Mike Williams

 

/ Mt Fuji

Mt Fuji

Pics from Mt Fuji

5th Station of the Subashiri Trail
5th Station looking towards the climb
Beginning of the trail
Pretty trail
Pretty foggy for the first couple hours climbing
Also very muggy - not super hot, but with the climbing it certainly felt like it
Also bugs
Clearest view of the mountain we got going up
Looking back down - above some clouds though which obscured the view
Some people on the downhill trail
Made it to the 6th station in under two hours, and went inside for our stamps!
Getting dark at the original 6th Station (higher than the one now called 6th) at 2700m above sea level (5th station was 2000m, summit is 3776m)
Stopped behind some shelter from the wind for a picture, taken by the guy from LA who joined us because he didn't have any lights (he also didn't have anything waterproof and only a light fleece).
Main area of the summit (not the highest point around the crater, but the farther east point for the sunrise). Debating whether to buy a warm drink so we don't freeze to death...
Jerks who got to hang out in the warm hut. Mean Japanese man wouldn't let us in his hut! There was plenty of room to stand and it was SO COLD outside. Would've happily bought something to stand inside waiting for sunrise.
Shivering and low light (long exposure) = blurry photo
That person has an idea! Or is alarmed, not sure.
Beginning of the sunrise! Probably already up, actually, just behind the clouds still.
Gotta say, the sunrise was very pretty, but I do wish it was a little clearer after the misery of sweating through the first couple hours of climbing, then freezing to death for three hours at the summit.
Lake of clouds
Very hazy, but not as bad as it was a few hours prior - couldn't see ten feet ahead even with the headlamps
Looking for the sun to break through the clouds
Did I mention it was hazy?
All the other suckers awaiting the sun (actually this is a very small percentage of the other suckers - many more behind us and on the other side of that building)
Starting to clear up??
I'm going to call this one "artsy" because it's angled.
See all those colored dots? Nonstop chain of people on the uphill that didn't quite make it to the top for the sunrise. After seeing almost no one the entire way up, it was unbelievable how crowded everything became.
It was only empty for our climb because we went at a weird time. The normal breakdown is to leave 5th Station midday, and then sleep for a few hours at the 7th or 8th station before climbing the rest of the way for the sunrise.
Our breakdown was to leave the 5th station at 5:40, take short breaks throughout the climb, skip sleeping, and get to the summit for the sunrise.
However, we didn't really know how long it'd take to get to the top, and it was a little cold to take long breaks as we got close to the top, so we ended up getting there at about 1:30 - 3 hours early for the sunrise.
That's why we were freezing and so angry at the jerk keeping us out of the hut.
Sun starting to glow!
I liked how the clouds near us were glowing reddish from the sun
That looks like a full sun!
Pretty sure this and the next couple pictures are from halfway down (which is why the sunrise has progressed a bit from previous pics). My thoughts while I was taking this picture? "Man, we could've just gone halfway up and had the same view!" I GUESS I no longer agree with that thought.
The area surrounding Fujisan is supposed to be beautiful - if I remember right, it is called the land of the five lakes (or something similar - you'll never guess why they call it that). One of the lakes is in view here, at least two are to the left, maybe the lake of clouds is covering one or two more real lakes?
Anyway, I could see why people say it's a pretty area. We didn't get a chance to explore anything other than the volcano-mountain itself though.