Ikeyamagoya

Unstaffed hut at 1,750m on the Ikeyama ridge leading to Utsugidake in the Central Alps, 500m southwest of the top of Ikeyama, in Akaho, Komagane City, Nagano Prefecture. Nagano Prefecture's mountain hut listing gives it as "Ikeyama Goya (forest work hut)", open year-round and unstaffed, with Komagane City Hall as the contact. The Ministry of the Environment's national hut list classifies it as "Ikeyama Hinangoya", a publicly owned shelter managed by Komagane City's Commerce and Tourism Division, and the area is a prefectural natural park. Utsugidake (2,864m), near the middle of the Central Alps, is one of Japan's hundred famous mountains; the Ikeyama ridge route from Komagane Kogen gains height fast and enters old-growth forest just past this hut. Beyond it the sections called Daijigoku and Shojigoku bring chains, ladders and narrow ridges that demand care, and the round trip from the Komagane Kogen ski area car park runs about 12 hours 50 minutes. The Kojo forest road to the trailhead is closed to general traffic for the time being because of rockfall and small collapses; the car park at its end cannot be used and taxis cannot drop people off, so walkers start from the Suganodai bus centre or the Komagane Kogen ski area car park. Komagane City advises that the shelters in the Central Alps are not accommodation as such, are unstaffed, hold no food or equipment, and that camping around them is not permitted.