I win!

August 1st, 2006

I’m happy to report that I have conquered Japan’s tallest mountain. Not even a mountain, my friends, a volcano. I climbed a freaking volcano and I survived to tell my tale.

Before
Here we are at the bottom of Mt. Fuji. Feeling good, surrounded by people mostly double our age, we were feeling quite confident that it wouldn’t be too hard. The top was clear and the distance between us at station five and the top didn’t seem too far. Ha! I scoff at my stupidity. Anyways, it was tough. We’ll get to that later.

Uma, Dave, Niq and I started up Fuji at about 2 p.m. after a thoroughly nutritious pre-climb hamburger. The weather was clear where we were, but the valley below was completely disguised by clouds. I didn’t realize there was a view until the way back down. We started at Kawaguchiko Station Five, which is the most popular and easiest route. It was a pretty easy hike for the most part up to station six. The trails were wide and the footing was smooth and not terribly steep. From station six upwards, though, was a little different.

Going up

Waiting to walk

After station six we walked up loose gravel until station seven. The stations are clusters of huts that offer increasingly expensive snacks and trinkets, and there are rooms in the back to stay the night. At around station seven is where the road started getting clogged up. We spent more time waiting to walk that actually walking. The slow pace was nice to a point, but mostly it was just boring. At least there was a view. The clouds parted and we could see all the way down to the bottom, as well as the surrounding mountains.

Blue mountains
Huts and clouds
Climbing

Around station eight the air seemed noticeable thinner (thank goodness for my canned oxygen!) and each step was a chore. We stopped for a lot of snack breaks and saw a beautiful sunset just before getting to our hut for the evening at around 7 p.m. I say hut, but really it was like a cattle farm of hikers. We were shown to our little pen, a section of a giant continuous futon. There was another layer of futons on top (think enormous bunk beds), so it was really like a little cave. We had some curry and went to bed around 8:30.

Night hiking

People were constantly coming and going, and I think I got about 15 minutes of sleep before getting up at 1:30 to finish the climb. It was completely dark, but there were hundreds of people milling around outside the hut getting ready to go. We thankfully left before most of the groups departed and started our ascent basically straight up to the top in pitch darkness.

From the moment we left the hut we were standing in a line. We continued to stand in a line until the very top. The climb was hard and steep, and involved a lot of clambering up things with both hands and feet. Extra fun for the sleep deprived!

Pre-dawn

Top torii!

Morning spectators

Watching the sun rise

Morning mountains

The sky began to brighten around 4 am, and I was really worried that we would miss the sunrise from the top. Didn’t really matter, I guess, since the sun was rising on our side of the mountain, but I really wanted to be waiting for it. Thankfully we made it just in time. We got to the top around 4:15 and the sun rose completely about 20 minutes later. It was incredible. The sky was clear and we could see the cities and lakes below us. It was absolutely amazing. It was also absolutely freezing cold, so we didn’t linger too long at the top.

Japan's highest vending machine

Shop at top

And yes, there are vending machines at the top of Mt. Fuji. Also a little town full of ridiculously priced goods.
Sliding down

Down was SO much worse than going up. The path was zig-zagged all the way back to station six, and the footing was awful. The entire path was loose gravel, but a lot of it was too chunky to step on. Gravel ranged from normal gravel size to grapefruit-sized chunks, so if you took a wrong step it was easy to twist an ankle. It was also pretty steep considering that I couldn’t stop myself from sliding once I put my foot down. So yes, imagine hours and hours of toe-jamming in my too-small boots, wobbly knees, dust in the eyes, and the just-risen sun burning my face. Not the greatest of times, but well worth it in the end.

We got to the bottom around 9 a.m. and had the most wonderful bowl of ramen I have ever tasted in my life. It was a really hard climb, and Niq has vowed never to climb any mountain of any size ever again. It was definitely a good experience, though.

Sorry this was so long, but it was a long couple of days. When I get my pictures from Uma and Dave I’ll probably post some more. Anyways, that’s my story and that is all.

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