Fujisan {Mt. Fuji}

My Fuji climb in pictures!

(The pictures watermarked are courtesy of my new friend and co-hiker Shelly Hill)

 

Early start. To get to the trailhead, we had to ride a local train, the shinkansen twice, another local train, and a local bus. 

Sabrina and I waiting for the bus at Gotemba station.

Trailhead of Subashiri. It was like a small town.  There were restaurants, bathrooms, souvenir shops, a shrine.  It was crazy.  

climbing, ever climbing

 

One of many station stops along the way.

 

Another station stop.

 

We took the Subashiri trail because it is less traveled and it starts in the trees.  The landscape was gorgeous.
 

So gorgeous!

We hiked most of the first day in the fog and mist, but every once in awhile we would catch glimpses around us.  I was mesmerized by the way the trees grew.  Completely bald on one side.  I'm guessing it is from the wind and snow.
  

When we were nearing our mountain hut where we would be staying the night, the moon came out.  We were finally high enough above the clouds to see how far we'd come.
  

This meal may not look like much, but it was!  We started our hike later than planned because the bus schedules were different than we anticipated.  That meant we had to hike quickly up the mountain so we could arrive at our hut before 8:00pm so we could get dinner.  It was sooo good to finally eat some real food and take off our backpacks and rest.
  

This picture doesn't even begin to capture the craziness of the mountain hut we stayed in.  I would say there were probably close to 180 people staying the night there.  We each had a 2'x6' area to sleep on with our backpacks hanging on a hook above our feet.  Sleep should be in parentheses because there really was not much sleep that happened.  You try sleeping in a huge room, jam-packed with strangers who snore, cough, take hits of oxygen from their cans, etc.  It was nuts.  All part of the experience.  They turn the lights out at 9pm and this was taken the next morning around 2am as we all prepared to summit.

 This picture was taken looking up at the summit.  The line of people is so long.  Along with all the people, there were also guards yelling at us to "keep moving!"

I love this picture so much!  The lights in the bottom left are all the hikers still trying to make it to the top before sunrise. The lights in the middle are the cities below, and then obviously you can see the stars above too.  It really felt like we were on top of the world.

 Just waiting for the sun to rise.

As soon as the sun came up, they started playing Japan's national anthem.

 

 In all her glory!

Proof I was there!

The top of the mountain was also crazy.  There were restaurants, a shrine, and souvenir shops, along with bathrooms that cost 500 yen to use ($5).  I was freezing so we went into the restaurant to enjoy some hot chocolate (me) and ramen (Sabrina).

Our group! Behind us you can see into the crater at the top of Mt. Fuji.

The torii gate signals the summit of Fuji.  Another picture of the whole group.

The other members of our groups were pretty exhausted after the climb, but Sabrina and I wanted to do the hike around the crater and go to the actual summit of the mountain. So the two of us set off to keep going.

The crater! What an incredible view!

Sabrina and I on the real summit of Fuji!

 Besides the glorious sunrise, the sand run down was my favorite part of the hike. It was literally miles of running down volcanic sand. Some parts were deep and sandy, other parts were shallow and very rocky. It was a crazy, downhill workout.

While on this crazy hike, I realized that I am a mountain girl at heart.  I love being up in the mountains away from everything. I love the perspective (literal and spiritual) that comes from being on a high mountain.  This hike was so fun and so hard and makes me want to do it all over again!