Fuji-san

Climbing to the top of Mt. Fuji was a high-priority goal for me during our stay in Japan. On August 19-20th, I was able finally able to cross out this important line on my "to-do list".

My friend Andy and I left work early on Wednesday and drove the 2 hours from Tokyo to the 5th station of Fuji-san. We had some noodles for dinner, bought our hiking sticks, and began the climb around 7:30 PM, just after dark. We didn't rush the hike, but didn't slack either. Early on, we walked 30-45 mins between stops - but as the night wore on we walked in shorter increments and stopped longer between them.


At each hut or station on the climb, there is someone with a branding iron in a fire who will stamp your hiking stick with that hut's brand. It's a very popular souvenir from Fuji and it was fun to mark our progress at each hut we reached.

Climbing in the dark was kind of nice, actually - since we didn't have to look up and see how high the mountain was above us. Just kept our headlamps pointed at the trail and one foot in front of the other. The changing altitude did bother me a bit as we climbed, but I bought a can of oxygen from a hut about an hour after we started walking and that helped a lot.

The last couple hours were slow and cold, but we kept moving onwards and upwards. By aound 12:30 AM it became 50/50 walking and resting, but we eventually reached the summit around 1:30 AM on Thursday. 6 hours up is a respectable ascent time, and we were pleased with our accomplishment. We tried to look around a bit, but there was nothing interesting to see in the dark. It was also very cold and windy so we decided to leave the exploring until morning.

When we left Tokyo (sea-level-ish), it was in the high 80s and rather humid. At the 5th station where we left the car (2,305 meters) it was around 70 degrees. At 1:30 in the morning on the summit (3,776 meters) it was in the mid 30s. After 6 hours of climbing, it is NOT fun to be freezing cold. I layered up with everything I was carrying with me, wrapped a plastic tarp around us, and we sat against a wall and tried to get a couple hours of sleep before dawn.

We were one of the first people to make it to the top of the mountain. We knew that everyone tries to time their climb to arrive just before sunrise, so we left in time to walk ahead of the pack. There were other climbers around us through most of the night and when we reached the top we saw one or two other people around. That was very different than when we woke up around 4:30 Am; still huddled from the wind against a wall.

In the pre-dawn light, we were surrounded by people. We were on the east side of the summit, for the best view of the sunrise. So were about 1500 other people. More people were streaming through the tori gate at the trailhead every minute.

Andy and I ducked into one of the mountain huts for a breakfast of some raman and coffee. mmm... warm noodles and salt. We had to wait a while to be able to drink the coffee because they were keeping the cans warm by boiling them in a huge pot of water. After they cooled down enough that the metal can didn't burn our lips we sucked it down and headed outside to find a spot for the main event.

Just after 5 AM on August 20, 2009, on the summit of Mt. Fuji, I watched an absolutely spectacular sunrise. Far and away worth the 6 hour climb up in the dark, and even the following 3 hours in the freezing cold. It was stunningly beautiful.

What wasn't so beautiful were the 3000 other people around me, the huts behind me yelling orders from the waiters to the kitchen, or the Japan national anthem (I'm guessing?) playing through the speakers on one of the huts. Seriously. I know there's a lot of people there, because it's a beautiful thing to see, but the music? And who's ordering food during the 2 mins of sunrise anyway?

After the sunrise, lots of people started back down the mountain. Andy and I made a hike around the crater to the opposite side to take more pictures and also mail some postcards from the highest post office in Japan. Next to the post office is a shrine where we had the final stamp added to our sticks.

The crater at the top of the volcano looks really cool. There is ice and snow still inside and the whole thing looks very alien. We didn't notice as we were climbing in the dark, but there are no plants or anything else living at this altitude. Just rocks. The crater is roped off as it is too dangerous (steep, deep, sulfur-gasses) to be in without equipment. It is deceptively big. After gazing across for a while I noticed the tiny moving specs on the other side were people on the same trail we were on. Many people believe that the top of Fuji is an ugly place, but I thought it was interesting and very unique. It has it's own beauty in it's awesome size.






After our hike of the perimeter we headed back down. The trail going down is different than the one used for coming up. It is actually the bulldozer trail that is used to bring supplies to the huts along the mountain. 3 hours of walking/slipping/sliding down volcanic rock is not comfortable on knees, especially knees that climbed quite a ways the day before. The climbing sticks we had purchased were useful for keeping us vertical.


After reaching the bottom we congratulated each other on making the climb. As we drove away I took one last picture as I said goodbye to the mountain. We had great weather and were lucky enough to make it up and down safely. Certainly an adventure I'll remember!