“Everyone should climb Mount Fuji once; only a fool would climb it twice.” - Japanese Proverb
So, last weekend, I climbed mount Fuji.
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| Me, at the 5th station before we started. There are no after pictures. |
For the most part, we managed to stick to the plan I outlined in the previous post. Except when I said it would take around 5 hours to get to the 8th station. Because it actually took us 9. I think that pretty much sums up the tone of this blog, as in, I am not cut out to be a mountain climber. Or a hiker. Sometimes walking up a hill is too much. It was hot when we arrived at the 5th station, despite the fact it was around 8am, it was already 30C, and we knew it would only get hotter.
We stayed at the 5th station for around an hour and a half, as advised, to acclimatise to the altitude, having breakfast and making sure to buy our commemorative hiking poles to help up climb the mountain, as well as get them stamped at all the huts on the way up as a kind of ultimate souvenir. At the end of it, I have to admit, its a pretty cool thing to have. After we actually started walking, the first hour or so is a complete lie. Most of it involves walking mostly horizontally, I guess it felt a bit like a tutorial in a video game, there were small, slightly easier bits of everything that was to come.
Despite using the word 'easier', it took me approximately 25 minutes to realise I had made a mistake in wanting to climb this mountain. The sun was absolutely blazing down. It was probably the clearest day that has ever existed, no cloud cover at all, and supposedly it was to be the hottest day of the year as well. Brilliant. I started off sensibly. Coverings on my arms and legs, wearing a hat, sunglasses from the glare etc. but it wasn't long till the heat got the best of me and I couldn't possibly stand to be under so many layers of things. Huge mistake NO.1. In around 30 hours I would be suffering from second degree burns (Yes, second degree!) on my face and arms, literally covered with painful blisters and a heart filled with regret. DO NOT FORGET TO TOP UP YOUR SUNSCREEN! ESPECIALLY ON A MOUNTAIN! I also found out after that because of the thinner atmosphere the suns rays are extra strong, which makes complete sense but never occurred to me because I've never been so high up before.
Aaaaaanyway. As I said, it wasn't long until I realised I had made a mistake. It was, however, very long until we reached anywhere like the "hotel" (quotations very important, you will find out later) we had booked to stay in overnight. The hotel was at 3400m, on the 8.5 station, so a pretty decent climb. I think we had just gotten past the main 6th station when I started to struggle badly. The heat was really getting to me, and there were so many steps! I was already finding it difficult to lift my legs high enough (though to be fair, some of the steps came up to my hips) and the heat and brightness was making it hard to even look ahead. We made a few kind Japanese friends along the way, though. Odd people would see me struggling and shout 'Ganbatte!' to encourage me. I don't think even £1million at the top would have been able to encourage me enough. But it was okay, there was already no going back (the down path and up path are separate, so no way to go back really!) and we still unknowingly had 7 hours of walking ahead of us. Yay. We pressed onwards, stopping briefly at every hut on the way to purchase additional stamps for our walking sticks, which were fire branded on which is pretty cool. All the water in my bag had already become hot, as in actually hot, so I was forced to keep buying cold drinks at extortionate prices because I really can't drink hot lemon water (its not like lemon tea at all).
At some point, as well, the path started to change. What was once an incredibly uncomfortable, zig-zagged walk, with ridiculously huge steps and a painful rocky floor up the side of the mountain transformed into something else. It became and almost vertical actual rock climb, where using both hands and hoping you didn't slip to your death was a real thing, and not made any easier carrying my ridiculous walking stick. Maybe 'slip to your death' was a slight over exaggeration, but at some points if you slipped it would have been completely reasonable to seriously injure yourself, some falls were probably almost 10 feet, needless to say I refused to look back, or look down, and somehow I made it with only near falls and a twice twisted ankle.
Some pain, and hours later, we got past the 8th station (I think), and all of a sudden it hit me, bad; Altitude Sickness. There are very strict instructions when climbing the mountain, detailing Altitude Sickness and that if you feel sick at all, get off the mountain, as if that was a super easy thing to do. I decided to just keep going to the hotel, and I was lucky enough that my hiking buddy Quentin was able to dash ahead and get me an oxygen cannister. It was sorely needed and I think I wouldn't have physically been able to go on without it, though I could barely go on with it, so that's not saying a lot.
From this point, it was nearly 2 hours still to the hotel, and the sun had started to set. Though it was still around 20C at this point, the wind was actually so cold that it felt around 5 or 6 degrees, especially without the blaze of the sun, so even though the extra layers were super constricting, we were forced to put our 'winter' clothes on, but it was a constant struggle between freezing wind and exhausted heat. Also, at some points the wind was so strong, it blew me over. On a tiny marked path on top of a mountain, that's a pretty scary thing, especially as it started to get darker and darker and I kept thinking to myself, 'we're never going to make it to the hotel, I'm going to die on the mountain'. A little dramatic, I guess, but I remember feeling that very strongly. As we approached the hotel and I could see its lights, as it was already almost completely dark, my legs were no longer working but I managed to drag myself up the last bit of rock, as Quentin ran ahead (like seriously, he was fine and could still run up the steps and I have no other alternative but to assume he's some sort of vampire) to check it was definitely the hotel and let them know we were there.
Now, the hotel. Technically, the place is called the Fujisan Hotel. TECHNICALLY I think its a hotel. Do not get the wrong impression. When you walk in, the entrance/dining area is decent, what you would expect from a mountain hut thousands of meters up. Dinner was fairly decent, but after all that walking/climbing, I probably would have eaten anything (Cute side note: I must have looked absolutely miserable because they drew a smiley face on my food in sauce in an attempt to cheer me up).
So they checked what time we wanted to be woken up, as most people leave early in order to get to the summit before sunrise so they said they'd wake everyone up around 2am, and showed us to the sleeping area, that sleeps 700 people apparently. So, it was a bunkroom, both sides of the room were filled with floor level beds and a bunk level of beds, but when I say beds I mean 700 sleeping bags lined up with about half a foot of room per person. It was REALLY cramped. I don't really know what else I was expecting, but we paid 8500Y each for the privileged of sleeping on the mountain not outside, I guess. Seriously though I have never experienced anything like that before, pretty sure battery chickens have more room. Some random person was next to me, already snoring before we even got there, we also had to use our bags as pillows, as there was no other space to keep them. I just can't even get over this experience, it was probably my worst nightmare possible, and on top of all that, the toilets were UNISEX. There was trauma I will never be able to unsee or unhear. Anyway, pretty much 5 minutes after dinner I decided I was ready to sleep, I could barely move and wanted to pretend I was home in a lovely cosy bed not on a mountain.
Of course, I didn't get a wink of sleep.
The close proximity to other humans combined with disgusting stranger sleeping noises, the insufferable heat and the fact I couldn't breathe, I spend around 6 hours lying there with my oxygen cannister around my face praying I didn't suffocate. This did however, give me time to think about things and I decided there was absolutely no way I could continue up the mountain, especially in the dark. I had already been advised against going any further, and although I was gutted to get this far then stop, I think I would have needed to be air rescued if I tried (in hindsight, that would have been the best outcome).
So I stayed in the 'hotel' whilst every single other person left, and happily had two hours of sleep with actual space to breathe, before getting up myself at 4am, so go and watch the sunrise, which to be honest couldn't have looked much different from a couple of hundred meters higher. After waiting another 5 hours for Quentin to return from the summit (During through which I went over a lot of 'what if he went past and left me', he didn't though, obviously) we started our descent because I really didn't want to be waiting around.
But something that is not obvious on the way up, the way down (a separate path) is pretty much just a slide made of rocks. It takes 3 hours to get down, with one toilet hut on the way, and it's just sliding on the side of your feet and trying not to topple over yourself and land face first in the dirt, or try not to topple over the edge as the zig-zagging of the path has a very steep drop. Also I'd like to take a second to talk about the toilet. It's 200Y for the toilet (like every other one on the mountain) and that is supposed to go towards cleaning and general care of the mountain. I thought the unisex toilets were bad enough, as I walked into this one, a woman came out crying and shaking her head, telling me not to go in. Oh my god, I should not have gone in. I can't even explain what was going on. All the toilets on the mountain are chemical, and I think one just exploded. Like, literally exploded. I don't know how I managed to not throw up.
So there's not really much more to it now, we finished sliding down the mountain, completely exhausted, by around 11am, and our bus left at 8pm. So we ate a lot of ice cream and pancakes and drank a lot of cola whilst we waited at the 5th station, all day. I also used it as an excuse to buy souvenirs, and some great omiyage (a (usually edible) gift to take back when you've been travelling) to bring back to Osaka, in the form of a cute sponge cake in the shape of Fuji with white chocolate drizzled over the top! It was too cute to resist.
I still don't really know what I was expecting from this challenge. From a distance, climbing Mount Fuji seems like the ultimate, perfect thing to do whilst in Japan. In reality, unless you love difficult physical challenges and are in really good shape, you'll probably appreciate the mountain more from a distance, like going past on the shinkansen. Of course I don't want to discourage other potential climbers, this was my personal experience but I don't think it as easy as it seems, definitely nothing like most of the climbing guides I read in preparation (despite how it sounds, I was VERY prepared!) and probably the hardest physical challenge of my life. Either way, it is over now, I have some pretty awesome souvenirs, some very unique memories and the ability to tell people I climbed Mount Fuji. I guess that's all I really did expect to get out of it, anyway. I'm also really grateful to have been able to do this all in aid of Rowcroft Hospice and I hope the money I've raised will be of some small help to this amazing organisation.
And for now, またね〜 From Osaka, and as always feel free to ask me anything you're curious about!
We stayed at the 5th station for around an hour and a half, as advised, to acclimatise to the altitude, having breakfast and making sure to buy our commemorative hiking poles to help up climb the mountain, as well as get them stamped at all the huts on the way up as a kind of ultimate souvenir. At the end of it, I have to admit, its a pretty cool thing to have. After we actually started walking, the first hour or so is a complete lie. Most of it involves walking mostly horizontally, I guess it felt a bit like a tutorial in a video game, there were small, slightly easier bits of everything that was to come.
Despite using the word 'easier', it took me approximately 25 minutes to realise I had made a mistake in wanting to climb this mountain. The sun was absolutely blazing down. It was probably the clearest day that has ever existed, no cloud cover at all, and supposedly it was to be the hottest day of the year as well. Brilliant. I started off sensibly. Coverings on my arms and legs, wearing a hat, sunglasses from the glare etc. but it wasn't long till the heat got the best of me and I couldn't possibly stand to be under so many layers of things. Huge mistake NO.1. In around 30 hours I would be suffering from second degree burns (Yes, second degree!) on my face and arms, literally covered with painful blisters and a heart filled with regret. DO NOT FORGET TO TOP UP YOUR SUNSCREEN! ESPECIALLY ON A MOUNTAIN! I also found out after that because of the thinner atmosphere the suns rays are extra strong, which makes complete sense but never occurred to me because I've never been so high up before.
Aaaaaanyway. As I said, it wasn't long until I realised I had made a mistake. It was, however, very long until we reached anywhere like the "hotel" (quotations very important, you will find out later) we had booked to stay in overnight. The hotel was at 3400m, on the 8.5 station, so a pretty decent climb. I think we had just gotten past the main 6th station when I started to struggle badly. The heat was really getting to me, and there were so many steps! I was already finding it difficult to lift my legs high enough (though to be fair, some of the steps came up to my hips) and the heat and brightness was making it hard to even look ahead. We made a few kind Japanese friends along the way, though. Odd people would see me struggling and shout 'Ganbatte!' to encourage me. I don't think even £1million at the top would have been able to encourage me enough. But it was okay, there was already no going back (the down path and up path are separate, so no way to go back really!) and we still unknowingly had 7 hours of walking ahead of us. Yay. We pressed onwards, stopping briefly at every hut on the way to purchase additional stamps for our walking sticks, which were fire branded on which is pretty cool. All the water in my bag had already become hot, as in actually hot, so I was forced to keep buying cold drinks at extortionate prices because I really can't drink hot lemon water (its not like lemon tea at all).
At some point, as well, the path started to change. What was once an incredibly uncomfortable, zig-zagged walk, with ridiculously huge steps and a painful rocky floor up the side of the mountain transformed into something else. It became and almost vertical actual rock climb, where using both hands and hoping you didn't slip to your death was a real thing, and not made any easier carrying my ridiculous walking stick. Maybe 'slip to your death' was a slight over exaggeration, but at some points if you slipped it would have been completely reasonable to seriously injure yourself, some falls were probably almost 10 feet, needless to say I refused to look back, or look down, and somehow I made it with only near falls and a twice twisted ankle.
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| It was still really pretty, though. |
From this point, it was nearly 2 hours still to the hotel, and the sun had started to set. Though it was still around 20C at this point, the wind was actually so cold that it felt around 5 or 6 degrees, especially without the blaze of the sun, so even though the extra layers were super constricting, we were forced to put our 'winter' clothes on, but it was a constant struggle between freezing wind and exhausted heat. Also, at some points the wind was so strong, it blew me over. On a tiny marked path on top of a mountain, that's a pretty scary thing, especially as it started to get darker and darker and I kept thinking to myself, 'we're never going to make it to the hotel, I'm going to die on the mountain'. A little dramatic, I guess, but I remember feeling that very strongly. As we approached the hotel and I could see its lights, as it was already almost completely dark, my legs were no longer working but I managed to drag myself up the last bit of rock, as Quentin ran ahead (like seriously, he was fine and could still run up the steps and I have no other alternative but to assume he's some sort of vampire) to check it was definitely the hotel and let them know we were there.
Now, the hotel. Technically, the place is called the Fujisan Hotel. TECHNICALLY I think its a hotel. Do not get the wrong impression. When you walk in, the entrance/dining area is decent, what you would expect from a mountain hut thousands of meters up. Dinner was fairly decent, but after all that walking/climbing, I probably would have eaten anything (Cute side note: I must have looked absolutely miserable because they drew a smiley face on my food in sauce in an attempt to cheer me up). So they checked what time we wanted to be woken up, as most people leave early in order to get to the summit before sunrise so they said they'd wake everyone up around 2am, and showed us to the sleeping area, that sleeps 700 people apparently. So, it was a bunkroom, both sides of the room were filled with floor level beds and a bunk level of beds, but when I say beds I mean 700 sleeping bags lined up with about half a foot of room per person. It was REALLY cramped. I don't really know what else I was expecting, but we paid 8500Y each for the privileged of sleeping on the mountain not outside, I guess. Seriously though I have never experienced anything like that before, pretty sure battery chickens have more room. Some random person was next to me, already snoring before we even got there, we also had to use our bags as pillows, as there was no other space to keep them. I just can't even get over this experience, it was probably my worst nightmare possible, and on top of all that, the toilets were UNISEX. There was trauma I will never be able to unsee or unhear. Anyway, pretty much 5 minutes after dinner I decided I was ready to sleep, I could barely move and wanted to pretend I was home in a lovely cosy bed not on a mountain.
Of course, I didn't get a wink of sleep.
The close proximity to other humans combined with disgusting stranger sleeping noises, the insufferable heat and the fact I couldn't breathe, I spend around 6 hours lying there with my oxygen cannister around my face praying I didn't suffocate. This did however, give me time to think about things and I decided there was absolutely no way I could continue up the mountain, especially in the dark. I had already been advised against going any further, and although I was gutted to get this far then stop, I think I would have needed to be air rescued if I tried (in hindsight, that would have been the best outcome).
So I stayed in the 'hotel' whilst every single other person left, and happily had two hours of sleep with actual space to breathe, before getting up myself at 4am, so go and watch the sunrise, which to be honest couldn't have looked much different from a couple of hundred meters higher. After waiting another 5 hours for Quentin to return from the summit (During through which I went over a lot of 'what if he went past and left me', he didn't though, obviously) we started our descent because I really didn't want to be waiting around.
But something that is not obvious on the way up, the way down (a separate path) is pretty much just a slide made of rocks. It takes 3 hours to get down, with one toilet hut on the way, and it's just sliding on the side of your feet and trying not to topple over yourself and land face first in the dirt, or try not to topple over the edge as the zig-zagging of the path has a very steep drop. Also I'd like to take a second to talk about the toilet. It's 200Y for the toilet (like every other one on the mountain) and that is supposed to go towards cleaning and general care of the mountain. I thought the unisex toilets were bad enough, as I walked into this one, a woman came out crying and shaking her head, telling me not to go in. Oh my god, I should not have gone in. I can't even explain what was going on. All the toilets on the mountain are chemical, and I think one just exploded. Like, literally exploded. I don't know how I managed to not throw up.
So there's not really much more to it now, we finished sliding down the mountain, completely exhausted, by around 11am, and our bus left at 8pm. So we ate a lot of ice cream and pancakes and drank a lot of cola whilst we waited at the 5th station, all day. I also used it as an excuse to buy souvenirs, and some great omiyage (a (usually edible) gift to take back when you've been travelling) to bring back to Osaka, in the form of a cute sponge cake in the shape of Fuji with white chocolate drizzled over the top! It was too cute to resist.
I still don't really know what I was expecting from this challenge. From a distance, climbing Mount Fuji seems like the ultimate, perfect thing to do whilst in Japan. In reality, unless you love difficult physical challenges and are in really good shape, you'll probably appreciate the mountain more from a distance, like going past on the shinkansen. Of course I don't want to discourage other potential climbers, this was my personal experience but I don't think it as easy as it seems, definitely nothing like most of the climbing guides I read in preparation (despite how it sounds, I was VERY prepared!) and probably the hardest physical challenge of my life. Either way, it is over now, I have some pretty awesome souvenirs, some very unique memories and the ability to tell people I climbed Mount Fuji. I guess that's all I really did expect to get out of it, anyway. I'm also really grateful to have been able to do this all in aid of Rowcroft Hospice and I hope the money I've raised will be of some small help to this amazing organisation.
And for now, またね〜 From Osaka, and as always feel free to ask me anything you're curious about!
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| Bonus picture: All the traffic cones in Kawaguchiko looked like Fujisan... |
