Mt. Fuji 3776m (12,388 ft.)

We started at the Kawaguchi-ko 5th station at 2305m (7562 ft.) at 7pm as the sun was setting. We finished at 3776m (12,388 ft.) at 4:30am as the sun was rising. That means we climbed 1471m (4826 ft.) in 9.5 hrs.

There were about 25 of us from Toyama that climbed Mt. Fuji this weekend. But we divided up into small groups. I climbed with Team Niikawa, 4 of us in total (3 of us above).

The sun is rising and we are at the top of Mt. Fuji (finally). For awhile as we were climbing, I thought the sun would never rise again. I thought we had entered some kind of hell....a never ending climb up a mountain in the cold rain with thousands of people fighting each other to get to a top that didn't exist. We're smiling, but it was a bit forced. We've been up all night and we're freezing.

This is one small corner of the summit. It was packed with people trying to get the best picture of the sun coming up. It was like trying to navigate the corridors of a college football stadium...lines for food, lines for the bathroom, people puking, people passed out, people EVERYWHERE! It wasn't being at the top was so bad though, it was getting up there with all these people! The trail was packed MOST of the time. The last 3-4 hours we would take a baby step every 10-30sec. It was slow moving! They need to start a permit system or something. There were TOO MANY people climbing!

I was relieved when the sun finally did come up. It meant the world wasn't over and we had escaped hell. And it meant we could take off some layers of clothing and finally warm up. It also meant, we were that much closer to being done. Only 4-5 hours more to get down.


Yep, that's me at the top. I made it up and back down. In total, we were on the mountain for 15 hours, in the bus for 16 hours, and I didn't sleep for 40 hours. I got home last night, dropped my bags in the door, showered and was in bed by 7:30pm. I slept 13 hours...woke up a little stiff.

I'm glad I did it. I'm glad Team Niikawa made it to the top and back down. But I'll never do it again.

Click here for Brett's account of Team Niikawa on Mt. Fuji and more pics!