Mount Bandai

From the south Bandai is a neat cone of 1,816 metres above Lake Inawashiro and was nicknamed Aizu Fuji for it. From the north it is a hole: on 15 July 1888 the northern flank failed catastrophically in a steam-driven eruption, removing one of the summits and burying villages under a debris avalanche that dammed the rivers and made the Urabandai lake district. Around 477 people were killed, and the event became one of the first volcanic disasters studied with modern scientific method, which is part of why it is known internationally. The climb from Happodai takes about three hours up through beech to the crater rim, with the raw amphitheatre of the 1888 collapse open below on one side and Inawashiro spread out on the other. The Bandai Gold Line toll road puts a trailhead high on the mountain and shortens the day considerably.

What you actually see

• Two mountains in one - a neat cone from the south, an open collapse from the north.
• The 1888 amphitheatre - the scar of the flank failure below the crater rim.
• Lake Inawashiro - spread out to the south from the summit.
• A three-hour climb - beech forest to rim from the Happodai trailhead.

When to go

June to October. A day. Early starts for cloud-free summits.

Honest expectations

The mountain makes its own cloud and summit views are often lost by midday. There is no water on the trails. The Gold Line toll road closes for winter. Autumn weekends fill the trailhead car parks early.

Nearby

Goshiki-numa is on the northern side; Lake Inawashiro is south.