Just a quick note for anyone who was planning on climbing any of the mountains in the Tanzawa mountain range - namely Mt Tonodake, Mt Tanzawa or Mt Nabewari.
Update 25th of January 2026: The fire was contained, and the trail was reopened in under a week on the 17th of January. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, but hikers can volunteer to help carry down some of the debris from the hut if they so choose.
A fire broke out today (11th of January) at the Horimiyama-no-ie (堀山の家) mountain hut. The hut has been destroyed, and the wildfire has not yet been contained. This hut is one of a number that you will pass as you climb up along the Okura Ridge. It’s quite an iconic one and a popular spot for a break on your hike up, so I’m sad to hear that it’s gone - and quite shocked - since I passed it only a couple of weeks ago when I hiked Mt Nabewari. I really, really hope everyone made it out safely.
The trail up Okura Ridge was closed today as of writing this, and I would expect it is still closed tomorrow since the fire is not yet contained. Once the fire is fully contained, depending on the conditions, the route that goes via Mt Nabewari will be the more viable option and likely to be opened first.
For those curious, there are a couple of photos on YAMAP here and here of the state of the fire. The first one seems to be taken by a person who was crazy enough to get close to the fire. The other is taken from the hike via Yabitsutoge (I have a very similar photo, without the fire, up on my Mt Tonodake post).
If you’re reading this at a later date and want to know what the latest conditions are, you’ll be able to see trail logs on YAMAP here of people doing the hike via Okura Ridge. So you can use this to double-check if the trail has reopened. The logs from the 11th on YAMAP are mostly of people either being turned back on the trail (the fire started in the morning) or attempting to descend via Okura and then having to take the alternate route down via Nabewari instead.
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