Climbing Mt. Fuji

Well, I did it! I climbed Mt. Fuji. I won't say it was one of the most exciting adventures. It was hard, it was tiring, but it was worth it! I signed up with a few girls I know for a night climb. We left Atsugi at 7pm on Sunday, July 1st and arrived at the fifth station at 10pm. The fifth station is where most people start their climb, it is about half way up the mountain. There is no possible way to climb the whole mountain in a day. Actually, quite a few start at the fifth station and stay in resting shacks along the way. The shacks are warm and dry, you get a sleeping bag and a hot meal and stay the night. We just decided to climb straight though. There are a total of 10 stations, we started at the fifth. The 10th (the summit) is at an altitude of 12,776ft.

After a quick restroom break and purchasing our walking sticks, we were ready. The walking sticks, are just that...walking sticks. At each station you pay about $2 and they will brand your walking stick with a marker. It just shows that you have made it to that station. It is a really neat souvenir to bring home. So, about 10:30pm our adventure begins. The reason for doing a night climb is to see the sunrise while you are on top of Mt. Fuji. Plus, the weather is much, much cooler! We had quite a few difficulties along the way. One of my friends was having severe trouble with the altitude, then she started getting panic attacks. Honestly, she probably shouldn't have been climbing, but she hung in there. Because of my friend, we had to go extremely slow. The average climber can make it to the summit in 4-5 hours. It took us eight! We didn't make it to the summit before the sun came up at 4:30am. But, I think we were the lucky ones there. The people who made it to the top had cloud coverage and they didn't get to see the sunrise. We were about 500m below them at station 8.5 and had a beautiful view! As usual, the pictures don't do it justice.

Then on the way down, my other friend fell and hurt her knee. So, we had to go extremely slow on the decent as well. All in all, it took us 12 hours of hiking to climb Mt. Fuji. I really don't have any desire to do it again. It is a very hard climb. At times (actually about 1/2) the trail is huge rocks that are at least a 45 degree angle. You have to use your hands and literally climb up the mountain. The other half is loose rocks and dirt, so like walking on the beach. There is a lot of drag.

The Japanese have a saying about climbing Mt. Fuji, "A wise man will climb Mt. Fuji once, a fool will climb it a second time, and a white man climbs it a third."