mt. fuji : part two

(part one)

the bus ride was uneventful.  in fact, we arrived at 9:35pm - 20 minutes early.  we gave ourselves a 10pm starting time, made a trip to the bathroom, stretched and got ourselves psyched up to start climbing.  while we were waiting, bus after bus came with more and more hikers.  the weather was good and it was good to know we weren't totally crazy climbing through the night (or, at least to know we were surrounded by equally crazy people, one of the two!).

the first bit of the hike actually has some downhill sections but then quickly goes into uphill mode before the 6th station.  the 6th station is also the "safety center" and the men are wearing uniforms that resemble police officer uniforms.  the old man is the same guy who stopped me (and Chelsea) a few years ago when we tried to climb in the middle of a typhoon (won't make that mistake again!).  he handed us each a mt. fuji map with all the mountain huts and travel times between them.  the numbers were pretty much the same as the ones i'd found and jotted down off the internet (give or take 10 minutes).

i don't have much to say about the hike up.  Ro and i hike at roughly the same pace, which makes for easy travel.  we stopped here and there, but never for more than 10 minutes.  if you stop any longer, all that sweat cools and you get seriously cold.  we also attempted to evade the annoying bells attached to many a hikers sticks (each mountain hut has "stamps" that they burn into the wooded sticks for the ultimate, and most costly, souvenir of your climb).  if we heard a bell coming, we'd wait to see if they took a break too or not.  if they did, it meant time to leave for us.  we were prepared clothing wise, but the hike kept us fairly warm; Ro was the only guy still in shorts somewhere among the 7th station huts.

we took a bag of hard candy, some chocolate covered almonds and 2 liters of fluid (1L water each, another liter of pocari sweat for me and lemon vitamin water for Ro).  we also had 2 calorie mates (ate half, i think) and we had more chocolate, but didn't eat it.  during one clothing change, Ro used the bathroom (probably was 200yen?), but otherwise, we made it to the top without buying anything else.

around the 8th station huts, things were starting to get backed up.  between 1:30 and 2:30am, the people who started climbing the day before and slept mid way in the huts start getting up and making the last stretch to the top for the sunrise.  there are tour groups of 20-50 people, which clog up the half switchbacks and half semi-rock climbing trail.  there were people climbing up into all available spaces between the roped off trail.  i'm estimating that it added an hour to our climbing (which worked out fine in the end as we still made it with lots of time to spare).  the photo from part one is looking back down the mountain with everyone jammed together with flashlights and headlamps.  near the top, things started to move again (comparably) and we got to the top just before 4am.

we stopped by some of the huts and surprised people i knew from previous summers and made our way to the hut i worked at the last two summers.  Ro and i both had ramen and waited until just before 5am to head outside and find a good spot to watch the sunrise.

the sunrise was better than anything Ro has seen in his previous two climbs (both were cloudy and there was no real "sunrise").  beautiful and amazing yes, but not spectacular.  what was spectacular was watching it sitting huddled together on the top of the world. (cue cheesy music)

we returned to the hut but felt bad for taking up seats as two nonpaying customers.  instead we snuck into the back (okay, a girl i knew from last year said, "why don't you go to the back?") and found an open sleeping spot.  we slept for a couple hours until we awoke to the hut staff opening the back door to clean the sleeping area.  we surprised them as we were on the top bunk of the barrack style sleeping area and no one noticed us.  it was kind of awkward, but whatever, Ro and i giggled under the covers before forcing ourselves up and out from the warmth of the blankets.

we hung out for a couple hours, wandering the "village" on the summit and saying hello to people i knew.  we fell asleep out on the bench seats in the sun and ate chocolate covered almonds.  pretty soon it was time for Ro to leave.  he had to work the next day and i was planning on staying up for four days as part guest part worker.

i walked with him part way down the trail, kissed him goodbye and managed to snag a ride up on the supply bulldozer that was just coming up the trail.  and soon i was back up in the summit village...