Marta and Chester's Maleficent Adventures

2024-07-08 Japan – Fuji-San Ascent 3776m

Zosia Zgolak and I arrived in Japan on July 5th. We had a month ahead of us to explore this beautiful country, its culture-scape, landscape, soundscape, city-scape, and food-scape. As peakbaggers we also wanted to stand on the highest mountain in Japan, secret Mount Fuji.

After two days in Tokyo, we traveled by Japan Rail (JR) towards the trail head, to Kawaguchiko. The first leg was included in our JR pass, but we had to pay extra for the second leg. Once we arrived to Kawaguchiko we rented bikes for an hour to get a good view of Fuji-San.

We admire Mt Fuji across the lake and prepare ourselves mentally for 1700m elevation gain and 18km hike the following day.

Already in Tokyo, we obtained permits for Mt Fuji for the most common and shortest trail (~$20 CAD). Permits were introduced in 2024. After our experience with heat in Tokyo, we wanted to start our hike as early as possible in the morning. The trail opens at 3:00 a.m., so we took a taxi from our hotel to the trailhead. We arrived exactly at 3:00 a.m., and when we showed our permits, it turned out we had made a mistake—our permits had expired the previous day. Luckily for us, the park offers walk-in permits. We paid another $20 and, by 3:15 a.m., we were on our way.

Proudly showing our walking-in permit on my wrist. We are ready to start our hike, 3:15am, still dark.

We did not encounter too many people, as most were already up on the mountain, having arrived the previous day and hiked up from their shelters to the crater rim to watch the sunrise. Many people were descending, but there is a separate trail for descent. We hiked steadily. The sunrise was around 4:00 a.m., and we only needed headlamps for a short time. We were grateful for the man-made trail, which made the climb more manageable, even when encountering lava sand, and allowed for reasonable progress uphill.

Lights reveal people trying to reach Fuji-Sun before the sunrise. We will not make it.
Still we enjoy twilight and sunrise as we progress up the mountain..
Soon we will reach hotel/hut zone.
It was interesting to come across buildings, small shops, and places to sleep at various stations along the trail. We often encountered people at these points.
We made it to the rim.

We wanted to stroll to one of the peaks to the north (Kusushi-dake), but the trail was closed. Instead we headed in the direction of the major peak. To our surprise, it was blocked off with a rope. We ignored it.

Then, we were hit by extremely strong gusts of wind. We paused to take a look at the crater, and then noticed a couple of people approaching the main peak on the horizon. Determined to proceed, we continued despite the strong gusts. I was concerned that if the wind persisted, reaching the summit might be impossible, as crawling along the 2 km rim would not have been feasible. Fortunately, the wind came in gusts rather than a steady blast, so we pushed on. It paid off. We managed to reach the summit, though on a few occasions wind slummed us at the ground. I lost my hat during one of these gusts.

We counted about 10 people reaching the true summit that day.

Zosia approaching the summit of Mt Fuji-San
At the summit

There were more peaks marked on Peakbagger around the rim, but we only ventured to two of them due to the wind. The section of the trail around the rim beyond the main summit was closed because of a persisting steep snowy area.

A section of a rim route we took to the summit and back
Looking inside the crater. Few days earlier a few people fell into it and died.
Descending the slopes, grateful for the trail – lava is miserable to walk on.
Horses are an option to get up the mountain
More usual scene – which we only came across on our last kilometer while descending. Everybody wants to climb Mt Fuji at least once in their lifetime. Often this is the climb of their life. They start the previous day, overnight at the mountain and try to reach the rim by the sunrise.
Back at the trail head. Much busier here than at 3:15am. We took a bus back to Kawaguchiko station, and from there walked back to our hotel.
Texans we run across three times in two days: in Tokyo, on the slopes of Mt Fuji and at a bus stop.
Maybe we will meet again?
Zosia proudly points at the beautiful Fuji-San we just climbed.
Breakfast morning after – wow!

We were very proud that Fuji had allowed us to reach its summit! Thank you, Mount Fuji!

It is a big mountain that generates its own weather system—be prepared.

Marta Wojnarowska
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