Advice on Climbing Mt. Fuji

My friend Tony and I were out one night in Tokyo and had met up with a few other JETs including our friend Liz who had heard about a group of people who going to climb Mt. Fuji the following week. The price was reasonable, round trip for around $70. We would leave from Omiya Train Station at 3 in the afternoon, get to Mt. Fuji around 7 PM and climb through the night arriving at the peak in time for sun rise at 5 AM. Once we had watched the sunrise we had until 2 PM to get down the mountain and catch the bus back to Omiya.

Either because I was drunk or because Liz spoke with a British accent, the entire process seemed simple. When one of the JETs who had climbed the mountain the previous summer agreed that anyone could do it, we were sold. Hoping to take advantage of her expertise we asked her what she thought we should bring on our hike. "Just be sure to bring a hat for your head" was her only advice.

Before the hike Tony wanted to go shopping for supplies. I agreed to meet him at the supermarket to pick up essentials. The first things Tony went for was a small frying pan. He explained to me that he had a small portable gas stove at his apartment and wanted to be sure he had everything he would need to make breakfast at the top of the mountain. Next we picked up eggs, bread, and bacon. I tried to explain to him that it might be easier for us to just make sandwiches and bring them with us but Tony wouldn't hear of it. "When the rest of the losers are biting into their cold sandwiches" he explained "we'll be eating hot eggs and bacon and drinking tea." I couldn't argue with his enthusiasm and was pretty sure that a hot breakfast on the top of Mt. Fuji would be the best breakfast ever.

The following day I packed my backpack with a sweatshirt, a few candy bars and my camera. I was wearing hiking boots, jeans, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap (following the suggestion to bring a hat for my head). I met up with Tony, we divided the supplies that he had brought between us, and headed for the train station. There were about 30 of us going, mostly Americans whom I didn't know and about a 10 Brits. The person who had arranged for the bus encouraged everyone to get some rest because it would be a long night.

At 7 PM we reached the 5th station of Mt. Fuji. There are 10 stations on the mountain and station 5 is the highest that cars can go. We started climbing at dusk.

By 8 PM it was completely dark and you couldn't see 3 feet in front of you without a flashlight. We had a camping stove, a dozen eggs, half pound of bacon, tea kettle, tea, frying pan but no flashlight. Luckily Liz and another friend Claire had flashlights so up we went.

By 9 PM the temperature had started to drop. I pulled out my sweatshirt and realized that if it got any colder, I was going to be in trouble.

By 10 PM I was in trouble. The temperature had dropped to around 40 degrees and it was cold. Worse yet, I was having a hard time breathing. Having grown up below sea level in Florida had not prepared me for the altitude.

At midnight I was miserable. Every step was an effort. More than that I was angry that the only advice we had received was to bring a hat! How about gloves, winter jacket and an O2 tank?! We decided to lighten our load by making tea. This has always been a puzzle to me but British people can enjoy tea anywhere and anytime and I have to admit that in the freezing night it was really good tea!

By 2 AM we had started to get closer to the summit. This meant that the trail now changed to a series of switch backs. Rather than going straight up we would walk in one direction for about 1000 ft, then turn and go in the opposite direction. At each turn there would be a small hut where vendors sold $10 bottles of water and canisters of air. There were also restrooms but because it is a mountain with no running water all of the waste ran out of holes in the bottom of the floor and down the side of the mountain. This meant that you could smell the approaching turn before you could see it. Worst yet, the path was so packed with tourist hiking to the the top that the closer we got to the top the more it seemed like waiting in a line for a ride at Disney.

At 4:30 AM we reached the peak. We found a place for us to set up our breakfast. I unpacked my bag and fell asleep. As a former cross country runner, Tony had nearly bounded up the mountain and had reserves of energy so he started cooking breakfast. At some point he handed me tea, eggs and bacon and I ate what could have been the best breakfast I have ever had. Then fell back asleep.

Somewhere around 5 or 5:30, the sun came up. I remember someone waking me up and all the Japanese around me yelling "Banzai" and cheering. I saw the sunrise and went back to sleep.

At 6 AM our guide told us that if we were had to start down the mountain to stay on schedule so we started down taking a different route from the one we had come up. The weather was still cold but breakfast had given me some energy. We had also increased the size of our group by one, Cindy from California. She had been traveling alone but had brought along cookies which were a perfect compliment to the tea.

We had been hiking for about two hours when Cindy stumbled and fell. The trail was rocky and her sneakers provided no support. She twisted her ankle badly and started crying. I wasn't sure what to do with a hysterical Californian and the thought of slapping her crossed my mind but that only seems to work in movies. We were tired and cold and Liz and Claire suggested we leave her there. Somehow I convinced everyone that we needed to stick together. We each took turns helping her walk which was becoming more difficult as her ankle had swollen to twice its size. We stopped at the first station we came to and between the 5 of us were able to convey in Japanese that Cindy had hurt her ankle. As it turns out there is no way to get down from the Mt. Fuji except to walk, something I still find hard to believe from a country that has hot tea vending machines next to dirty women's underthings vending machines and life sized robots that greet you in department stores. We kept walking but there was no way we were going to make it by 2.

When we stopped for a break at noon, Liz and Claire were ready to leave Cindy for dead. Tony may have been thinking the same thing but didn't say it out loud. We decided to split up the group. Tony, because he could travel faster than all of us would head down the mountain to make sure the bus did not leave without us. Liz and Claire would stick together and go at their own pace. I would try to help Cindy down the mountain.

At this point we were walking in pea gravel and with every step our boots sank in gravel to mid calf and a plume of volcanic dust erupted around us. I had never known what boot gaiters were for until I saw Japanese walking past us wearing them. The gravel caused us to stop every 20 minutes to empty the rocks in our shoes.

As we continued down there seemed to be no end in sight. Cindy's ankle had started to turn black and blue and as we neared the 2 PM mark she started crying again. Then we heard a rumble behind us. A tractor was on the way down the mountain with a load of trash. We were able to flag down the driver and convinced him to let us ride with him in the back. By the time he dropped us off at the last station we smelled like trash and were covered from head to toe in black volcanic dust. Cindy's face was completely black except where her tears had cut flesh colored streaks into her cheeks. As I made my way to the bathroom I saw that I looked no better. It was 3:30 when we finally made it to bus parking lot but there was no bus to be found.

Cindy and I managed to catch a train back home, something I would have not been able to do without her as I didn't have enough money for the train or understand enough Japanese to get on the right line. I arrived home at 6 PM, called Tony and left a message then took 2 showers. The first one I realized only after stepping out hadn't removed all the dust. Tony later told me that he had insisted the bus stay as late as possible but the driver would not wait because of traffic. They left Mt. Fuji around 3 and didn't get back home until after 8 PM so I had actually beaten him home.

The following year, as the new batch of JETs arrived in Japan, a young girl asked me if I knew anything about climbing Mt. Fuji. Sure, I said, it's a lot of fun; just make sure to bring a hat for your head.