Wednesday, August 11, 2010. It’s 20.00 :

After about two hours of walking in the dark I reach the 7th station. I ask a lady how long it takes to reach station No. 5 where I can take the bus to Shinjuku.

She responds with horror that I’m not on the right side of the mountain! Clearly I have to go to station No. 8 to go to the other side ….!!!!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!

To reach station No.8 again will take 1 hour. But before I have to buy a bottle of water at 525 yen … Erffff! Expensive but vital!!

9:15 p.m.

Finally I reach station No. 8 (at an altitude of 2300 meters)! I’m exhausted I want to sleep … I decide to rest on a bench near the small hostels. To sleep inside costs 7000 yen and everybody sleeps in the same room.

I prefer to sleep on the bench.

I have the chance to be near 3 French guys. I discuss with them and they tell me they are doing the ascent to see the sunrise.

As I am crazy I decide to accompany them and climb again!

But first I have to sleep! Departure at 2:30 am…

I wear my jeans shorts, three pairs of socks, 3 t-shirts, 1 sweater, 1 waterproof jacket …. and I can not sleep! The wind is freezing! My legs are frosted.

11:30 p.m… I doze …

1:00… The French trio also can’t sleep.

1:45… I still can’t sleep !!!!!!!! Too cold!

2h… My French compatriots decide to move for getting warm … We’re all dying of cold and fatigue.

A few minutes later we decide to take the road because it’s impossible to sleep!

The higher you go the more wind there is. I almost fall several times because the wind is so powerful!

3:40 am

We’re at the top! And it is absolutely apocalyptic! There are lots of clouds, wind and rain! Haaaa! And no place to be safe! We are about fifty percent frozen.

The wind is deafening.

And no sun on the horizon. Bad beginning. We still wait under this crazy storm.

I am totally soaked. Imagine yourself with wet jeans. My body is already exhausted after these two days so I was shaking. And I had difficulty breathing. I was very ill.

Sitting on the ground I try to sleep even with the cold.

Around 7am :

The innkeepers are opening the door of inns and we go inside.

I feel very ill and weak. The storm doesn’t want to leave us quietly.

One member of the hostel staff told us that this morning is just the beginning of the typhoon. The afternoon will be worse. So it will be impossible to go down. He advises us to go down now or we will stranded overnight.

Thursday, August 12, 2010 – 7:20 am (day No.3):

We try the East road. But we are literally stopped by the wind. I even saw a guy dragging himself along to the ground!

We each take gusts of wind mixed with rain and sand. It’s like getting stung by billions of tiny needles!

The mountain doesn’t allow us to go down… We are its prisoners!

After that disastrous attempt we return to the hostel. The guy from the staff insisted that we leave because there is no place to stay there for one night. People are starting to get excited: “you want us to go but it’s impossible! If we die it’s your responsibility!”

Everyone was worried and began to organize a rebellion. Rather stay here than to take the risk of dying!

It was like a disaster movie! Never seen that!

The guy advised us to take the North path near by where we came. Lots of rocks. It is slippery but safer because there are safety chains that prevent you from falling out off the road.

Apart from the slopes, the terrain is very slippery and unstable, with sharp rocks.

Finally, we organize groups of 5-6 people and the try the north path. We are holding hands.

It took skill to play with the slippery rocks and support ourselves against violent gusts of wind. The descent is slow, long, drawn out and painful. We felt like toys for the mountain.

I’m tired, I am tired and as we stop my body starts shaking again because of the cold. My blood pressure is extremely low. I feel weak but I must continue!

11:35 am :

After more than 4 hours walking down under the storm we finally reached the 5th station!!!!!!!!! I am completely soaked from head to toe! Exhausted, tested physically and feeling disgust toward that mountain.

I still have to take the bus to Kawaguchiko, the initial point. I hope to find Neo and Martynka. Originally we had to take the bus at 12:10. Arriving at the station I can’t see them. I’m still worried! I waited several hours but I finally went home.

Around 6 o’clock pm :

I arrived in Tokyo after another journey that I have to censor … I will explain later…

Arriving at the guest house I finally found Neo and Martynka! In fact they arrived a few hours before me and had also experienced the Typhoon!

The path they took was not good. They had to come back and lost a lot of time. They failed to reach the summit while I went twice!!!!!!!!!

They reached station No. 8 and had slept in an annex, station 8.5 while I was at the main station 8!!!!!!!

They were also unable to sleep because of the icy wind. And while I was confronting the storm at the top they were already going down…

CONCLUSION:

I survived Mount Fuji! But it leaves me with a bitter taste … I’d like to take my revenge another day! For sure! And this time without taking the wrong way and with proper equipment!

In the end we stayed three days:

The first day was when we got lost.

The second day we separated and I reached the summit for the first time.

The third day I reached the summit a second time and I survived the typhoon!!!!!!!!!!

Surely, I will take my revenge on Mount Fuji! ^ ^

END OF MOUNT FUJI’S CHAPTER

In fact we went the wrong way…

According to the plan we should need less than 3 hours to travel the 8 kilometers necessary to reach the 5th station located at an altitude of 1520m. (Red line)

After more than 4 hours of walking we encounter two grandpas in their car. They confirm we are not on the footpath.  We walked 20km along the wrong road. Yeargh! (Yellow line)

We continued our suffering somehow. Going back is out of the question! The road was difficult because of the heat, humidity and sweating.

1:30am:

Neo was too tired so we set up our camp to try to “sleep”. We could admire a beautiful starry sky with the Milky Way.

Martynka became paranoid because of noise from the forest. Her fear was to be attacked by a fox … Hahaha! The poor should be more scared than us.

The night was very short. I did’nt sleep well.

Around 3:40: Impossible for me to sleep! Too much humidity and freshness because of the morning. I decide to get up to stretch my legs and get warm somewhat.

I even took the opportunity to watch the sunrise!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 7:00 am

(2 days):

We continue our trip after this short freezing night…

At one point Neo and Martynka and propose to take a path. But I didn’t agree with them…

So we parted by giving appointment at the next station or on the summit. Beginning of my journey alone!

8:52am:

I finally joined the normal road! I take this opportunity to make a long pause, hoping to find Neo and Martynka. But they don’t come so I continue alone.

Sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy and rainy. I

ride very slowly because very exhausted from last night. There are many people. Sometimes you have to queue to climb obstacles.

Approximately 3:50pm.:

I’m on top of Mount Fuji!

From the top the sky is revealed a little more. But there is cons

iderable wind.

You can see the crater, huge and disturbing. I feel if I come over the edge it may kill me! And I worry cause of the strong wind.

As promised I decided to wait for Neo and Martynka. 1 hour and 2 hours pass… So long… It’s getting colder and colder… I’m very exhausted.

6:20pm:

Neo and Martynka are still not there.

What can I do? Knowing that the night begins to fall from 6:30pm, I realize I will sleep a second night under the stars.

I am worried for them. Maybe they went back to Tokyo? Arghh!

I’m all alone!

Maybe they are waiting for me at the 5th station, knowing that it took 7 hours almost to the top?

To go down should take less time, maybe about 4 hours.

I’m worried for them and for me too. I may sleep h

ere to see the sunset. But the cold and the wind are unbearable…

I finally decide to go down to the fifth station hoping

to find them.

Finally I am alone down the mountain … It’s already dark!

Tuesday 10th august 1:30pm:

Me and my two companions (who I’ll call Neo & Martynka) are 3

fanatics (we will use nicknames because I have not yet obtained their

authorization, image rights…).

In my backpack: 2 L of water + 2 L of iced tea, 9 homemade onigiri (rice balls stuffed mayo tuna-cucumber, salted plum, cucumber salt…) A packet of marshmallow, 2 jars of peanut cream, bag of 8 slices of bread crumbs, 2 pair of socks, sunglasses, three plastic bags, toothbrush, Nivea …

My bag for digital camera with the charger (just in case)

A plastic bag with a jean, tech-fit jersey t-shirt, sweater, Adidas jacket, waterproof jacket Homecore … The fatal mistake was to take jeans …!!!

3:10pm:

Departure for Mount Fuji from Shinjuku Station. We booked our seats in a bus with Highwaybus company at https://highwaybus.com/rs-web01-prd-rel/gp/index

Caution: it’s all in Japanese!

From Shinjuku station take the west exit, to the bus station. Or ask the host of the Metro for the bus to Mount Fuji. It is well known.

The bus stop is right in front of Yodobashi Camera.

We could have chosen to go to Shinjuku-5th Station Mount Fuji. The majority of common mortals began their ascent from the fifth station.

Price: 2600 yen each way.

Well, not us! We chose to start from the bottom of Mount Fuji, because we are crazy! And especially because we wanted to save money… (tightwad!)

Price: Shinjuku – Kawaguchiko = 1700 yen each way.

4:40pm:

Arrival at Kawaguchiko, located 800 meters altitude. It is famous for its lakes.

The beginning of the ascent is made by a passage to the Sengen temple. I purified myself with holy water from the fountain…

On the way we met another French, Benjamin coming from Mimizan. He was dressed in a traditional French beret with his tent, his sleeping bag and all the survival kit of the camper.

Before to start climbing we went to a konbini (store open 24 hours). My friends wanted to equip with vital essentials: a cigarette lighter and 10 + beers …!! -______-

6:40pm:

Official start of the climb! We had to go through the Sengen temple to follow the footpath. It’s muggy and humid. Lots of clouds and light rain are ruining the ascent.

6:45pm: We are already lost … ^ _ ^

Ahead of us a road, an inn and a bizarre way seems to lead to hotels in the forest. Then we ask our way to the lady owner of the inn. She advises us about the road. Only climbing. It’s almost dark!

We thought we were on the good road to reach the first station but actually not! We took the wrong path … Start a horribly long climb …

To be continued!