{"id":471,"date":"2010-12-24T23:46:20","date_gmt":"2010-12-25T07:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wanderjunkie.com\/?p=471"},"modified":"2012-05-24T20:54:39","modified_gmt":"2012-05-25T04:54:39","slug":"mt-fuji-july-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wanderjunkie.com\/?p=471","title":{"rendered":"Mt. Fuji, July 2005"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mt. Fuji<\/strong>
\nDate:<\/strong> July 18, 2005
\nDifficulty:<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a07 out of 10
\nDistance:<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0Not sure
\nElevation Gain:<\/strong> 5,200′ (from station 5)
\nTime:<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a07 to\u00c2\u00a010 hours
\nLocation:<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0Honshu, Toyko
\nUsers Group:<\/strong> Hikers\u00c2\u00a0Only
\nPermits:<\/strong> No Permits Required for July & August
\nHiking with: <\/strong>Yuichuro Kanagawa & Toyama Norikazu<\/p>\n

In 2005, I decided to climb Mt. Baker, Mt. Fuji and Mt. Rainier all in July.\u00c2\u00a0 My friend Yuichuro Kanagawa from Japan was out to Seattle earlier in the year and he too is an avid hiker.\u00c2\u00a0 So, I kindly asked him if he would take me up Mt. Fuji if I flew to Japan.\u00c2\u00a0 Mt. Fuji is the most recognizable landmark in Japan and is their most sacred mountain.\u00c2\u00a0 This is not a difficult climb, in fact over 200,000 people will attempt to climb the mountain and 30% of these people are from Western countries.\u00c2\u00a0 Most people will try to summit to see the sunrise.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

We started off at station 5 around 8:00 p.m. on the Kawaguchiko route.\u00c2\u00a0 There are 5 routes to the summit and most of the routes will start at station 5.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0The elevation at station 5 is around 7,000′ for all routes.\u00c2\u00a0 When referring to stations, these are actually very large huts that can sleep 25 to 250 hikers.\u00c2\u00a0 We stopped at station 8 (10,500′) for a 5 hour rest; for 7,000 yen ($70) you get about 18” width of floor to sleep on.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone sleeps shoulder to shoulder, packed like a can of sardines.\u00c2\u00a0 Since I just flew from Seattle a day before, the hard floor and cramped spot was welcomed.\u00c2\u00a0 We reached the summit of 12,388′ around 7:00 a.m.; the clouds and mist was so thick, there was no views to be had…there was no sunrise for us this day.\u00c2\u00a0 After taking a bunch of pictures of each other, we decided to descend.\u00c2\u00a0 There are a couple of one-way routes down and we chose the straight-line route that is actually bull-dozed. \u00c2\u00a0There is no traversing, just straight down in the 8″ to 12″ thick ash; you had to keep your gators on to keep the mountain ash out of your boots.\u00c2\u00a0 We were leaning back and running down in a skidding formation, which took us only 2 hours to get back to station 5 where we started yesterday.\u00c2\u00a0 After we loaded everything\u00c2\u00a0back in the cars, we headed for the iron rich thermal waters (hot springs) near Mt. Fuji.\n\t\t