Climbing Mount Fuji
July 16-17 2018
Without doubt, we have had more than the thirty six views Hokusai managed of Mount Fuji just staying near to it. The climbing season is open; a brief window from July to September and the forecast looked good. Some risk of thunder but otherwise no strong winds and it is about thirty degrees at the bottom.
Climbing this mountain is something that has been of interest on my visits to Japan to see the grandparents though, due to the timing of visits, other itineraries, it is an activity that has eluded me...until now.
The common saying in Japan is a wiseman only climbs Mount Fuji once. This calls into question the competence of the guides who probably scale it three times a week with their respective tour groups. No guides for us though, we went using wisdom provided by previous ascenders - colleagues from my office and some website info and tourist office leaflets.
The bus from Kawaguchi station which ferries a mix of day-trippers out to buy an ice cream and a fridge magnet alongside seriously kitted out Japanese wearing/carrying pristine Mount Bell, Columbia, North Face equipment. The Japanese are very good at taking their hobbies very seriously and new gear seems to rule the mountains as much as the shopping precincts. Our new purchases for the trip were one head torch and a couple pairs of gaitors (thanks Renaud).
On arrival at the Yoshida Trail fifth station which was already at a height of 2300 metres, we were met by a noisy mix of bus tour trips, hiking groups making their final preparations or looking exhausted. Here, we had a snack in the form of expensive a reheated sandwich and steamed pork bun. The second job was to purchase a pilgrim stick, a keepsake which would work as a way of collecting the stamps branded into it at each station of the trek up Fuji.
Our final act before embarking on our adventure was to go to the fifth Station shrine (富士山こみたけ じんじゃ), follow the ritual performed by the many before us of throwing some coins to the ancestors to grant us safe passage up and down the mountain.
A thousand yen donation to the National Park and we were on the climbing route. It strangely starts as a westerly traverse, a little downhill passing some tired dusty hikers on the final leg to their destination. It then starts to go in a long zig-zag fashion with erosion proofing stone walls alongside.
The tracks were well maintained and it was easy to get used to the steady incline, left turn, steady incline, right turn, repeat...it was quite sweaty work and we ended up with identical sweat marks from our rucksacks.
We soon started to come across trail huts. Part accommodation, part food and drink vendor, part ablution provider. For a small fee they also brand your souvenir stick with the stamp associated with the hut. A souvenir branding on the hexagonal trekking stick. The numerous huts broke the walk up and we soon found we were very far above most of the clouds.
As it got steeper, the uniform zig-zag path gave way to some sections for rocky scrambling. The rock was sharp so very grippy under the grip of our boots so not hard to ascend.
Then we were in view of the hut I booked, Torii-so with its distinctive vermillion gate atop some steep stone steps, it was a welcome break (no whiff of truck driver shit here, all clean air!). We reached this rest stop about 4pm and although we felt we had more energy to continue, taking it easy is key to avoiding problems with altitude. At this point we were above the seventh station at 2900m ASL. After a cup of tea, a few photos, a gopro time lapse looking down through the eddying swirls of cloud to Yamanaka-ko, we had curry rice and went to sleep on a mezzanine of futons.