We spent the morning of August 6th preparing for the climb of Mount Fuji. We were all very excited and a little bit nervous for the climb as none of us have extensive climbing experience. We wanted to be prepared for everything so each one of us was equipped with: at least two sweaters, two pants, a hat, gloves, scarf, rain jacket, warm socks, water, an apple, a banana, 6 granola bars, 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a hard-boiled egg. Ken also had 2 oxygen tanks with him.
We left Ken’s house around noon to take a few trains, and busses to the mountain. We met up Ken’s friends Kotoy and Kimiko, two Japanese ladies, along the way who were going to join us for the climb. The trains and busses ended up taking more than 7 hours to get to the mountain, so by the time we arrived it was already dark outside!! We were all equipped with flashlights, but I did not want to hold a flashlight while climbing, so I bought a headlight. We all bought walking/climbing sticks to help with the climb. To help our muscles, we did a group stretch on the ground, and then started off on our way!
We were surprised with the number of people climbing at night!! The trail was pretty full of people, lots of tourists in addition to the numerous Japanese people. It was almost a race with nature to the top because we wanted to be at the top to watch the sunrise.
The higher we got, the steeper it was, and the harder it was to breathe the air. After a few hours of climbing we started taking oxygen every 15 minutes to prevent altitude sickness. On the trail we could see vomit on the rocks (from people with altitude sickness) and at one point there was someone vomiting in front of us and another vomiting behind us. The higher we got we kept seeing more people turning back and climbing down, either to rest stops lower in the mountain or all the way back down.
There were rest stations every few hundred meters, and each rest station had a sleeping area where, for about $50, you could sleep on the floor on a thin mattress or in a sleeping bag for a few hours. Our original plan was to climb until we were a few hours from the top, sleep in a rest station, and then wake up at 1am to finish the climb so we could be at the top by sunrise. But since we arrived so late we knew that sleeping was not an option if we wanted to see the sunrise from the top.
After about 8 hours of climbing in the dark I was starting to feel very weak. The air was very very thin and I was exhausted. I was less than 400m from the top, and sunrise was coming soon. I knew I could not go on any further, even though I knew the end was so near. I stopped at one of the rest stations and took a 3 hour nap while everyone else continued to the top. At the rest stop there were rows of sleeping bags.
When I woke up the sun was up and the view was beautiful. It was the first time I could actually see my surroundings!
I looked up towards the top and I could see the flag, it was so close!! But I knew I just could not make it any farther. Ken, Fieke, and Steph came back down shortly after I woke up. The last 400m took them 3 hours because the trail was so packed with people rushing to get to the top by sunrise! They described the experience as a mad house where everyone was so tightly packed together and people were pushing each other trying to get by.
The climb down was much more enjoyable than the climb up. The view was incredible! The mountain itself is not very pretty though. It is all covered in red, blue and black volcanic rock and there is almost no vegetation.
Climbing down still had its challenges, the path was on a steep downward angle and it was covered in loose rocks. It was so easy to slip and slide down the path and we saw many people slipping on the rocks. But the most amazing part for me was walking through the clouds. Since Fuji is normally covered in clouds, we had to climb through them for most of the journey down!
We finally made it to the bottom, completely exhausted, and hurting all over. Everyone was in pain, a lot of pain. Our feet and ankles were all swollen and our leg muscles were almost numb. And we still had a long bus ride ahead of us!!
We all slept on the bus, and ended up going to Ken’s friend Jessie’s house because it was 45 minutes closer than going all the way back to Ken’s house. We fell asleep the moment we arrived at Jessie’s house (around 6pm) and slept until 8am the next morning with only an hour break to eat dinner around 10pm.
When I woke up in the morning and stood up I almost collapsed in pain when I put pressure on my legs. I was so sore, I could barely walk.
Climbing Mount Fuji was one of the most difficult experiences of my life. The climb was extremely hard, especially in the dark, and the lack of oxygen was debilitating. But it was an experience of a lifetime that I will never forget, and I am extremely happy that I did it!
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