Mount Fuji Japan Trekking – Prelude

Let me share with you what it takes to trek up Mount Fuji Japan. After months of training at the hills/gunung around Kuala Lumpur, the 12-member team click here is ready and shall depart for Japan on Monday 26 July 2010. Climbing Mount Fuji, most Japanese would take a bus to Station 5 and then trek up to Station 8. Have dinner, sleep early and start trekking up to the peak to see sunrise at 4:45 a.m. The temperature would be around 5 degrees Celsius in the cold morning.

Spectacular sunrise over Mount Fuji

As for the Malaysian team where yours truly (KC) is one of the team members, we are like hero and gung ho up from ground zero to Station 5. Not only that, we carry our main backpacks (as heavy as 10 plus kilograms) as we shall descend to the other side of Mount Fuji. According to the Team Lead, Yee Choi, we shall start the journey (from a hotel heading to Mount Fuji by bus) at 7:30 a.m. sharp. The team shall wait at the hotel lobby at 6:50 a.m.; breakfast is served at 7:00 a.m. and we have 20 minutes only to complete eating our breakfast before the public bus comes – such is the military precision in carrying out the tasks. Once we are at Mount Fuji, it should be a whole day of intense trekking activities.

100 Yen or RM 3.70 for a visit to toilet at Station 5 or higher

According to brochures, the climbing time to Station 5 is 5-6 hours and from Station 5 to the peak is another 5-6 hours. At those lodges at Station 5 to 8, I see photos that to go to toilet has to pay 100 Japanese Yen (RM 37 to 1,000 Yen; so 100 Yen is RM 3.70). Drinking water is about 500 Yen (about RM 19) for a 1-litre bottle!!

Tori Gate and Climbers on Mount Fuji

Photos and texts below are extracted from a blogger's site: Andy Gray … click here1 or here2 . For now, the important thing to understand is that many people think climbing up Mount Fuji is a drag. I believe 2 percent of Japanese people climb Mount Fuji during the lifetimes. That means that 98 percent of the Japanese people you invite to go with you will decline with reasons like:

a) Hahahaha (nervous laughter, most common), b) Followed by, "It's too hard" (if you press them), or c) "I'm not going" (if you continue to press). Most want to know if I intend to carry oxygen (available in aerosol cans at the place where you start). Tori Gate and Climbers on Mount Fuji I'm including this picture to show the crowds climbing up Mount Fuji. This is the very top of the climb, but what you see is a representative section of trail. From about the 8th Station to the top the trail was packed with climbers, exactly as you can see here. Imagine a line 4 or 5 people wide slowly filing into a movie theater (that happens to be at the top of a mountain) and you have a picture of the final two hours before the summit.

On cloud 9 with a spectacular view

As I said, the trail became quite crowded after the 8th Station. We had three hours before sunrise and a short distance remaining, but I started to wonder if we'd make it. Our progress was literally stop and go. In fact, after an hour I concluded that the chances of being on top for sunrise were slim at best. Creeping along I resisted the temptation to "widen" the trail. That is, it's always possible to walk so far to the side of the trail that you can simply pass everyone. The biggest reason not to try this is because if you slip on a rock and start it rolling downhill you might kill someone coming up from below. No kidding.

Click here for the original website and a bigger trail map

The Japanese's saying that a wise person climbs FujiSan once; a fool climbs it twice ... Okay, in a few days' time (26 July 2010), I am going to be a wiser person (not when I organize it for a second try) ... :-) Nevertheless, for trekkers, it is always fun to return with a different group of friends

. 

Do click here for the start of the trekking when at Japan (Part 1).

.

Click here for all posting on Mount Fuji trekking (scroll down the pages; click Older Posts).

Posted by KC ..