This is the email I just sent my family about my weekend on Mt Fuji.... minus a few expletives. There's no pictures because, well, it'll become clear soon.
Kiaora Whanau!!!
I made it off Fuji san alive!! By the grace of God, Oh my God!!! OMFG Fuji threw her toys, not quite out of the crater but the weather was enough for me be really really really scared.
We had a 7 hour bus ride from Toyama Station (the central meeting point, almost always for Toyama JETs) to Station 5, Mt Fuji, our starting point. Where we waited for a couple of hours to see the sunset... what friggin sunset, there's too much fog!!! "A" (who's done it before) assures us the we will be above the clouds in no time and that it will be clear skies all the way to the top from there. We all believed him because he actually believed himself. For about 2/3 of the way up we could see patches of sky and stars etc and we thought that "A" was right. Until we got to one of the stations further up and the wind picked up and I started getting scared and angry. Basically the weather turned nasty which induced panic attacks because we were climbing at night through fog with wind and my headlight was reflecting off the water, I could only see less than a metre in front of my darn face. But I ended up climbing that stretch with 5 others who totally got me through. They were great!!! I was climbing most of the way with "W" and "A" then we were joined by "R", "M" and "E". After my second panic attack "R"kept saying you're grand pet your absolutely grand we're here don't worry' and "M" and "E" put me between them (despite wanting to climb together because they are married) and kept up with the encouragement and stuff. It was just really fantastic. All 6 of us nearly ended up with hypothermia after we summitted at 0130 and the small shops at the top didn't open until 0330. But we all survived. Then I had another panic attack about going down in the wind and fog. The wind was horizontal the rain was horizontal, I am pretty sure the wind was gale force and I was shit scared dig.
On the way down 14 of us started down together and we all helped each other down. I just wanted to get off that f***ing mountain so when I realised that there was compacted scoria on the edges of the road as opposed to loose scoria in the middle and that I could walk faster there, I hightailed it down to the bottom followed (largely) by "KR" who treated it as a game to keep with my pace (the Aucklander on a mission speed usually accompanied by 'I can smell food get me to the food asap').
18 of us summitted yesterday, 4 didn't make it because they either got too cold or it was too dangerous. We were stupid to do it but once you are past the point of no return you just have to keep going right. We climbed up there with a good couple of thousand Japanese and damn it even if we didn't make it to the top we gave it our all. Fuji freaking beat the poo out of us and I am proud of everyone who at least tried. If you can make it to the top of FujiSan in bad weather (or even make it past Station 7) then you deserve a huge medal!
She's a beast and a half when she's angry and we climbed her in third worst scenario (2nd being snow and 3rd being eruption). Big respect to Mount Fuji and I am never ever underestimating a mountain again!
My legs hurt and my back hurts a little but I think the ice I put on my knees before I went to bed last night has helped them.
Darn it, Japan, you keep giving me amazing experiences!!
Umm I think that's it from me for now. My brain is fried from Fuji and it still thinks I'm on the darn mountain. I went in search of hot coffee this morning only to realise that it was iced coffee that I needed... hehehe. It was bloomin' -12 degrees celcius including wind chill on that mountain yesterday morning so I'm not surprised my brain is still thinking coldness.We had a 7 hour bus ride from Toyama Station (the central meeting point, almost always for Toyama JETs) to Station 5, Mt Fuji, our starting point. Where we waited for a couple of hours to see the sunset... what friggin sunset, there's too much fog!!! "A" (who's done it before) assures us the we will be above the clouds in no time and that it will be clear skies all the way to the top from there. We all believed him because he actually believed himself. For about 2/3 of the way up we could see patches of sky and stars etc and we thought that "A" was right. Until we got to one of the stations further up and the wind picked up and I started getting scared and angry. Basically the weather turned nasty which induced panic attacks because we were climbing at night through fog with wind and my headlight was reflecting off the water, I could only see less than a metre in front of my darn face. But I ended up climbing that stretch with 5 others who totally got me through. They were great!!! I was climbing most of the way with "W" and "A" then we were joined by "R", "M" and "E". After my second panic attack "R"kept saying you're grand pet your absolutely grand we're here don't worry' and "M" and "E" put me between them (despite wanting to climb together because they are married) and kept up with the encouragement and stuff. It was just really fantastic. All 6 of us nearly ended up with hypothermia after we summitted at 0130 and the small shops at the top didn't open until 0330. But we all survived. Then I had another panic attack about going down in the wind and fog. The wind was horizontal the rain was horizontal, I am pretty sure the wind was gale force and I was shit scared dig.
On the way down 14 of us started down together and we all helped each other down. I just wanted to get off that f***ing mountain so when I realised that there was compacted scoria on the edges of the road as opposed to loose scoria in the middle and that I could walk faster there, I hightailed it down to the bottom followed (largely) by "KR" who treated it as a game to keep with my pace (the Aucklander on a mission speed usually accompanied by 'I can smell food get me to the food asap').
18 of us summitted yesterday, 4 didn't make it because they either got too cold or it was too dangerous. We were stupid to do it but once you are past the point of no return you just have to keep going right. We climbed up there with a good couple of thousand Japanese and damn it even if we didn't make it to the top we gave it our all. Fuji freaking beat the poo out of us and I am proud of everyone who at least tried. If you can make it to the top of FujiSan in bad weather (or even make it past Station 7) then you deserve a huge medal!
She's a beast and a half when she's angry and we climbed her in third worst scenario (2nd being snow and 3rd being eruption). Big respect to Mount Fuji and I am never ever underestimating a mountain again!
My legs hurt and my back hurts a little but I think the ice I put on my knees before I went to bed last night has helped them.
Darn it, Japan, you keep giving me amazing experiences!!
I love you all and I am glad to be alive, OMG imagine if I had got hypothermia and died... shit I need to stop thinking about that because I didn't and I survived Fuji in bad weather!
Raewyn
No pictures because not enough were taken, hardly any in fact. I will look through it again and possibly if there's some good ones I will put them up.
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