In Japan everything is packaged, even the nature. To my surprise, from bottom to top, every inch of the way was formed and maintained by humans. This includes stairs carved into the mountain, walls to stop falling rocks, chains to hold as you ascend and huts every 15-30 minutes. I was almost surprised not to see escalators on the way up : ).
Another interesting phenomenon is how packed with people Fuji can be. Because it was Sunday night, we only saw about 100 other hikers on the way up. On weekend nights and during summer vacation, however, there can literally be LINES as you hike up. LINES TO HIKE UP A MOUNTAIN!
The ascent started from 7,200 feet and went up to 11,100 feet at the top. The hike is all above the tree line and to fight altitude sickness we took many stops and lots of deep breaths – I managed to have only a bit of a headache and minor dizziness. The weather was PERFECT; it was clear with only moderate wind.
We started the ascent at 8:30pm and arrived at the top at 4:00am – plenty of time for the 4:30am sunrise.
After watching a glorious sunrise at the top and dancing around without shirts on in 32 degree weather, we hiked around the cone. On the edge of the cone, ripping out of the crater, was the strongest most constant wind that I have ever felt – it nearly knocked me over and did knock over someone who was taking our friend’s photo. We would descend behind a rock barrier, however, and there would be no wind at all. It was quite amazing weather.
The descent down is when things got a bit crazy. We took a trail down that was much less traveled – that is, instead of 100 other people, we saw three. Completely sleep deprived, sore and dead tired, we eventually reached a sign noting that we had hiked 8km from the top and had another 8km to go. The remaining distance was farther than expected, but we had no choice but to continue.
At about that time we ended up on the most interesting, eerie terrain – a black mountain covered in small pebbles. I had read that there was a place on Fuji where a person can “moon walk” down in huge leaps in deep pebbles and sand. It appeared that we had arrived!
We ran and leapt in big, soft bounds. The adrenaline took care of the fatigue and the deep pebbles were a huge relief on the knees. As we descended into fog, however, and hadn’t seen people for about an hour, some concerns started to creep in. Suddenly, we heard thunder in the distance. NOT GOOD! The only thing we could do was keep leaping down the mountain, so we did. It seemed to go on and on forever though and the thunder was a growing concern.
Eventually, to our dismay, we reached a fork marked by confusing signs. One of the signs noted that we were down at 2000 meters. This was shocking because we started the hike at 2,400 meters! While leaping down the mountain we had apparently covered much more ground than we realized.
With headlines running through our minds like “preserve your food and water,” we chose one of the forks. We eventually found a signpost with a location number and emergency phone number to call, and, for fear of ending up in the middle of nowhere, we decided to call. There was not enough reception for the call to go through. Just at that time, however, we heard voices down the trail in the fog. YES!
We happened upon runners who noted that there was a bus station further down. Elated and relieved, we descended for another 40 minutes until FINALLY we ended up at a small shop. The whole place was bizarre, but we were just happy to have reached some type of establishment. We had descended to 1,400 meters, an entire vertical kilometer (~3,000 feet) below where we started! It turned out that the trail we took down was much longer than the one up.
As for the thunder, it turned not to be thunder at all, but practice at a nearby military base. It was strange indeed.
We boarded a bus and headed home. Filthy and smelly, I felt sorry for the poor fellow who had to sit next me. On the ride home I was stiff, sweaty, filthy, exhausted (physically and mentally since we hadn’t slept), and had a worsening headache. I eventually made it home feeling more beat than I have felt in years. But at last, we had made it!
Happy 4th of July!
Enjoy the photos below. You can click an any one to make it larger.
We've made it! Left to right: Me, Shige (Japanese friend), Rochelle (another teacher at our company who is a track star and pretty much led the pack the whole way), Robin (my co-worker)
Notice how deep my legs are in the pebbles - this is what enabled us to leap down the mountain
