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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Fuji-san Sunrise (Picture Intensive)


Nick

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I finally got around to climbing Mt Fuji at the weekend with the girlfriend. It's only open a couple of months a year and this is pretty much the end of the season. We waited until now to try and avoid most of the crowds, although there were still around 6000 people climbing that weekend !:blink:

 

We set off around 12.30pm from Station 5 and reached Station 8 at 5.30pm about 2/3's of the way up. The Station is nothing more than a wooden hut perched on the side of the mountain with outside toilets, but it was warm and comfortable and that's all that mattered. There we had a break to acclimatise, rest and eat, and was advised to set off again at 11.30pm if we wanted to reach the top before sunrise. With so many people climbing, and the narrow paths you have to queue at times ! I couldn't sleep anyway, not with 40 people all crammed onto a single huge bunk bed in individual sleeping bags. Space was so tight I had to lie on my side !

 

So, 11.30pm came and we set off again with torches to climb to the top and eventually reached the summit some 3776 meters above sea level at 3.30am.

 

Wasn't a hard climb, the shear number of people means you can't go more than a snails pace anyway. I felt fine although the girlfriend suffered from a little altitude sickness but the can of oxygen she bought cured that. It was bloody cold at the top though, and the wind was whipping around what few buildings were there. The queue to go inside the lodge was 10 deep, so we found a spot out the wind and waited. Quite funny really, there were Japanese strewn all over the place huddled under foil blankets trying to keep warm.

 

Sunrise was pretty spectacular, well worth the effort. It was over all too fast and then it was time to climb back down again !

 

The decent is the worst part, boring as hell and hard on your legs as it's just a stony path zig zagging all the way down the mountain. Unfortunately you couldn't hire dirt bikes at the top, would have made it a lot more interesting.:D

 

After around 4hrs we reached the bottom at 9.30am and I limped into a shop to buy a couple of well deserved beers for breakfast.:thumbsup:

 

Stopped by an Onsen on the way back too which helped with the aches and pains.

 

For anyone visiting Japan, its' well worth doing if you can.

 

Anyway, here's the pictures

 

 

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/1686/pict0007uw9.jpg

 

http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/6779/pict0011xh0.jpg

 

http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/5802/pict0015jf5.jpg

 

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/2382/pict0016co5.jpg

 

http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/9379/pict0026kk5.jpg

 

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/7144/pict0035mq7.jpg

 

http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/8803/pict0038qh4.jpg

 

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/8269/pict0041bd1.jpg

 

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/7457/pict0042xc7.jpg

 

http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/9069/pict0043qi5.jpg

 

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/4340/pict0044bs9.jpg

 

http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/8228/pict0045sb0.jpg

 

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/7605/pict0047mp7.jpg

 

http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/6000/pict0050xt8.jpg

 

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/4191/pict0057ct3.jpg

 

http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/9384/pict0053lc3.jpg

 

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/9660/pict0052xe8.jpg

 

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/66/pict0059yj4.jpg

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Great pictures Nick :cool:

 

Now that is something I gotta try next year. What are the open season dates?

 

Typically July 1st to Aug 31st but it varies a little. During this time there's a bus to the 5th station, and the lodges are open.

 

If you leave it later than now then the lodges close up, and it gets a lot colder at the top.

 

If you can, go on a week day as it's less busy and whatever you do avoid Obon week (national holiday) like the plague !

 

Well worth doing.:thumbs:

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OK, cheers for the info Nick :thumbs:

 

Now you have got the bug, I suppose Mount Kinabalu in East Malaysia is next? Although it is over 4,000m it is also perfecctly walkable :)

 

This is the terrain at the peak...

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3f/Mount_kinabalu_startingdown.jpg

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