"If you come to Japan and don't climb Mt. Fuji, you're a fool; but if you climb it more than once, you're an even BIGGER fool."
This is the Mt Fiji Trip story
When we got back from our summer trip, Dan and I had planned to take a trip to Tokyo and climb Mt Fuji. Sadly, we did not actually make any plans or reservations other than securing a rental van. We decided maybe we should do it next year and scrapped that plan. So when my friend Sabrina asked if I would like to do a Mom's Trip to climb the mountain, I jumped at the chance. It was a no-brainer for me: Someone else had done all the planning, and I just had to show up with money. I didn't ask too many questions so I wouldn't psych myself out. I perhaps should have....
The plan was to leave Iwakuni on the first train at 0450, arrive at the mountain around noon, hike to station 8.5 on the Subashiri Trail, spend the night at the mountain hut there, get up at 2am and hike the rest of the way, and watch the sunrise from the summit, then hike down. I came late to the group, so the trail and plan had been set without my input. They liked the overnighter to see the sunrise, and the trail was chosen for the lovely forested beginning and the rock run. Sounds good, right?!
I spent some time stressing about what-all I needed to pack, and what to pack it in. I packed 6 different packs multiple times before deciding to play it safe and taking the larger of the hiking backpacks. It was a good choice. The packing list is extensive! You need to be prepared for 80 degree weather and 30 degree weather, plus rain is always a possibility. Ultimately, I was pleased with the choices I made in what to bring- I needed everything I packed. I did not have hiking boots, so I wore my old tennis shoes that had good support. I added a second pari of shoes last minute since rain was on the forecast. That was also a good choice!
I figured I was in decent shape. I run 3 miles 3 days a week, I swim and I do Power Pump class at the gym. Plus, 250,000 people of all ages climb this mountain every year in July and August alone! How hard could it be?!!
It was hard. Really, really hard.
Thursday August 18, I got up at 3:30 and met 5 friends at 4:15 am to drive to the train station. We took a train to Hiroshima and then the Shin, to another Shin, then a train to another train and arrived at Gotemba station, where we had to wait for the 11:45 bus to take us to Mt Fuji's 5th station.
Look at me! I'm all excited to be at Fuji!
Me and my friend Annie, at Station 5 before we start. It was Moms on Adventure!
I'm ready! This was the selfie I sent to Dan before we started.
Look how happy I am at the beginning of the trail.
I was excited and ready to take on the world. I am woman, hear me roar!
It was 2 pm when we started the climb.
How gorgeous is this? Yeah, just the first 25 yards were like this.
Up to the lovely shrine.
Then it looked more like this. And it started to drizzle. That was good because it kept it cool.
It was like walking in the clouds... probably because we were.
I know it is blurry, but it is all I have. I am a hot mess here. I'm soaked on the outside from the rain, and soaked from the inside from sweat. I was working hard! No, I did not put my poncho on yet, because I was too hot. And I was already wet from the inside out.
Aaaannnd then I did not take any more pictures on Thursday. It was hard work. I realized I have pretty much always lived at sea level, and I haven't ever done any actual hiking, and certainly not hiking up an actual mountain, and not really ever done anything with a pack on my back. Well, there was that one time when I was 12 and we backpacked in to Girls Camp, but I did NOT know what I was in for. Station 5 is at 1,000 meters, so.... 3200 feet up, and we started from that and went up to 3776 meters/12388 feet.
The altitude was not my friend. It seemed like my friends were hiking easily, and I was sweating and huffing and puffing and my heart was racing. It was rough. And I was thinking, how long are we doing this?!! We needed to be at our mountain hut by 8pm and were worried we might not make it. I was getting more concerned with each step as it got harder and harder for me. I could not figure out why it was so difficult to pick my feet up and climb. There were stations along the way where we stopped and unloaded backpacks and had snacks and took 15 minute breaks. It was tough to put the back pack on and start moving again.
Around 6pm we split into a slower and faster group. I was not in the faster group! They were off to make sure we got to the hut before 8 so we would get dinner and beds. I kept moving. But I did not want to be moving. I was tired, and wet and hot and tired. It drizzled on and off and was foggy most of our climb. In hindsight, that was a marvelous thing, since we could not look up and see how far we still had to go.
It got dark, and the headlamps came out. I thought mine was good, but it really was just good for running on flat surfaces on well known routes. For pitch black mountain climbing, it left a lot to be desired. And it is tough to climb in the dark when rocks are harder to see and the path is hard to see and only a rope fence may be keeping you from death.
We were heading for station 8.5 but it is confusing, since there is a 6th station, then the "old" 6th station, the 7th station, then the "old" 7th station, then the 8th station and the "old" 8th station. That's a lot of stations and when each one is so arduous to get to.... well, it is mentally demoralizing to get to 8 and think you might be done, only to find out you still have more to go.
We did get hung up a bit at the 8th station before getting it together to make the last 30 minutes to 8.5. I will forever remember that my friend Sabrina, in the fast group, came back for us. We had another 20 minutes to the station and she came back. This boggles my mind since I would not have. I was too tired, too exhausted, too miserable. I would never have gotten back up, never have hiked down the mountain in the pitch black for any reason, but she did. She came down and cheered us on and got us where we needed to be.
We got to the hut, got out of the back packs and shoes and had dinner- the most amazingly delicious rice and meatloaf patty I have ever eaten. Then we worked out how and where we were sleeping.
The hut was not quite like I thought it would be. I knew it was bunks, and I knew it was close quarters. What surprised me was just HOW close quarters. The place was full beyond capacity. They had a long room with 3 looooong sets of bunks and people cheek and jowel in there. When they showed us our spot I thought it was a tight but doable squeeze for two.... and then learned it was for 4. There was no changing room, no sinks for washing. You could go outside and pay 200 yen ($2) to use the bathroom, but that was just a toilet in a stall. I took out my contact lenses on a bench outside the hut.
Then I spent the night snuggling up to Sabrina on one side and Shelley on the other. If I lay on my back, I was touching both of them. I was slightly more fortunate than the other gal, who slept next to a Japanese guy. Oh, and there was one blanket per 2 people, and the "bed" was just a thin futon on a pallet on the ground, and the pillow was the traditional Japanese buckwheat pillow. So, not a good night of sleep. I'm not sure anyone actually slept. It was lights out at 9pm, and then the snoring, coughing, shuffling cacophony began. And around midnight people started getting up to finish the climb! It was crazy!
We got up a little before 2. It took me forever to get my stuff organized. My clothes from the night before were still wet. I'd removed them and hung them up before bed. I had put on dry shirt and pants over my wet underthings. My underthings were dry, but my hair was still damp. So I had to put my wet stuff in my bag, change out my wet shoes for dry shoes, pull warm gear out.... all that stuff. And I was struggling with the need to throw up. On the plus side, I had expected to have seriously sore muscles, but everything was moving just fine.
The amazing thing to me was, that at 2 am, the trail up the mountain was already full. As far as you could see up and down the trail were headlamps. It was insane! We got into the line and I was SO glad the pace was nice and slow. I felt like I was a refugee in a death march. I felt awful, and could just trudge along with my head down, praying I wasn't going to toss my cookies. It was a tough climb- steeper and up rocks. Doing it in the dark, I was terrified I would mis a step and fall. Thankfully it went well, and we finally reached the summit at 3:45 Friday morning.
I was drenched in sweat again, and once I stopped moving, it started freezing. I was so miserable, I did not care about anything. I think I just can't take the altitude. My brain was not working well; I was exhausted and nauseated and my head hurt and I just could not function. I found a little fire pit in a pavilion out of the wind and I parked myself there and dozed. Yes, I completely missed the glorious sunrise that everyone had come to see. And I did not care. I just wanted to die. Or to not die, I guess. Shelley was delighted with the pictures she took and apparently it was wonderful for everyone else.
Me, warming myself. Yes, I know, those are a totally ridiculous choice of shoes. But they were dry, and Thursday's shoes were still soaking wet.
I felt mildly functional around 5:30.
See, I'm up and moving. And that's the crowd of people behind me, all basking in the sun rising on top of the mountain.
You can't really see that that hilltop is covered with people, all who hiked to the summit to see the sunrise.
This is the crater on top of Mt Fuji. The lighting is horrid, an you can't see it, but there was an amazing full moon hanging over it.
One tired me, at the crater. That's my "I'm so miserable, but hey, I'm on top of Mt Fuji" smile.
I'm on top of the world!
The Torii Gate just before the summit.
We wandered around the top for a bit. I realized that I really should buy some souvenirs, but I just did not care. So I did not. I did get the stamp for my Fuji stick, but that was it. I had brought post cards up to mail from the post office, but apparently it was on the summit on the other side. I did not want to go searching for it. I just wanted to go home. We went and did a group picture and then headed down. Sabrina and Annie wanted to take the hour to walk the rim. I think I have established that I was a babbling, incoherent ball of misery, so obviously all I wanted to do was get down. So we split up into two groups again.
I was excited to get the descent going. We started at 6am and it was amazing. We were above the clouds and you could see up the mountain and down the mountain. It was indescribably fantastic.
Look how high we are! That building at the bottom of the trail you can see is one of the Stations.
Crazy cool mountain trail.
Yep, that's how I climbed down.
All the people are in miniature! We are so high up!
The trail was less than fantastic for me. It was a lot steeper than I expected. It was really fun to see the stations fly past though! Areas that took an hour to climb the night before took 20 minutes to go down. One of the brochures describes it like this: "Sunabashiri is the tremendous trail that extends about 3km from the 7th station to the Sunaharai 5th station so that you can descend in almost a straight line."
And then we hit the rock run. I did not realize that those 3km would feel like 100km as I struggled to make my non-functional legs plow through ankle deep volcanic gravel with each step. The sand slid with each step and I never knew how far I would slide. It was horrific. I thought it was just a section of trail and that it would get better. No. It did not.
I was hating life. I felt better than I had in the morning, as we got lower in altitude, but the awful rock run and steep trail were dreadful. I was so hot and there was no place to stop and get my water out, and I could not reach my water without taking off my back pack. So I shuffled down the mountain and slid a lot and fell a lot and thought dark thoughts at Sabrina for choosing this route. It was NEVER-ENDING!
Worst part? 200 meters from the end of the rock run, Sabrina and Annie caught up with us. Yep, they RAN down the rock run and cut out an hour of the time I struggled down the mountain. I felt so incompetent right then. I will admit, I WAS the Weakest Link.
Thankfully we had only 30 more minutes of forest trail after the awful rock run. And my legs and feet were no longer listening to me. It was tough hiking down the gorgeous forest trail when I wasn't sure my feet were going to go where I was asking them.
We finally made it into the 5th Station a little after 11am Friday morning. Everyone else enjoyed some yummy food. I still had eaten pretty much nothing, and was still feeling a little pukey. Ice cream was the only thing that didn't make me want to hurl, so I had a delicious chocolate cone. We caught the 11:50 bus back to Gotemba, and then took a taxi (fine, we took 2 taxis) to Camp Fuji.
So, It took us about 7.5 hours to ascend and 5 hours to descend. That was WAY off from the brochure's standard estimated times of 6.5 hours up and 3 hours down!!
We were very sad to learn that Camp Fuji's TLF does not have AC. I guess for $50 a night you can't complain too much. Most of the girls went out to the Onsen for a soak. I started laundry since half my stuff was wet and icky. Then I took a little nap. We went out to dinner at the O Club and I enjoyed a delicious burger and fries, pretty much all I'd eaten that day. And we went to bed about 8:30pm. I slept better than I thought I would and woke up at 5:30. My legs were very very sore. Mainly my quads and my calves a little, and really only when I needed to stand or go up or down stairs....
The view from my window is Mt Fuji. But you can't even tell, because the clouds rolled in and obscured everything. Sigh.
We left at 6:15 and repeated our taxi, train, train, shin, shin, train ride back to Iwakuni and arrived home at 1pm. Ahhh.... home sweet home!
Synopsis: It was awful. Pretty much everything about climbing Mt Fuji was awful. I would never do this again.
That being said, I am glad I went. I had some great company (Sabrina, Annie, Shelley, Kelly and Julia), and we did have a good time together. Worth doing? Yes, yes it was!
