Sacred Mountain 2 of 3: complete!

Aug. 21- Aug. 22

There is a lot to tell so let's dive right into my Fuji excursion this past weekend. First of all, it took a while for me to acquire all the gear I needed and I ended up with stuff scavenged from four people. We were given a list of stuff that we HAD to have and stuff that would make our lives easier. Also, we were told that the weather at the top was supposed to go down to -9C or about 16F and that we should all be aware of the signs of altitude sickness and hypothermia. Needless to say, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this hike and I had no experience that could compare with such extreme conditions. However, I did the best I could and as you can tell by this post, I did in fact survive.

My journey started Sat. morning at 6AM when I woke up hoping I was prepared and ready to meet Joe and Katie at the train. After meeting everyone else in Takaoka we still had a long bus ride ahead of us, luckily we didn't have to show up in our hiking clothes. On the bus everyone tried to sleep as much as possible since we knew we'd be hiking through the night in order to get to the summit before sunrise and hopefully before the crowds.

Taken on the bus. I don't know if these are even part of the same range as Fuji.

From the bottom to the top of the mountain there are different stations where you can stop and rest and even pay ridiculous amounts for the chance to sleep, eat, and drink. One of the most common places for people to begin hiking the mountain is from the 5th station. This is where our bus arrived around 4PM. People made their necessary clothes changes and supply purchases here. Some of the best advice I got was to buy one of the walking sticks they sold. I don't know if I could have done the climb with just my legs.

This is Mt. Fuji taken from the 5th station.

This was still at the 5th station, before we started hiking. You can see my newly purchased hiking stick.

There were about 30 of us JETs and we were going to split into groups that left in hour intervals. Katie and I decided to go with the first (aka slow) group that was leaving at 6PM so we could take plenty of rests. We did well for a while but one girl was having a really hard time. From the beginning she seemed easily exhausted and kept stopping and breathing from the oxygen cans that each group had to help with the altitude. Unfortunately, there was no one with our group that had climbed Fuji before (which wasn't the case for the other groups) so we really had no idea about the scope of the trek we were undertaking. If we had, we probably would have gotten her to turn around sooner. Instead she kept insisting she could make it, until one point when she got really nauseous. We were able to get her to one of the stations and we lucked out because Ryuichi, a native Japanese speaker who was on the hike with us JETs, passed by where the group of us was huddled and was able to help us work out that she could stay (paying about 7000yen) in the station and climb down the mountain with a group of Japanese people the next morning when the trail was less crowded and it was no longer dark.

The sun was setting during the very beginning of my group's hike.

This is still near the beginning. You can see just a little on the trail that was before us. It was a very deceptive view.

I talked to her the next morning and she apparently spent the whole night feeling really cold and throwing up from the altitude sickness. I also found out she didn't make it up Tateyama and that she had apparently started feeling bad as soon as she got off the bus. This was a little frustrating because she delayed a whole group of us for an hour taking care of her and it would have been really upsetting if somebody had to climb down with her and miss the opportunity (that we paid for) to get to the top. Luckily it didn't come to that and I think this was something that could have been avoided if an experienced climber was with us and could have let us know how much hiking was still ahead and could have recognized her symptoms easier.

After we handled that situation we were able to keep hiking. In actuality the break probably helped us adjust to the altitude ourselves and after seeing how miserable the girl looked we all made sure to use the oxygen cans and pills that we had in order to help prevent ourselves from getting altitude sickness. The hiking itself was longer and more difficult than I anticipated, even with the walking stick, especially because it was dark and I didn't have a headlamp. I did have a flashlight but I was more concerned with using my free hand to climb and balance. Also, there are a ton of people and if you get stuck behind a big tour group you could be delayed for a while, causing your heart rate to slow and your temperature to drop. All the people did make a very cool looking trail of lights zig-zagging up and down the mountain.

I didn't actually take this picture (Ryuichi did) but it sort of shows how many people there were on the mountain and it shows the very cool looking clouds we were meters above.

Many hours later the four people I was still with finally reached the top around 2AM. It was windy and since we were no longer moving it was COLD. In fact, I don't think I've ever been so cold in my entire life. The four of us all huddled together for body heat underneath the sleeping bag Xue (pronounced Sue) was smart enough to bring. The final count for my clothes: socks, shoes, spandex shorts, leggings, running pants, waterproof pants, long sleeve shirt, sleeveless shirt over, another long shirt, fleece, windbreaker shell, hat, two hoods, gloves, and a scarf wrapped around my face...and I regretted not having more. I was actually starting to worry by the time the sun started to rise because I was having a hard time feeling my toes. Luckily it warmed up pretty quickly once the sun was up and we started hiking again.

Even while freezing I could appreciate the amazing view. We had found a relatively secluded place near a tori. Ir required some climbing to get to so that's probably why there were only smaller groups up there. From this place, where there were no lights other than a few headlamps every now and then and we were above the clouds, so the stars were phenomenal. They were so bright and so numerous, I think I even saw a shooting star!! Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture this with my camera.

This is the tori. There were a bunch of coins stuck into it. We huddled on the ground right near it until the sun rose. This is my "holy crap I'm actually up here and no longer have to move" face.

After a few hours of huddling, shivering, a little napping, and a lot of freezing, we finally saw the first glint of light coming up through the clouds. The 8hrs of hiking (7 when you account for altitude sickness girl), the cold, the tired feet-it was all worth it to see the sun rise from the top of the tallest mountain in Japan...simply breathtaking.

First signs of light.

Here I am with every layer except I pulled down my scarf and uncovered the finger part of my gloves.

Xue, me, Katie, Ryuichi

The hike down was not as much fun. You take a different path down than up and the incline is covered with ash and soot (so we were wearing those masks that sick people get so as to not breathe it) and there were fewer rest stops. It was faster going down but it actually felt more dangerous because of the loose ash and volcanic rocks that you would slide on every few steps. My knees and ankles hated me by the end of it. Also, there was less interesting stuff to look at and by that time you just wanted to get off your feet and off the mountain. Eventually we made it down after about 4 or 5hrs. At least I think that's how long it took I was too exhausted to really check my watch. I was pleased to hear that my group of four apparently made good time up the mountain since the medium speed group got to the summit around 2:30 and they didn't have a delay in the middle. Also, they didn't have as good of a spot and had huge tour groups crowding them. Furthermore, some people didn't even make it all the way up because of the altitude. So I was very proud of us!

Katie and I on the way down

The best part after getting down was the trip to the onsen. Everyone passed out on the bus until we got there and then the group of us shuffled our aching legs to the locker rooms, stripped down, took the best shower ever to wash of the dirt and ash, and then relaxed in the hot baths. I was still sore the next day but I think taking the time to do this helped my body so much.

So that was my adventure on Mt. Fuji. I am so happy to have been able to make it to the top and see the sunrise. Apparently many years it has been rainy or too crowded or something else has gone wrong so we were very lucky with our experience. Now I just need to climb Hakusan! However, that probably won't happen this year before the trails close for the winter, so I will just have to wait for 2011.

Sorry this is so shaky. I was frigid at this point and it was the best I could do.