the drive to 5th station took longer than expected, but at the end of it we found ourselves getting out of mrs. takahashi’s car at an elevation of about 5,600 ft. at this height and because of the situation of the 5th station, the wind was a constant, deafening roar, with gusts that made it hard to stand even on flat cement. my dad and i worried about this momentarily, wondering how much worse it would be on the tricky upper slopes, but put it out of our minds. and, so as not to lose time, we had a quick prayer with mrs. takahashi for safety, and said our thank-yous and goodbyes. then we cinched up all our straps, configured our hydration packs for hiking, and set off on the trail. despite the wind, it was a sunny 80 degrees at the 5th station (much better than the balmy and sweaty 95 of tokyo), the trail was not to steep, and life was good! around then i noticed an interesting atmospheric oddity–a little cyclonic type cloud formation that hovered a certain distance off fuji, and just kept rotating and rotating. here’s a picture: [our cyclonic friend]. that cloud formation stayed there for just about the entire duration of our extent, rotating happily, and i can’t figure out why it was there. anyway.
soon enough, however, the going got fairly steep (we thought, but little did we know it was practically flat compared to what was to come), and we got mired in problems. my dad, jogger extroardinaire though he is, was having trouble with the intense cardiovascular nature of the climb. thus, we had to rest frequently, and my hopes of getting anywhere near the summit before we had to turn around to catch the bus began to diminish steadily. still, we made it to the 6th station alright, and, trying not to look up and see the vertical mile we still had to go, pressed on. shortly after that, i took this picture, wherein you can get an idea of how far we had to go (you can also notice the swirling clouds at the top and the ice patches still left even in summer): [don’t look up].
then began the Switchbacks of Death, as i like to call them. hundreds and hundreds of switchbacks, each fairly short, but extremely steep, and consisting of volcanic gravel that was extremely hard to gain purchase in. it wasn’t so much hiking anymore as slogging through shifting rock. my dad was still having some trouble tiring out quickly after each rest, so we were stopping more often and longer than i liked–at each switchback practically. so, since i was feeling alright, and as if i could run up the mountain if i wanted, i took my dad’s pack and carried it on my stomach. the combined weight of his and my packs was probably around 50 lbs (8 liters of water is heavy, and i had all my cooking gear–stove, 2 pots, food, though i was never able to get the fuel tank filled. so it was a lot of useless and dead weight). needless to say, this evened the playing field a little bit: i stopped getting so far ahead and my dad stopped to rest less often.
however, i had already settled on not making it to the top, since at the rate we were going, we were going to take at least 6 hours up. then, when i had lost all hope, two americans caught up to us from behind (which was odd, because so far we hadn’t seen anyone else on the mountain–it was fantastic! a beautiful day, and no one in sight!). their names were renee and sue, and they were wives of americans working in tokyo. we got to talking, and soon realized what a blessing it was that we had met each other. they had been wanting someone to climb with, and also they had not brought much food or water. more importantly, they had brought a car to the 5th station. my dad and i, of course, had plenty of water, having brought some for cooking that we would no longer need. we also had an entire 5lb bag of kirkland’s signature trail mix, and all sorts of other useful hiking gear (first aid kit, moleskin, etc). so we decided that we would all go up together, and that way they would have food and water, and we would have a ride back to the main bus station at fujiyoshida! it almost felt as if god had been steadily increasing the possibility of our being able to climb up to the top, from getting us a ride to the 5th station, to sending two people who could help us and whom we could help.
anyway, that renewed my spirits quite a bit, and i trotted up with hope, still carrying my dad’s backpack. our joining the two ladies also had a positive impact on my dad, maybe because they were around 40 and he didn’t want to be shown up by women not much younger than him. at any rate they were better at encouraging him and each other than i was (all i had been able to manage was “come on, dad! your body can do this, you just have to keep a sustained pace and not give in to the pain”, which i guess wasn’t very helpful).
