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Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
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At Maetengu, Nipesotsu’s pointed summit suddenly fills the view. Hikers call the reveal “Nipedon”—part “Nipesotsu goes boom,” part playful mountain-sized “wall-don” for the view’s sudden impact.
Japan’s 100 Famous Mountains appeared in 1964 without Nipesotsu: author Kyūya Fukada had never climbed it. An Obihiro mountaineering club invited him up; after summiting in 1965, he praised its sharpness and elegance.
An edelweiss relative grows on Nipesotsu: Ezo-usuyukisō, also called Rebun edelweiss. The Environment Ministry lists it as Endangered IB, with a scattered Hokkaido range that includes this mountain.
One common reading of the Ainu-derived name Nipesotsu is “where nipes is abundant.” Nipes means Japanese basswood’s inner-bark fiber, which Ainu craftspeople split into strong thread for clothing, rope and everyday tools.
The squeaks from Nipesotsu’s lava rubble come from fist-sized Ezo pikas. They are believed to have reached Hokkaido over an Ice Age land bridge; they don’t hibernate, but stockpile plants in rock crevices for winter.
The first recorded summit of Nipesotsu was in July 1926, by a Hokkaido University party. The first recorded winter ascent followed just 3 years later, in April 1929, also by Hokkaido climbers.
