Over the three day weekend, I climbed Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan at 3,776 meters (12,388 feet). It is said that you really must climb it once, but if you climb it twice or more, you are pretty much crazy. That never made sense to me, since mountains are fun to climb, and it’s a lot of fun to climb a nice one during different seasons and different weather. We’d all be idiots if we never climbed Lazy or the Butte more than once. After climbing it, I don’t really agree with this in general. Fuji was a nice mountain with a well-maintained trail and a beautiful view from the top. However, I must say that if you choose to climb the mountain during the official season, you are an idiot. Along with all of the other idiots climbing it. Holy crap. There were so many people, especially after the Subashiri trail that we took met up with the more popular Kawaguchi-ko trail at the 8th station. Imagine 300 people crammed in a small yellow-lit rock-strewn clearing 10,000 feet up a mountain all clambering to hike their way up a narrow trail. Now imagine that 90% of these people are either over 65 years old or are in groups and can’t think for themselves. It’s about the most enraging, annoying situation that I can imagine having while climbing a mountain, and about the wrongest, dumbest way to do so. I was moving slow, pacing myself, and I was passing hundreds of people who were all slaves to the group. I love Japan, but this situation really made me hate the group aspect of the culture. Mountain climbing is about being with nature, about being spontaneous, and free, about being ALONE! It’s not about whatever the hell that all was.
However. The sunrise from the top was beautiful.
And the hike down was a blast; a loose pumice trail straight down the side of the mountain below 9,000 feet. We made it from the 12,000 foot peak to the parking lot at 6,000 feet in 90 minutes. I had several handfuls of dirt and rocks in both boots. It was great! It felt great to say ‘screw you’ to all the slowpokes up there.
So, I would recommend climbing Fuji on a weekday during the end of the season, perhaps in September, and I would recommend doing it with friends.
Or, you could take a cue from Brandon Germer, and do it alone, dangerously, in February.
One reply on “Fuji-san”
This is… the Wretched KING, ..of Freedom.
DON’T go knocking on my door.
There’s SOMETHING here you CAN’T IGNORE.
You’ll always be a THORN in my SIDE
I’ll NEVER be OK with this.