Fujisan: Ask a Fool

If you want expert advice on climbing Mt. Fuji in Japan, just ask a fool.

Many Japanese avow that only a fool would climb Mt. Fuji more than once. But only such a fool would accumulate sufficiently diverse experience to qualify as an expert on the hallowed mountain. The mountain is replete with variables. Just the climactic changes alone might create an entirely unique experience from one day to the next.

Nevertheless, if you talk to enough people who've made the ascent only once, you will discern some common  wisdom on which you can confidently rely: 1) Start out adequately rested, 2) You can't put on too much sunscreen, 3) It will be cold near the top, 4) Wear good, comfortable hiking boots, 5) Bring plenty of food and water...or money if you plan to purchase same on the mountain, 6) The descent is harder than the ascent, 7) By the end of the day you will completely despise rocks.

Likewise, there are some consistent facts: 1) The linear distance from the 5th station to the summit is about 6.8 kilometers, 2) The elevation change is about 6500 feet. 3) The elevation at the summit is about 12,220 feet Mean Sea Level. Those were the numbers registered by my Garmin Forerunner GPS when we made the climb from Kawaguchiko's 5th Station. The other starting points may be slightly different.

I garnered some other pearls of wisdom from friends and shipmates who had previously completed the adventure: 1) The average time to ascend to the summit is about six hours. The descent usually takes half the time as the climb up. 2) Expect to be very, very tired at the end of the day. Not a good idea to drive back to anywhere in that state of fatigue. 3) Even better idea is to stay someplace close the night before, and also the night after the climb. 4) Bring a headlamp or flashlight in case you end up finishing in the dark.

These aphorisms all proved to be mostly true. Our ascent took seven hours. It did get a bit cold at the top, but not bad at all. The descent, for the less agile older guy anyway, took five hours. We finished in the dark, thankful for the illumination we brought with us. We did not bring enough food or water, but we survived. One of us (aforementioned older guy) could benefit from caloric deficit in any event. And yes, we were too tired to go anywhere but to our ryokan at the end of the day. Birru and onsen worked very well to assuaged the kinks and stiffness of a day's hard mountaineering.

That's pretty much the physical gouge on climbing Mt. Fuji. Pretty straightforward, really. But this Bucket List adventure is not just about the physical challenge. Hey, we have marathons and triathlons for that purpose. The Mt. Fuji ascent is much more of a mental and spiritual test. More on that in later posts.

One final word of wisdom from the older guy: Trim your toenails before you go. As a runner I should have known that.