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Fuji is done. Beaten. Climbed and descended. Not in style. Oh no. It's actually a very hard mountain to climb I think. Andy and I climbed at night - which has got to be the most exciting time - starting from 2300 metres ( level 5 ) at 9pm and arriving on the summit for the sunrise at 4:30. The main route is mostly over medium sized volcanic rocks which you have to climb over and navigate around. Basically it took us 7 hrs to climb a km and a half of these rocky paths. The rocks are loose and often just crumble from beneath your feet causing you to fall backwards, and in addittion to this, after the 3000 metres mark the air becomes a lot thinner and the climb becomes pretty breath taking ( in it's literal sense ). From level 8 ( 3200 metres ), the incline becomes steeper and the rocks bigger. Every 10 or so minutes, if you didn't stop you just wobbled from rock to rock! By about 3:45, I thought I'd better get to the top and didn't rest till I reached the summit at 4:15! I was ecstatic. Andy and the people we'd grouped up with were all behind me so I had no-one to share it with so I shared it with the sky - and what a sky it was! A vast blanket of clouds stretched out infront of me and Fuji, and on the horizon the red tint of the sun beginning to rise. It was amazing to think I was on top of Fuji volcano, 3773 metres above sea level, the highest point in Japan! When Andy and the rest came up we watched the sun rise, took pictures, listened to music, bought each other drinks, had ramen noodles, slept and rested. It was such an awesome atmosphere that even a hardened unsociable man like me seemed to be speaking joyfully non - stop to everyone - people from Japan, Canada, America, Australia, Hong Kong, Germany.....I think the mountain itself isn't beautiful at all close up. It's certainly an impressive site, a bit like the moon or a desert lanscape, but there's no greenery or waterfalls or rivers like on most hikes. I think it's just the joy of climbing a mountain that at a distance looks so majestic and knowing that you're on the top of that mountain. To remind you of this fact, as you wind your way up if you look to the sides you can see the two steep inclines that produce the conical effect seen from a distance. Anyway, as they say, " you're wise to climb Fuji once, but a fool to climb it twice". But then the view from such a high vantage point is so magnificent I'd be keen to try again on a cloudless day! The climb down however is absolutely morale crushing as the route is just made of endless zig - zagging paths of very loose, small rocks. It's very tiring, very boring and very annoying. As I made my way down I could see 20 or so people that had just stopped in the middle of the path gazing down despondantly at the rest points in the distance seemingly forever out of reach! I think the only way I'd climb it again was if they were to build an escaltor to come down on!!!
posted by PA on Thursday, July 03, 2003
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