FUJI Summiteers

We stayed at Camp Fuji, got up early and made it to the Mitsunoyama parking lot in time to take the 2nd bus to leave after 6 a.m. They run every half hour, starting at 6, and ending at 9 pm. You can park here, and even car camp here, if you'd like. The bus takes you to the 5th station on the Fujinomiya trail. As far as we could tell, this is the shortest distance to the top of Fuji, hike wise.
The trail Wm and Tim will take is on the left. If you double click, you can see some of the stations along the way. You can get stamps burned into sticks. Tim made a photo frame out of wood, and had them burn things in on that.
We equipped them well. William and Tim both got new hiking boots. We got real hiking sticks that you can shorten to go uphill, and extend to go downhill. Tim got a new backpack, too. Let's just say our REI rebate this year is going to be wonderful. But, good equipment means success.
People live up here, doing these jobs. Even folks at the stations on the mountain. Kind of a cool summer job, I think! Tim said on the way down, after dark, you could see the workers crackin' beers, kickin' back and enjoying their evening.
This is the view from the 8th station. You can see the rocks and boards that make up steps on the trail. This is covered with dusty volcanic rocks that help you slip down the mountain! You can see (the are white, and look like snow) the old 7th, new seventh, and 6th stations as you look down the mountain on the upper right portion of this picture.
We're still smiling at the 8th station.
This is the first tori gate, right above the 8th station. William is still smiling.
This is the 11,000 ft. mark. Why they have that, since they think in meters, I don't know. Too bad we didn't have any American coins to push in! The smile is there, but he's huffing and puffing a bit.
This is right above the 11,ooo foot mark. It doesn't look like a long way, but it is.
This is 9th station. William said this is where he started to get altitude sickness, but didn't stop. He had to pack his own water. He only used one pole, too.
3 p.m. TOP of Mount FUJI!!! (William wants me to add that it is 12,333 ft.) They have a shrine there. William ears had gotten cold, and someone let him borrow a handkerchief. With all the dust, that might have been a good idea to pack. Love it that people will share.
A Japanese person saw William having a hard time breathing, and shared the second half of this bottle with him. It is a portable oxygen sprayer.
The top becomes the mask, and you spray in oxygen! Brilliant. Who knew? Unlike Everest, Tim did bring it back down the mountain with them!
It had taken them 8 hours to summit. When 7 pm rolled around, I headed back up to wait for them. They had rain gear for the event of rain. It had rained hard where I was, but Tim said it wasn't too bad on the mountain.

What I don't have a picture of, is the lights on the mountain. They have generators at the stations, and so they are lit up. Tim used his super-cool new flashlight to help them down. You could see flashlights of people coming down or going up. Many Japanese start up at night (it's the coolest, and they can sleep at huts along the trail). Then they see the sunrise, and come back down.

It only took Tim and William 5 hours to get back down. They got on the return bus at 8:10. William fell asleep on the 30-minute drive down to the parking area.

Next morning, William was spry and ready to roll. We asked him, 'Are you sore?' He said 'no.' But he wouldn't commit to ever wanting to go back up Fuji again!