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Climbing Mount Fuji was simultaneously one of the most rewarding as well as one of the most physically and mentally demanding experiences of my life.

The climb began where the picture above was taken, which is an area of the mountain called Kawaguchiko 5th Station. To get to this area I took a bus from Kawaguchiko Train Station. At the time of my climb Mount Fuji was not fully open. As a result, the buses were only running on a limited schedule to try to keep people from attempting to make it to the summit. I went on the first bus of the morning and immediately began climbing. Unfortunately it was already almost 11 in the morning at this point. The final bus headed back to the town where I was staying would leave at about 3 p.m., which meant that if I was going to climb to the top (which I was absolutely determined to do) I would have to find another way to get back to my hostel.

The picture below shows what the second part of the path looked like. The first part of the path was just a basic dirt path without much of a rise. It also shows a guy with a snowboard. When I got to the snowy area I could see tracks where people had carried skis or snowboards up and then used those to get down.

The next picture shows what the next part of the path looked like. There would be spray painted arrows every once in a while to let you know which way to go in case you couldn’t figure it out. I was walking through the clouds at this point.

The next photo shows the beginning of the snow. At this point there were still chains to use as hand rails.

The next picture shows the final part of the climb. The path has completely disappeared. All there was to follow were the footprints of previous climbers. It had started to get really cold and windy here.

It took about five hours to climb to the top, including a quick break to eat lunch. It got harder and harder to make progress the higher up on the mountain I got. Towards the end, every step was a struggle. It was so steep and so slick and I was exhausted. I made it to the top around four in the afternoon. Roughly an hour after the final bus left from Kawaguchiko 5th Station. The picture below is of the volcanic crater at the top.

Making it to the top was so rewarding. I thought the most difficult part of the climb was behind me. I couldn’t have been more wrong. While they trek to the top had been difficult, both physically and mentally, I had no idea what was in store for me still. Below is a picture I took of myself at the top. There wasn’t anyone else up there to ask for a photo. There was so much snow at the top I was walking on the roofs of the buildings. The official climbing season starts a few weeks later when the majority of the snow has melted. It can be very dangerous to climb out of season. If there had been a freak storm I would have really been in trouble.

After spending about 40 minutes at the top admiring the view and relishing in my accomplishment, I began to head down. I can’t count the amount of times I slipped and fell going down. It was very frustrating. It was so slick with the snow and the steepness I had a lot of trouble getting down to the less icy part of the mountain. One nice part was that it was much faster to go down the mountain than to climb up it. I made it back down to the area near where I started in about two hours. At this point there was very little sunlight left. My only option was to walk down the service road. About an hour into the walk the sun had gone down completely and I was left to walk through the pitch black forest by myself. Occasionally I would hear a crashing noise as I inadvertently sneaked up on an animal and sent it running. This was really disturbing for me. Luckily I saw a lot of deer before the sun went down so I used that thought to keep me sane. On the flight to Japan I saw a movie where some hikers get eaten by wolves, so that thought keep trying to make it to the forefront of my mind.

I walked forever. It got to the point where every additional step caused pain to shoot up through my entire body. I later went back to a map and figured out that from the 5th station I walked almost 30 kilometers or 18 miles down that road through the woods. I walked for six hours until I finally came upon a small restaurant. At this point it was about 11 p.m. and I was totally exhausted. I went in to the restaurant to have some water because I had already eaten the food and drank the water I brought with me. I must have looked really bad at this point between the sunburn, dirt and blood from the cuts on my hands. I kept asking the owner of the restaurant where I was on the map and how to get back to the town I was staying in. She thought I needed to go to the hospital. Eventually she called her daughter to come down and translate what I was saying from English to Japanese. When the owner and the last few people in the restaurant heard how far I had walked they were shocked. The owner’s daughter told me there was no way they were going to let me keep walking and drove me back to my hostel. It turned out I was pretty close, the drive was only about ten minutes.

Climbing Mount Fuji was simultaneously one of the most rewarding as well as one of the most physically and mentally demanding experiences of my life. It’s not often that people are put in circumstances where they are pushed to such limits. It was an incredible experience, especially the sense of accomplishment I felt when I finally made it to the summit and then again when I finally made it back to my hostel. I would highly recommend others make the climb, but I would say to wait until actual climbing season.

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