I realized I had never talked about our climb of Mount Fuji. In September, Mathilde, Victor, Ambroise, my father and I packed our backpacks and left for Mount Fuji at around 21PM, in order to arrive around midnight at the start of the Mt. Fuji climb. We pilled layers of clothes, and put some extra socks and extra warm layers in our backpacks, added some cereal calorie bars, mini oxygen bottles, headband lamps, gloves, water, and took the road. At the site, one bathroom break, a warm coffee from a vending machine, and off we went in the night. There are two ways to climb Mt. Fuji, and we chose the night climb, so as to admire the sunrise from the top. This meant we had to get to the summit before 5ish. As 5 light spots in the night, we walked, and walked, and climbed. At some point your legs do not want to carry you anymore, your lungs are tired from the lack of oxygen, you're thirsty, you're hungry, you need a break. We had energy bars and energy jelly (all Japanese outdoors stores sell them, and they have very interesting flavors, although new culinary experiences are the last thing you want to do while climbing Mount Fuji), and, while most rest stations were closed (because of the season), we took several breaks. It wasn't all stairs and fun, sometimes we had to have to use our hands to climb rocks. After about 5 hours of tremendous effort, our legs carried us to the summit. That moment when you realize you have reached the top is golden. We had just enough energy to take some photos, and congratulate ourselves for making it to the summit ... until we realized we had to hike down the mountain. All we wanted to do is roll down, but somehow we carried ourselves back to our car, and looked for an onsen that would rinse off that tiring night and soothe our exhausted muscles.
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| The tired bunch, 3250m |
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| Go team LH |
