I heard about Mt. Fuji only a few days before my itinerary to Japan. My colleague in Japan mailed “we will soon be mountaineering the highest terrain of Japan; Mt. Fuji”. Once I reached Japan, Mt. Fuji started finding place in our day to day talks. We all were in for it, but when to go?
One of my colleagues who had been in Japan for about a year did all the background work and put the plan before us. We zeroed down on July 17th. We had to do some preparation (woolen, rain coat, torch, gloves, food blah blah) before facing this gigantic phenomenon. We were expecting weather’s cooperation because we were threatened about the wildness of the Giant and if weather did decide going not in our favor it was going to be a nightmare for us.
I was very much excited for two reasons; first Mt. Fuji has got enormous height which simply challenges the adrenaline of trekker and second it was going to be whole night climbing (never done it before, completely new experience). I have never been trekking freak but above two thoughts started stimulating the trekker deep within me.
Finally it was 17th. I was most bothered about the food I needed to carry with me as it was going to be a whole night and a whole day with the mountain and we get nothing there. I am vegetarian and I hardly get anything outside which could fit into my criteria so I thought of relying mostly on fruits and biscuits. I bought some bananas, apples, biscuits etc. Then I prepared some poories too J. Problem was we needed to carry as much as possible, still keeping it as minimum as possible because lesser the weight easier it is to climb.
We were a group of five; four of us from PacketVideo and one American friend. We all gathered at Shinjuku station and boarded train for Otsuki. We had to pay penalty to TC for boarding in wrong coach. We changed train at Otsuki for Kawaguchiko Station. We decided taking Yoshida trail for being safer side because this was the recommended trail and most of the crowd follow the same. Buses were plying between Kawaguchiko station and Yoshida trail. We bought to fro tickets, had some light food and boarded bus. As much as we were getting close to the trail, the scenic beauty was getting more beautiful.
Some of us bought sticks to help climbing. The mercury had already gone down at the trail itself, so we thought of gearing ourselves up with the woolens etc. We lit our torches and started from the Yoshida trail Base Station 5.
After walking for a while we suspected whether we are moving in right direction or not because the route was going downward. We confirmed that we were on right track but still wondering how we can reach to summit while going down J. Then we reached to the ascending point and realized “kabhi kabhi level badhane ke liye level girakar hi start karna padta hai J”.
We reached to Base Station 6 quite easily and thought if Base Stations are so close to each other then it’s not going to be big deal to reach to Base Station 9; the summit. But we were taken aback while catching to Base Station 7 and realized that the Base Stations had been created with the distance increasing enormously from one to another as the altitude increased. I think it’s just to bluff trekker’s morale so that it should not feel down at the very beginning J.
At Base Station 7 (or 7.5, can’t recollect) I was at the verge of losing all my confidence due to acute pain I was experiencing. I thought I might not be able to reach to summit and have to go back from this point itself. I thought of taking rest there. After sometime my fellow companions also reached there. Hum sabki lagi padi thi but still nobody wanted to back off. So we rested there for around an hour and again started. Only thought dominating our minds was “we have to make it to summit, no matter how long it takes”.
We reached Base Station 8 at around 4am and decided to wait till dawn (4:30). Watching the rising sun from the very altitude was awesome experience. Everyone was waiting, equipped with the cameras to capture the moment. Suddenly the very first ray of light was spotted in the east and everyone went excited. Sun started creeping out slowly on the zenith from some virtual ocean, embracing everything around in its myriads of arms. Reflections on the foggy clouds and blue water bodies in between were really spectacular from this very height.
It was incredible for me; I had never imagined that someday I would be in “Country of rising sun”, standing tall on the highest terrain and watching rising sun. Ocean of milky white foggy clouds was all around and heads of terrains were peeping out of them resembling islands. I have no idea about heaven, but I believe this landscape would stand no below par.
After quenching the thirst of eyes we started again. We reached to Base Station 8.5. When we looked ahead, we saw a zigzag queue of people reaching to the summit (apparently J) and convinced ourselves that few more minutes and we will be on top. But to our surprise we kept on seeing same zigzag queue reaching to top, even after finishing many such zigzags. People were moving very slowly due to the danger of land slide which became pathetic for me. After an hour or so I finally saw the welcome gate and the very thought of making it to the pinnacle revitalized me. I rushed and reached to the summit at 7:30am. After waiting for about an hour I saw my fellow trekkers making it to the point.
We all were very much enervated and were desperate to rest. You can imagine the desperateness by the fact that it was all sunny day and we were lying on the rocks feeling no discomfort. After sometime we found a shelter to rest at. Though I was very much tired, I was not feeling asleep so I went to see the crater of the volcano with one of my fellows.
The crater as expected was a giant hole with very wide peripheral and with the depth of around 200m. Half of the surface was covered with snow white silt complementing the landscape. We took chance to have a good nap on top of the crater J; sounds crazy?
There was so called a temple, but we could not figure out what exactly there was inside that. We bought some souvenirs and then headed back. Route for going down was different than the one we came from. It was continuous zigzag of sloppy path. We were descending with slow pace. I felt that it was very difficult and tiring that way due to the gravitational force. So I decided increasing my pace because I was feeling very uncomfortable descending with slow pace. I started almost running all the way, stopping at some places in between. Finally I made it back to the Base Station 5 at around 5pm. I waited for around an hour for my friends and then we started our journey back to Tokyo. The mission Mt. Fuji was accomplished J.
It was once in a lifetime experience for me and I have got a lot from this journey to cherish.
