Hello again!
So, a of couple weeks ago I decided to sign up for an overnight Mt. Fuji trip ($165, transportation from/back to Yokosuka included). The Mt. Fuji hiking season (July-August) was coming to an end and this was the last opportunity to do the hike this year through MWR. I was put on the wait list at first but soon got the spot as people cancelled (there were 30 spots total). A prerequisite for signing up was to attend a one hour brief during which they give advice and information for surviving the hike. Aside from that, I was just going to wing it. I rented a backpack and some rain pants since I didn’t have those yet (still living out of my suitcases), got all the other gear I had (decided to hike in my steel toes…), and got on the bus just before 5 am this past Sunday (August 24). The itinerary was as follows:
Day 1:
0445 – Meet at Outdoor Recreation Center (ORC)
0500 – Leave ORC
0730 – Arrive @ Sengen Shrine
0800 – Depart Sengen Shrine
0900 – Arrive @ 5th Station
1700 – Arrive @ 8th Station
Stay the night @ the Fuji-san Hotel
Day 2:
0200 – Depart Fuji-san Hotel
0400 – Arrive @ Mt. Fuji summit
0500 – See sunrise from summit
0530 – Depart summit
1000 – Arrive back down @ 5th station
1100 – Depart 5th station
1500 – Arrive back @ Yokosuka ORC
Sounds like a great itinerary right??? Well, let the picture story begin…
On the way to Sengen Shrine, the bus stopped at a rest stop in Ashigara for a quick restroom break…
After the rest stop, we headed to Sengen Shrine, which is where the true trail head is if you want to hike the entire mountain. This is where people go to pray before beginning their hike and also where they hold a huge bon fire festival every year.
From Sengen Shrine we got back on the bus and headed to our own starting point on Mt. Fuji at the 5th station. This is a very common starting point on the northern side of the mountain going up the Yoshida Trail/Subaru Line (there are four different routes up the mountain). Our guide mentioned that the road leading up to the 5th station is closed to private vehicles for a part of the hiking season to prevent too much pollution (Mt. Fuji is a World Cultural Heritage site) and even for buses it is expensive to drive up to the 5th station (about ¥7000?). The 5th station is at an elevation of about 2305 meters. The summit is at about 3776 meters. At the 5th station, there are a lot of souvenir shops, food stands, a couple of restaurants, and one of only a couple free restrooms on the mountain. This is also where you can pick up a “Fuji stick,” (approx. ¥1000-1400 depending on accessories) which is a popular souvenir that you hike with up the mountain with and pay ¥300 at each mountain hut to get a stamp burnt into it. There are over twelve mountain huts leading up to the summit so you have to be sure to bring enough yen for all of them!
After picking up a Fuji stick of my own, all that was left to do was to start hiking! Since the bunks at the Fuji-san Hotel were first come, first serve, I wanted to beat as many people up the mountain to get a good spot (who wants to sleep wedged between strangers right?).
Phew… about 5 hours later I finally reached the 8th station and Fuji-san Hotel! The hike up was a lot tougher than I thought it would be and I lucked out with the weather (it was overcast most of the day). There were a lot of loose rocks and gravel on the switchbacks and steep rock climbs between the huts. I lost count of how many breaks I had to take but I was able to get all the stamps on my Fuji stick up until the hotel. The tour guide recommended bringing a minimum of 2 liters of water and I had brought almost 3. That was almost gone by the time I got to the hotel already so needless to say I was dehydrated and tired. Once I got to the hotel, I went in to reserve my sleeping spot in the room and then changed into some fresh clothes. Used body wipes to clean off since there are no showers up there. Then I headed outside to the look for some food… thankfully they had a restaurant up there (which I later found out you can order food from the sleeping room and eat there as well). I had two meals for lunch before heading back to take a nap… nothing too special but more than I would’ve expected at the top of a mountain. I’m not sure if it was the altitude or the dehydration but it really kicked me in the head.. I had a pretty bad headache all night long and was a little nauseated with the shivers too. Woke up to eat dinner and drink more water and then back to sleep for the 0200 wake up call for the summit.
Woke up several times throughout the night… noticed it had become much colder and completely covered in the clouds at outside. 0200 came around and the tour guide woke everyone as promised. Just as everyone was waking up and about to start getting ready, guess what?! The hike to the summit was cancelled! Apparently the weather at the summit was too extreme with the temperature dropping below freezing, good winds and quite a bit of rain. The huts between ours and the summit also closed down which meant no shelter for anyone who did want to attempt it, not to mention there would’ve been no sunrise to view up there. The guide did give us the option of continuing up but he made it a point to say he wasn’t going with eheh. I chose to listen to the guy who’s done it over 200 times… soooo, everyone went back to sleep until about 0530 which was when we were supposed to begin our climb back down from the summit. At 0600, we all put our shoes back on, grabbed our Fuji sticks, and headed back down the mountain in the rain.
It took a little less than 2 hours to make it back down to the 5th Station. Much of the way down was slippery gravel so the Fuji stick really helped. Got a few blisters from the steel toes but all in all not a bad hike down. The bus wasn’t going to leave until 1000 so while everyone else finished the climb down I just walked around the shops and grabbed some breakfast from one of the restaurants. The weather at the 5th Station was still misty and windy but for some reason not that cold. Once everyone was back on the bus, we headed back to Yokosuka, stopping by at the same rest stop in Ashigara for lunch. Overall a great experience and awesome hike. I didn’t get to reach the summit (or walk around it) and my Fuji stick is incomplete, but there’s always next season I hope!
As an extra bonus to this post, I Strava’d the hike up an down the mountain. You can see an overview below and for those of you who already have Strava accounts, you can see them in even more detail. External battery packs are awesome and cell phone reception/data were excellent, even at the 8th Station!