The old volcanic peaks of the Yatsugatake Mountains describe a narrow crescent across the forested plains and hills in this corner of Honshu where Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures meet. The southern slope of the range is a near-perfect sweep, a quadratic equation graphing the land up into the sky, and from a distance it has a magnetic pull on the eyes, drawing them upward.
Only rarely can you ever see the summit of a mountain from its foot, but here the many peaks catch and hold clouds even in the warmer months. On clear days, though, those summits still elude the lowland eye as they rise behind a screen of fir trees that scent the air with resin.
The morning on which a friend and I headed for those hidden heights was gray and humid as we shouldered our heavy packs and made a late start in the dusky forest light.