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Monday September 15, 1997: 6:45pm: 6th station
...And the rest is trivial.
The path begins going down. Strange, but nice. Then, you get to the *real* path. IT doesn't go down. No, it goes up. I was quite out of breath, quickly. But, it was OK. Some parts of the path are dirt, some gravel, some cobblestone - de finitely a climb, already.
Actually, we reached the 6th station at 6:39. Hm, we'll be up and down in a jiffy! (joke)
Jon and I made a pact that we're not allowed to complain until we get to the 8th station. I have a feeling it will be getting a bit silent around here...
Actually, it's really quiet up here. I can hear the drip of the rain and the wind... nothing else. Neat, but a bit spooky. I think we may be the only ones climbing tonight... maybe noone likes the rain.. or maybe they know something we don't!
I think it has stopped raining now.
Wow, it is so neat, the view from up here.
Yeah, we ate dinner (kinda) p.b. and j sandwhiches and some sembeh (Japanese rice crackers). Yummy. And now it is 7:14pm and we shall be heading out now... it's getting chilly...
9:25pm: 7th station (I think)
Where do I start? Sigh. Well, we got to the 7th station about 25 minutes ago - making the ascent between the 6th and the 7th about 1 hr. 45 mins. Right now I'm feeling OK actually...
We started up the path from the 6th station, which was volcanic ash. Ya know, like sand, where you slip a bit on each step. Some parts were quite steep, but I didn't have to use my hands much.. until later. Anyways, the path doesn't go straight up the volcano - it zigzags back and forth every 10 metres or so. In the dark it wasn't so bad to see - but Jon's got a flashlight and obviously that helps. We got a bit confused at one of the path crossings... but after awhile we figured it out, so that' s OK. The path was wide enough for us to walk beside eachother, so it was easy use of the flashlight. We agreed that the walking sticks we bought were a great help.
Ah, and after a long trudge (with no complaints, of course) we see that we're almost at this building with bright lights. Yay! That must be the 7th station! But then... the path gets thinner - we're walking single-file now... and I start to have t o use my hands a lot more to hoist myself up over the rocks.. and then... huh? The path ends. Just sheer rockface in front of us. oh oh. So we backtrack (great) down to this hut we'd seen not too long before. I guess since it's not climbing season an ymore, it was closed. We could NOT figure out where to go though because there was no dirt path anymore, just rock face. Yet, we were so close to that station! Argh!
Meanwhile it had started to rain... again. We had to spend a good 10 minutes just figuring out where to go next. We agreed that the only possible way up was to scale the rock face. Really? Yeah, really. At first we weren't sure if that's what we were supposed to do, but after awhile we decided it was. Wow, this was so cool! Like, we had to find hand holds and pull ourselves up by the chains they'd placed firmly along the rock face. It was kinda scary, but really neat that we made it through! Not easy stuff, mind you, and this wasn't even the 8th station.
Ok, so it was the 7th station. We knock on the door and go in - there are about 4 Japanese men there sitting around a fire, watching a small TV with bad reception. We are soaked. SOAKED. It is 9:09pm. They ask if we'd like to stay the night, and when I say no, we want to climb to the top, the guy says "Oh, it's way too early". But, I figure that if we got up to the top too early, we can just hang around - I mean, it should definitely be above the clouds (ie, no rain) so it'll just be cold, and how cold could it BE for 2 Canadians?!
Anyways, the guy has asked us to leave soon because they want to sleep. Oh well, I guess we'll have to stop at another station later on.
after the climb: 5th station
So I was planning on writing a bit in my journal at each station but the weather and circumstances didn't permit it. So this account will have to do. Let me start back at the 7th station...
We leave - and within minutes we are wet from the rain, again, so not much is new. I'd been told many a time that you break through the clouds (and hence the rain) somewhere before the 8th station - so we were waiting for that to happen.
The path returned to being a wide gravelly zig-zagging thing, so that was Ok. We were taking turns holding the flashlight so we each got the good deal (but I still haven't figured out which is better...). We were going at a good slow pace, but I as sume that's the best way (and the most common way). We weren't stopping on the path that often because (a) the weather was miserable, and (b) the weather was miserable. Of course, we couldn't complain yet.
But ya know, neither of us was finding it particularly physically horrible - I mean, hte path and climb was definitely do-able. I would've liked to complain about the rain though... Why? well for one, we couldn't see the moon or the stars (which ar e supposedly fantabulous from where we were), and also the rain was cold. It soaked through our clothes (right to the bone) and since we were so high up, the temperature was undoubtedly getting close to 0C - NOT the ideal temperature for wet clothing, l et me tell you.
At least it wasn't very windy... yet...
After a lot of climbing, we got to some mountain hut, uninhabited in the off-season. We were a bit chilled So we cram into this doorway, which is at first pleasantly warm because of body warmth and lack of wind/rain. After a few minutes the wet clothes dissipated that "warm" feeling... and I was beginning to get some pretty violent shivers. Ah well, tim
e to change into some dry shirts perhaps.
After maybe 15 minutes of huddling in the doorway (I'm sure we looked funny!) we continued up on the hike. It was still raining, by the way. The path is still steep - it varies from wide paths spewed with large rocks, to actual huge rocks up which
you must climb (but not really scale, like before). Now in the rain, dark, and cold, this ended up being a challenge in itself... but definitely Ok. I had not one thought about turning around... not a chance!
After a very long while, Jon and I hit the 8th station. Yes! Now we could complain! Blah. Rain sucks. But hey! This station has lights inside! Maybe we can go in and warm up a bit! So we peer into the window and see that there are a couple of
people. We figure that we can just go in and sit for about half an hour to warm up and perhaps dry off (yeah right) and then head on our way.
So we open the door and go in. Just when I was about to take off my soaked boots, a guy (presumably the manager of the station) sticks his head out from his bed and says that we're only allowed to rest there if we stay the night. So I say "Just 5 m
inutes? We'll just sit here quietly..". But no, we must leave, says he. Gee thanks buddy Amazingly, we were both in quite good humour, I must say. Considering it was pouring (POURING) rain, and windy, and cold, and we were the ONLY ones climbing this path up Mt. Fuji - and no one would let us take shelter without forking over an arm and
a leg.. our spirits were quite cheerful. I mean, we were CLIMBING Mt. FUJI!!! Insane! And we weren't finding it as hard as we both had thought it would be.
You know though... we keep on climbing through this crappy weather - and we never really wanted to stop for too long because we would just get cold - and plus, if we kept on walking we would surely break through the clouds and we could be rid of this
horrible rain. So, we just kept on a-truckin'.
Actually, somewhere close to the 9th station (maybe it WAS the 9th station, I dunno because it wasn't open) we stopped off at a wooden box of dimensions 1.5m x 1m x 1.2m, set in a stone wall. Now considering that this box is dry and wind-proof (and
WE are NOT), it seemed like the ideal break spot. So both Jon and I climb into this little box (it was as though the box was going horizontal) and rested for awhile. Yes, 2 people crammed in a small box. As before, it was really nice and warm for the f
irst few minutes, bbut it began to really chill me after awhile. Man, I was really cursing the rain. If it hadn't been raining then we honestly thought that the climb wouldn't be bad at all.
We continued upwards (on our endless quest to get above the clouds) - the weather was getting worse, if possible. The wind had picked up significantly and it was raining harder. The clouds wre very thick and all around us, so it was very difficult
to see... but we didn't want to stop becuase we'd just get cold - and wouldn't it be better to just get over these clouds? Then we could rest for a long time, if we want.
So we keep on truckin'. To us, it didn't seem like the hiking itself got much worse - our energy was still there. But this weather ... ew. Anyways, we keep on passing mountain huts, but they're all closed, and none of them offer so much as an over
hanging roof as shelter, so we never stopped at them for rests.
At approximately 1:09am we came upon a shrine, and quite a few mountain huts. At first I was thinking we should just keep going, but then I read the name of the shrine.. "summit..".. SUMMIT?!? We've reached it already? [ed note: quite the anti-cl
imax, no?] Cool! But... but, it's pouring rain still? It's never supposed to be raining at the summit... and we're soaked to the bone... there's no real shelter.. and the sunrise is in 4.5 hours. Ah well, not the best of timing to say the least.
At first we thought we saw a light - way over yonder through the mist and clouds. We were sure that if it was a hut, they would let us in on seeing our wet, cold, pathetic state. So we head over in the direction of this light... up a bit more... he
y. Where'd the light go? It was gone. Was it our imagination? Don't know. But we gave up hope of a mountain hut.
So instead we decided to find a place sheltered from the rain, where we could sit and maybe not get any more wet (although I seriously doubt rain could've gotten us any wetter). All we could find was a hut with an overhanging roof. The hut itself w
as closed (as with every other darn hut on the whole mountain, except for 2, but I'm not bitter about that), but the overhang was a whole foot and a half long (this was actually GOOD) so we could sit and lean against the hut and still have most of our bod
ies dry. And that's what we did. I mean, we had over 4 hours to kill. I got out the food and we ate some crackers. We were very cold. It wasn't that we hadn't brought enough clothes... it was just that every single item was drenched. The temperature
at the top was somewhere around 0C, but with the windshield and wet clothing, it felt much much worse. Within minutes I was shivering. I felt cold right down to the bone. We tried the body heat thing and although it helped, it wasn't enough to stop us
from getting colder and colder...
After maybe 10-15 minutes we were both shivering uncontrollably. It wasn't too long before I found it difficult to talk because my teeth were chattering so much. Not one part of me was even close to being in the warm state. I think Jon said he cou
ld't feel his toew so well... I was more worried that every part of me seemed chilled right through.
We sat in this pitiful position for an incredible 2 hours, our condition obviously getting worse. The rain and wind had, of all things, picked up. It didn't seem like it was going to clear up anytime soon. Our "shelter" was becoming more useless a
s the wind got stronger and blew some of the rain onto us. At this point I could hardly talk, and I didn't even bother to try and fight the shivers that hit me consecutively.
That's when it hit us - we were being absolute retards. Here we were, the only ones at the top of Mt. Fuji (the only ones ON Mt. Fuji - outside of a hut at least), during a big storm, soaked to the bone, our body temps being way below normal for 7 h
ours straight... and we were on our way for a severe case of hypothermia. We decided that we had 3 options. The first was to stay at the top and wait for the sunrise in 2.5 hours, while risking death by hypothermia [ed note: no joke]. The second was t
o climb down a bit and wait in some shelter for the sunrise, and the third was just to climb down. Seeing as it was *really* raining now, and the wind was *really* blowing, none of these were pleasant alternatives. We decided that we should head down b
ecause neither of us looked in too great a shape, and it didn't seem like we would actually SEE a sunrise anyways, with all these clouds.
So that's our decision, we will climb back down. Hey, we've reached the top, so it's good anyways. Now all we have to do is stand up... Ohmygoodness, that was quite difficult. First of all, we were sure our legs would cramp up because they're temp
erature had dropped so quickly. But they didn't... but I was shaking violently enough that it was a bit difficult to stand up. Then just moving around was difficult - I didn't quite know how to warm up.
So at 3:30am we start to make our way down. Somehow it had gotten darker, and it was virtually impossibly to see more than 3 or 4 metres ahead. It was a bit slow-going at first because Jon had the flashlight, so once he went down a few steps he'd
have to turn around and point the light near my feet so I could see. Ugh.
It had also gotten extremely windy - I mean, it was _really_ windy. The rain was going pretty much sideways, and it even made it difficult to see. We barely stopped once on the way down, it was so bad. I just wanted to get to the 5th station where
I could change into my dry clothes.
We were going down at a pretty good pace once it got lighter (it was way too cloudy to actually see the sun) - the going was good. I slipped once and fell on my arse... but once on the whole climb is a good record, I think.
The last 2 hours of the way down (much of the descending route is different from the ascending route) was through this red volcanic something-or-other that was of gravel-like texture. Boy, it got everywhere. Like, by the time I reached the bottom,
my pants were just covered from the knee down, and my shoes... well... ew.
It didn't really stop raining on the way down. My body temp raised a bit, but I was still cold (of course) and I still got the occasional big shiver.
Half-way between the 6th and 5th station (almost there!) we paused at a sign with the "rules" of climbing Mt. Fuji. There were 7 rules and we had broken every single one. Go figure.
We got to the 5th station at 6:30am and wow, were we ever silly. We went on a brief picture taking spree - of our hideous-looking apparel and such, and yeah, we took our "after the climb" print club. Simply a must! Then we practically ran to the w
ashrooms (luckily neither of us had to go during the climb itself) where we got OUT of the incredibly wet clothes. Oh, for useless info, at the END of the climb I was decked out in one pair of soaked running pants, one pair soaked jeans, one pair soaked
white sport socks, one pair soaked pink wool socks, one pair have-lakes-in-the-bottom hiking boots, 2 soaked long-sleeved thermal shirts, one soaked (and smelly) wool sweater, one soaked toque, and one soaked scarf. Did I mention I was wet? Hmm.. I had
been wearing some other stuff earlier on, but as I got wetter and wetter I had abandoned some of it and put on some drier stuff. Of course, it was ALL wet by the 8th station so I guess there was no point...
Anyways, we got out of the wet and dirty clothes, and into dry ones. Of course, we both had only brought shorts because we were intending to go to Kamakura later on in the day. Umm.. gee, it was pretty cold in those shorts. I started to shiver a
ll over again and my lips even turned blue. Ack!
We went to the main building of the station and called a cab. While we waited we bought hot chocolate in a can from a vending maching (neat) and ate some food. We also kept making comments about wet, heavy clothes (not like we were bitter or anythi
ng)
When the cab arrived, we hopped in and went to the Kawaguchiko station, where we got on a train to Toyoda. We had decided to not go straight to Kamakura, but instead to drop off the wet stuff, get into warmer clothes, and THEN head to Kamakura. And
so that's what we did.
[ed. note: for those of you who don't keep on reading in the journal, we found out later in the day that indeed we had climbed Fuji-san in a HUGE typhoon. Gee, no WONDER it was raining so hard... gosh, next time I should check the weather report! Oh
, that's another thing... I would climb Fuji again, for sure! Providing better weather, of course...]
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