Climbing Mt Fuji

This post is exceptionally in English, so the people who helped me make this happen and the people I met can understand it too…

While we were out for our training in the “Vogezen”, I realized I had a weekend stay in Japan coming up AND I also realized it must be getting close to the Mt Fuji climbing season. So I checked this and indeed: the climbing season is from July 1st onwards, but it was clear that the few weeks before that people go up and places along the trail start to open. So I decided to take all my necessary gear with me, and run (climb) Mt Fuji!

As a preparation I checked out quite a few websites and blogs, and it became clear that climbing Mt Fuji is not easy, and not without danger. It was essential to really take enough gear with me, as the conditions up there can be ferocious… In order to get the information I needed (which is not always easy, considering a lot of information is in… Japanese), I got in touch with the Fujiyoshida tourist information, and they really helped a lot (thanks Robin!). 



Signboard for Yoshidaguchi trail

 Saturday morning, June 25 I left Yokohama by bus, heading towards Kawaguchiko. The plan: get to the trailhead in Fujiyoshida, and start running. The Yoshidaguchi trailhead is at 850m asl. I had made a reservation at the 6th station to spend the night, which is at 2305m asl. The trailhead is located at the Sengen Jinja Shrine, a very nice historical site which makes the start really something special. The typical shape of Mt Fuji has its consequences for running it: the first couple of km’s, the slope is rising very gently and running is no problem. But the slope continues to become steeper and steeper, so after a good hour of running it is time to start walking – and that will be the case mostly until the summit…

The trail on Mt Fuji is very well marked, so I did not need any map nor time to orient. My average speed during the first hour was almost 8km/h, not too bad considering the rising terrain and sometimes difficult stretches on the trail. All this meant, that I reached the 6th station after only 2h20’ of running. Hm… 1500m climb in less than 2,5h, and here I was at my day’s destination, even before 2pm. So I changed my plans and decided to continue up to the 7th or 8th station – after having taken a break at the 6th.

Continuing uphill, the altitude slowly started to have an impact. I reached the 7th station and still felt there was enough time and energy to continue. So I eventually ended up at the Taichi mountain hut, at the 8th station, around 3100m asl so about 2250m higher than the trailhead. Total running/walking time: just above 4 hours, being almost 600m climb per hour. Not bad!


Hut at 3100 with view on the top

Once I arrived at the hut, I started to feel that very little energy was left. I had not had a proper breakfast, and just some snacks and energy stuff along the way. Despite a long search with the help of Jo (my colleague in Japan) I did not find any proper energy gels, so I had not had the luxury of “energy fast food” on the wy. I was done, it was time to refill – but I was so low on energy that I was not immediately ready to eat. The hut provided curry rice for dinner (15’ after I arrived…), and slowly I ate all the rice and some of the condiments –I knew I had to force myself to eat, after all there would be another challenging day tomorrow. I also drank a couple of cups hot water. After that, things went much better. I watched the beautiful sunset, spend some time around the fireplace not understanding a word of the discussions and went to sleep at… 8pm! 

4-star accommodation at Taichi mountain hut

Midnight: people got up early to start their climb towards the summit, in order to be there for sunrise

1.30am: another bunch of people got up
2am: well, yeah, another one
3.30am: and now a group of 20
4am: all right, time for me to get up as well. I had not slept that much, but had definitely had a good rest and was ready to get going. My legs were really not that tired from the climb the day before, great! There were 2 reasons to get up that early. 1 is, that I also wanted to see the sunrise – but from the hut was definitely good enough! 2: the check out time in this mountain hut (and I guess in the others too) is: 5am!!! Very funny, imagine…

Yes, that is me...

On the way to the summit

So I had a little breakfast, enjoyed the sunrise, and got going. All right, this was 3100m, so you don’t really run up anymore. Nevertheless, it went all right, and I definitely made better progress than the other people on the trail. People coming down all warned me: It was cold and very windy up there! After 1,5h climbing, during which I was sometimes blown off my socks by strong wind gusts, I reached the summit at 3776m asl (without any altitude sickness, hurray!). There was still quite a bit of snow on the way up, but luckily not on the trail anymore. By the time I got to the top, I was wearing 7 layers of clothes, and that was necessary too. It was indeed cold and very windy! Unfortunately, clouds were being blown over the summit, which meant that I did not see a thing and it was very wet too. No worries, I got there!

Gate near the summit

 I spent a couple of minutes at the top, tried to make a picture of myself – there was no one else at that time, and I knew the next people would only arrive after a while. It did not really work out well… Then I started looking for the trail down, which is another one than the one coming up. When I found it, it appeared closed and as I was alone and did not want to take any risks, I took the normal trail back (which is what other people had been doing too).


Me at the Mt Fuji Summit.
Hey, don't laugh, I had to make this picture
myself in stormy clouds!



I started to run down, after all that was one of my main intentions: train that downhill run! It went really well, and after a short while I could join the downhill track. That was better than the ascending trail, as that was rocky and steep at places – not suitable for running. The descending trail was zigzagging more, and had gravel or sand – perfect for running! After a bit more than 1h I was back at the 6th station, 2305m! I took a short break – breakfast number 2 – and continued down. Another 1,5h running through forest full of crickets, with the last half hour nearly flat again. I was out of water by now, so it was about time I got back to the Sengen Jinja Shrine. 4,5h after leaving the Taichi hut, I was back where I started, the Sengen Jinja Shrine. I refreshed myself a bit in the washroom, changed clothes, had some water to drink (aaaaahhhh) and hang around the shrine for some time. Yes, I did it! Having run down 3000m and around 40km, I was surprised that my legs were still well alive. The training seems to get good results… And now it was only 9.30am – I had a bus ticket back to Yokohama at 6pm…



Back at the Sengen Jinja Shrine

I had been lucky to get to Mt Fuji at exactly this time. Just a few days before the opening of the season, most huts were open, there were some other people on the trails (good for safety reasons, after all I was alone), but it was not busy at all. You hear horror stories about crowds during the season (300.000 people visit Mt Fuji in the 2 months season!). I met a group of 60+ people, making their way to the top – slowly but surely. I met a nice Japanese man, a teacher, also well in his 60’s., who was hiking up and told me he climbed mountains regularly – was even planning to do a 6600m mountain in August! All doing their best to communicate with me in English. There was this family of 3, that had a great pick nick on their way up – with smoked ham and old cheese – Mt Fuji in style! And then there was Kenichi Kimura, a young and very friendly Japanese guy who stayed at the Taichi hut. He turned 30 that day, and celebrated his birthday at the top of Mt Fuji enjoying the sunrise! I met great people, and at last learned a word of Japanese: konichiwa. Everyone on the trail would say “hello” whenever you passed by, and so did I. It was a great experience.

View from the Fujiyoshida station

I walked at ease to the Fujiyoshida train station, took the 5’ train ride to Kawaguchiko, got my bus ticket for 6pm changed to noon, changed into jeans and T-shirt, had a bowl of noodles and jumped on the bus. From the bus, Mt Fuji was well visible, no clouds, very sharp. I slept the whole 2h ride back to Yokohama! Once in my hotel, I showered (that was soooo good), enjoyed walking around in the area, enjoyed a relaxed cup of coffee on a terras, and just felt great. The day ended with a nice dinner at Jo and Kumiko’s place and after that, I slept like a log.


Mt Fuji: check! What a fantastic way to train for the Transalpine Run!!!


Clear view on Mt Fuji from the bus

Wim