Fuji-san

Otsukare sama deshita,

this weekend Shinji and I climbed Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain of Japan with its 3776 m above sea level. I have something very important to teach you about mountains: It's cold on top. And guess who didn't exactly prepare for a winter trip to Japan. I ended up wearing jogging pants underneath my pants and my water proof pants on top as well as two shirts a sweater and my soft shell jacket. I was surprised to find gloves and a scarf in the pockets of my jacket. Those are the moments when you are really proud of your past self. I think I would have probably died without that scarf but let's start from the beginning.

We arrived at the starting location to climb Mt. Fuji in the early afternoon of Saturday. We chose the north eastern approach which starts at around 2400 m a.s.l. We stayed there for about an hour to acclimatize ourselves. There were a lot of people. The weather at that point was nice enough to see the summit.

Wait, no fog?!

From here we proceeded to our goal for the day, our accommodation. The plan was to stay the night and continue climbing early in the morning so we could see the sunrise from the summit. It is a fairly easy climb up to the accommodations, of which there are many on this side of the mountain creeping up the slope. The mountain is prone to many mudflows (lahars), especially in spring when the snow is melting. Here you can see a safety measurement meant to protect you on your way to the top.

This one already saw some action.

All the remnants of past lahars really put things into perspective.

This concrete structure didn't survive.

In the last picture you can see the supply road which can only be traversed by this thing:

Looks like fun.

And here you can see some of the cabins, most of which were already closed since it was the last weekend this year the mountain would be open for climbers. The next season starts in June 2018.

Still no fog, what is going on?

We were staying at the third cabin from below, situated at about 2700 m a.s.l. where we arrived at about 4 pm. Here is the view:

The town there sits at about 800 m a.s.l.

It was a really cozy little cabin but staying at this altitude is really expensive. Just using the toilet costs about 200 yen (1.5 euros or 1.8 US dollars). 

The interior of one of the cabins.

We went to bed early so we could start climbing around 2 am. If you are still wondering how it is possible for me to have such nice weather then be at ease, it was raining when we started our ascend. It was a good idea to put on the rain gear anyway since it was freaking cold.

We didn't make it to the top in time for the sunrise but it was better that way. This is what the summit looked like at 5:30 am:

There is the fog. It wouldn't be proper otherwise.

It was a good decision to stay at 3400 m and wait for the sun to pop up instead of continuing further up the mountain. But let's not tease you anymore, here is the famous sunrise:

Here it comes.

Woooohooooo.

It was a bit cloudy as you can see. The view was breathtaking nonetheless.

Noice.

At latest at this point you feel like you are really climbing a volcano.

After the sun finally made it above the horizon to warm us up a bit, we proceeded to conquer the last part on our way to the summit.

The entry to the summit. It is a sacred mountain after all.

At this point the scenery turned into the familiar fog saturated panorama. The wind was also blowing fiercely. This is what the crater rim looked like:

Be careful not to be blown off.

I was really excited to see Fuji's main crater which is more than 200 m deep and has an incredible diameter of about 500 m. But I couldn't see anything. After a short rest we began walking towards the highest point, the real summit, located on the opposite site of the crater.

Me with all my clothing. I was still freezing when I wasn't moving.

Icicles, that's how cold it was.

After climbing more than 1000 m we finally reached the real summit. Shinji was really happy, since this was also a first time for him. Last time he climbed Fuji it was too crowded to make it to the real top. Win win.

Welcome to the top of Japan.

From here on we started our descend since we had to catch a bus at 1:30 pm. We took the southern route to get a look at the craters from the last eruption of Mt. Fuji in 1707, the Hoei eruption. It is one of the best described historic eruptions in the world. Ash fell on the city of Tokyo, then called Edo. The volcano has been quiet since that eruption and the next eruption is overdue. This is the route we took:

Watch your step.

You can see the sea.

Getting close to the crater rim at the slope of the mountain, this is what we saw:

There is a bloody cloud sitting in the crater.

When we actually reached the crater rim we experienced a couple of minutes of the cloud lifting and the crater was revealed.

Pretty big. Sorry, no scale.

The size of the crater becomes a bit more apparent from the bottom:

Scale?

Maybe if you compare the two pictures you get a feeling. It is hard to describe it without being there. But with the sight of this crater I was satisfied and we caught the bus on time to go back home. All in all an unforgettable experience. Thanks to Shinji for taking me there and giving me advice on how to avoid altitude sickness.

My next and last trip will go to Bandai, a volcano that lost one of its flanks. Should be interesting. Isoji is taking me and one of his daughters to Bandai and we visit an old friend of his. He says we should come soon before he drinks all the beer by himself. Sounds like a reasonable fella. I am really excited.

See you soon,

Nils