation.  At that time deer crossed the ridgelines at an elevation of 3,000 m.  Although a variety of alpine plants can be enjoyed nowadays, it actually took more than 10 years to reconstruct the vegetation.  Be careful not to enter preserved areas or step on alpine plants along the trail.  Do not pick alpine plants.