Researching Ahead can Save Your Life! Part 1 - Misinformation can make your mountaineering trip fatal!

The day before yesterday, I almost got lost climbing on Iriomote Island in the Ryukyu Islands. Iriomote is a wonderful island that is one of Japan’s world-class World Natural Heritage sites, blessed with pristine natural forests and is home to many wild animals. Higher up the mountain at the center of the island, there is a waterfall called Mayagusuku Falls, which is said to be the most beautiful waterfall in Japan. To reach Mayagusuku Falls, I took the long trail from a rest stop near Ohara Port, but the results were terrible. Needless to say, what happened was less of an accident than it was just tragic.

To begin with, the information I had obtained beforehand was so different from the actual situation on the ground. I thought that I could reach my destination within three hours on the way there, but I ended up taking an unexpected amount of time. As a result, even though I had spent more than 5 hours desperately running and climbing up a 14-km mountain road, I was still 700m away from my destination. However, not only was time running out, but the weather forecast was also wrong, and it was raining more than I had anticipated. What was I supposed to do when Mayagusuku Falls was just around the corner in this situation?

The time was already 3:00 p.m. I was extremely tired, and the rain suddenly caused the water to rise extremely fast. To my horror, I could hear the sound of the gushing river currents flowing and at that moment it wasn’t safe to cross. Hearing that sound just filled me with dread. The Mayagusuku Falls were right in front of me! But, I knew that if I had gone straight to the waterfalls, I would have been done for! “Retreat!” My voice was yelling at me to get out. I didn’t think that it was a good look that I was going to be on the news for a rescue mission after only my first trip out to Iriomote.

However, despite my decision to leave, I started losing confidence in my ability to make it back to the starting point. The trail through the primeval forest after I entered the trail was terrible, not only because it was muddy and full of streams and poor footholds, but also because my feet kept sinking all over, and this would have caused me to slip and fall on the rocky and steep slopes. In addition, there were many places where we had to climb up and down using ropes, which was completely different from ordinary mountain paths. Moreover, I often got lost on the mountain paths, barely finding the red ribbons to guide us, and the difficult process of moving forward was mentally draining me to be honest. In addition, the disappointment of not being able to reach my destination and the unexpected rain made me think that I would never be able to return to my starting point.

At 3:00 p.m., of course there wasn’t anyone at the big flowing river by Mayagusuku Falls on Iriomote Island. Perhaps the locals even knew that they shouldn’t go there with light rain. Not learning this beforehand, I found myself alone in the middle of Iriomote Island. How the heck was I going to get back? If I were to leave now, it was going to take me five hours. It would be 8 o’clock at night and pitch-dark. How on earth was I going to walk that mountain path in the dark when it was difficult to find even during the daytime? I didn’t even have a flashlight. I also didn’t know when one of my cell phones would run out of power. The app Yamap is known recently as being lifesaving for these kinds of situations. Even if there is no signal, it shows your location on a map as long as you have your cell phone and you can follow mountain trails even at night. But, this is only as long as the cell phone battery lasts, and on a 10-hour climb like this one, the nightmare of a dead battery can easily become a reality.

So, as I stood in the rain, I decided to call a chartered boat from Uehara in Iriomote to pick me up at the entrance of the trail in Uehara, which is called Gunkan-Iwa. Whenever I climb a mountain, I always carry three phones from the three carriers: Softbank, Docomo, and au. Since there are many places in the mountains where there is no signal connection, it makes a lot of sense for me to have all three carriers with me at all times. However, as I expected, none of them were able to connect in the mountains of Iriomotejima! I’m done for!

I now had to make a decision out of two choices. Either I would have to swallow my pride and send out an SOS signal from my cell phone, or I would frantically turn back the way I came and make my way back to where I could get back on my own. In fact, as an elite member of Yamap, I was receiving messages on my cell phone announcing danger and SOS information. In other words, I might be in trouble. Upon seeing this, a sense of dread quickly rose over me. I stopped for a moment, calmed down, and thought to pray, ”What should I do?” Then the answer immediately came to my mind. “Retreat!” “I will get out of here alive, no matter what it takes!” I found myself immersed in the thought that I was truly on a battlefield.

In the light rain, my concentration tended to falter due to my extreme exhaustion, and I sometimes felt a sense of hopelessness. However, I quickly switched to positive thoughts and kept moving my legs, telling myself that I could make it, that I would make it, and that I would definitely make it. Finally, I made it back to the starting point at 6:30 p.m., just before dusk. But the cost was significant.

First of all, I didn’t notice for a while that I had a lot of leeches around my ankles because I had been running hard across the river and soaking wet. It must have been about 30 minutes after I started back. I suddenly noticed black foreign goo on my feet, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be leeches. Thinking they might also be in my shoes, I stopped to take them off in the rain and found that not only were there leeches all around my socks, but several of them had crawled into my socks and were sucking my blood! I was surprised and terrified, as this was the first time in my life that I had ever experienced this. I hurriedly took a spray out of my backpack and sprayed, but it was already too late. I could see that my ankles were bleeding quite heavily from here and there. Both legs had been attacked by leeches. I also slipped several times on the steep slopes, causing my hands and feet to bleed. I suffered from severe pain in my knee, a chronic ailment, and since I had not taken my Loxonin, I had to keep running with a wobbly knee. This experience was a lesson in endurance and perseverance.

I barely made it back alive. However, I had many things to reflect on. First of all, I knew that many of the mountain trails in the wilderness were steep, but I should have anticipated that they would be just steep slopes without even a mountain path, and slippery in places where the surface was wet from the rain. In fact, there were many places where I slipped and fell even when I was walking carefully, and sometimes I even fell down. Yesterday, I unexpectedly slipped and fell several times and rolled on a muddy slope about three times. That day I learned that I should avoid climbing steep, muddy slopes.

What was the problem? What information was I missing? How should I have prepared in advance? There was much more that I should have known, but I regret that I did not. In retrospect, the problems were obvious. First of all, I should have assumed that it would take at least 6 to 7 hours each way from Ohara on Iriomote Mountain to Mayagusuku Falls, or about 13 hours in total, but the problem was that such information was not disclosed anywhere. In other words, the level of difficulty of this course was so high: The distance was too long, even with the assumption that one was a good hiker who could maintain a regular hiking pace, they would have to leave early in the morning to make it back by dusk. Moreover, I should have known that the weather conditions could change during the hike. The river could become too high to cross due to the rain, and there was a huge risk of drowning in the river. I should have also taken precautions against leeches: Measures must be taken to remove them even after crossing the river soaked to the bone.

Unfortunately, the online information from Yamap, which I trust the most, only said that the time it takes to complete the Iriomote Island course was 3.5 hours one way, and I believed this misinformation. It must be some kind of mistake, but I should have assumed that it would have been 7 hours one way. Perhaps because such misinformation is widely circulated, there seems to be no end to the accidents in Iriomote by people who climb mountains based on such misinformation. In order to avoid any issues while mountain climbing, obtaining correct information is indispensible. Without it, it’s impossible to have a safe and enjoyable mountaineering trip.

After all, to be successful in anything, it is essential to get the right information in real time and accurately. I am now reminding myself to be even more diligent in light of this unfortunate experience. Be that as it may, my knee is now broken, so I must rest for now. I must be mindful to maintain balance while gathering information in order to achieve the best possible outcome.