Mt. Fuji

Well, I finally did it. I finally climbed Mt. Fuji. Andrew and I climbed it, that is.

We started out at the Kawaguchiko 5th Station which is at around 2300 meters (7500 ft.). We set out at 9:20 on the night of the 18th. The idea was to make it to the top before sunrise. Apparently, in Japan, it's a really cool thing to be on top of Mt. Fuji, Japan's highest and most famous peak, to watch the sun rise. It makes sense. After all, 日本 (Japan) means "origin of the sun."

As we hiked up the mountain, there were a series of mountain stations or huts, such as this one.

There are some bulldozer trails that go all the way up the mountain, and the huts keep themselves stocked with food and fuel via bulldozers.

The hike was going just great until I got altitude sickness somewhere between 10,000 and 11,000 feet. When I say altitude sickness, I am talking more about nausea and headache (and not the serious pneumonia and brain swelling). I could go just fine, I just couldn't walk too fast without feeling extremely nauseous.

I think there were a number of factors that came into play here. First, the altitude was fairly high (although not really that high--I mean, I have been higher). We also hadn't had any sleep (also been done before on overnight hikes). I have also been living in Minnesota at 1,000 feet for the last two years (probably not a huge factor, though). It was freezing cold and really humid (maybe a factor). I was really tired (whatever). But I think the biggest factor was that we went from a couple of hundred feet above sea level to 12,500 in a matter of 10 hours. But after I left the contents of my stomach at around 11,000 feet, I felt quite a bit better, and I was eventally able to get to the top, while only collapsing on the trail a few times to sleep. Yeah, it sounds pretty sad, doesn't it? . . .

But we did get to the top in time not only to see the actual sunrise, but also the gorgeous false sunrise. We actually arrived there at 4:15 or so, or about 7 hours after setting out. If I hadn't gotten sick, then I think we probably could have done it in more like 6 hours.

There were hundreds of other people on the summit.
Check out this sunrise photo,
and don't miss the several peaks, totally dwarfed, at the bottom of the picture.

And here were are at the top.
I look really happy, don't I?

After taking an hour or so to catch our breath (so to speak), we decided to walk around the crater on top. There were a few reasons for this. One was that the crater was pretty, and we wanted to see it. Another was that we wanted to look off of all sides of the mountain. But the most important reason to walk around the crater was that the actual highest point on the mountain was on the other side of the crater. Most people who hike Mt. Fuji never bother to walk over to it, but we decided to make the effort.
And here we are at the highest point in Japan.
The marker says, "日本最高峰富士山剣が峰三七七六米." [Tsurugi ga mune, Mt. Fuji, the highest peak in Japan. 3776 meters.]

It took us about 3 hours to walk around the crater, but if I had been feeling normal, it probably would have only taken half that time.

After we were almost all of the way around the crater, I decided to cave and get some oxygen at a hut on top of the mountain. Andrew actually went and got it, since I was in such sad shape.
I have to say that after taking about ten puffs of oxygen, not only did my headache go away immediately, but so did my nausea. It was terrific! I should have done it six hours earlier. It wasn't like the oxygen bestowed any super powers. It just made me feel more normal.

There were a lot of things to take pictures of up on the mountain. For example, there was plenty of snow, . . .
. . . plenty of clouds, . . .
. . . and even some Tibetan flags flapping in the wind at one of the huts.

After a long descent, we arrived back at the 5th Station just after 2:00 in the afternoon, 17 hours after we started out.

There were mobs of tourists there, waiting to begin the hike themselves.
Now, for those of you who are familiar with Mt. Timpanogos in Utah, I have to say that Mt. Fuji was a much more difficult hike, no matter how you look at it. Fuji is 12,388 feet tall (3,776 meters). Timp is tall, but only 11,749 feet (3,581 meters). That isn't a big difference. But whereas you could get up on top of Timp in around 5 hours and back down in like 3, Fuji is more like 6 and 4, and 7 and 5 for the actual highest point. Fuji also feels larger because the peak is 11,000 feet above the valley, whereas Timp is only like 7,000 feet above the valley. But I have to say that Timp is much prettier (no offense to the Japanese!).

But anyway, it was just good to get Fuji under my belt. Now all I have to do is forget how difficult it was so that I will want to come back again! I have almost forgotten already.