Ginger Vaughn

For two weeks I had been in the South Alps, working as hut staff. Preparing pre-sunrise breakfasts and early dinners left little ...

Some say the name Ibuki (strong exhalation) comes from the powerful winds common on Mt. Ibuki. As the wind picked up and the appr...

It was the fourth day I had been traveling with Hiroshi Sakurai, who I had met while hitchhiking to Mt. Iide a few days before. I...

Right as I began to empty the contents of the tent bag on the ground, snowflakes started to come down with a flurry. “No, no, no”...

Although I have been known to be an ame-onna, a woman whose presence seems to bring rain, this time around the gods were taking c...

The sound of traffic woke me up, and I quickly threw the sleeping bag to the floor and flipped open my mobile to check the time. ...

The dust in the rusting tin storage shack I had stayed in near Goryu campsite had gotten the best of me, and I woke up sneezing a...

The mountain of the day was Kaimon-dake, also known as Satsuma-Fuji, the symbol of Satsuma-hanto Peninsula. I had less than two h...

As I approached Mt. Tsukuba from a distance, I could see the two peaks that symbolize this mountain. The peak to the east, Nyotai...

The peak of Mt. Kuju, reaching skyward from Aso-Kuju National Park, is the highest point on Kyushu Island and is the largest acti...

“This is going to be a long three days, the tail-end of the South Alps,” I thought to myself, as I checked my bootlaces and then ...

After seven hours of straight hiking, I can see the unmistakable spear-like peak of Yarigatake in sight. "Just a little more," I ...