富士山： Let's Mount Fuji Pt. 1

This last weekend, I got the crazy idea into my head that I was going to climb Mount Fuji, Japan's tallest and most famous & iconic mountain with other people from my prefecture (and Hiroshima). What's more, because people who are in unnaturally good shape planned the excursion, the plan was to hike overnight and get there by sunrise, then hike back down, get back on the bus, hit up an onsen, and come on home. Seriously. I know I'm not in fantastic shape (or even good shape) but, my biggest complaint about this hike is that there were three different groups of hikers.

There were the people who were pretty fit or really skinny, or had really good stamina. These are the people you see doing sports and stuff, though I think even if I was in good shape, I would have still been part of the slow group. Most of the people in this group reached the summit between 1:30-3 o'clock, well before sunrise. These were most of the people who organized the trip. They were also among the first people who were back down the mountain. They made it up the mountain in about 5 hours or so.

Then, there were the people who weren't necessarily in shape, but weren't out of shape too badly either. Or maybe they were out of shape, but they were skinny enough to where it didn't matter too much, or they had more stamina wee. They were the moderate group. Most of them barely made it to the summit in time to start heading back down. Most of these groups were either standing in the line to reach the summit (apparently there were a lot of people close to the summit), had just made it up for the sunrise around 4:20; either way, they barely made the estimated time to get to the summit. And if they barely made it up, then what chance did I, in the third group, have?

The third group was the slow group. Yeah, we were not in shape. I didn't think I was in THAT bad shape though - I mean, I still bike to work and stuff, and walk to work, and finished doing the Shimanami Kaido bike ride. I'll admit that I'm overweight, and fatter than is probably healthy and that I'd like to be, and that I don't exercise as much as I did in college because I don't have scheduled classes or an easily available gym and I hate running. But I didn't finish the bike ride last (and I finished it in the first place). It just so happens that I'm ridiculously slow when it comes to going up things, especially rocky areas. The question of how far up Fuji then, was not a matter of stamina and CAN you, but more a matter of time. The people who were skirting the edge of the moderate and slow group - most of my friends. They made it up to the summit around 5:30, right at the time it was recommended we leave the summit. So yeaaaahhh I was even slower than that. I would have been left behind.

The hard part though, was being able to estimate how long it would take you to get up the mountain. A lot of the people in the moderate and slow group had never climbed/hiked a mountain before so had no idea how long it would take. Finding a climbing buddy (which was really good to have) also was difficult because of this, and because it was hard to estimate how fast you were going to go.

Once we were there too, I suppose there was another group - the 'oh snap son altitude sickness' group. The altitude at Fuji affected people differently - some of us got headaches, others felt nauseous, and pretty much everyone at some point on Fuji felt breathing get much much harder. Mine just happened to come relatively early. I'll touch on both of these in the next post, probably.

Anyways, on to what happened BEFORE Fuji - the equipment and set up and stuff.
PRE-GAME SETUP
I didn't actually start to worry that oh hey, I was going to go climb THE BIGGEST MOUNTAIN IN JAPAN until about a week before we were leaving and when getting supplies was entering into that crucial stage. Emails were sent out over facebook recommending what things to buy (or borrow) and I was like 'oh snap, I don't have X, Y, and Z' so it was off to sports stores I went since I was silly and didn't ask my co-workers at school earlier. I was going to ask at my base school since they were the only people I was going to see twice before I went, but they ended up having a holiday on the second day so I was like weeeeeell to the stores I go!

This was the advice of the organizers, annotated with my thoughts along the way. Most of it was really good advice.

What to bring:
Gear
Since this is started as a night hike, you'll need a torch (flashlight) or headlamp (recommended) and enough batteries to last 6-8 hours. You'll want a pack large enough to hold your stuff along with a waterproof cover in case it rains. A set of hiking poles is nice but not necessary; they do help take the strain off your knees on the way down. Hiking boots, not shoes. Band aids/blister pads. Rain gear. Sunglasses and/or sunblock. Camera. Rain gear.

Hiking poles were also useful for hauling yourself up when you became short of breath, as well as something to lean on. I'd recommend, if you can get them cheap or borrow them, the kind of poles that collapse because there will be portions (especially between the 7th and 8th station) where it'll be easier to just ditch your poles and use your hands instead. It didn't rain for us while we were up there (thankfully) but I got rain gear that doubled as rain gear for the rainy season. Win-win!

Footwear
Hiking boots are strongly recommended. You want something that has good tread on the bottom and ankle support/protection as there's lots of scree (loose rock) on Fuji. You're going to be walking over a lot of roots in the dark to start, and if it rains... shoes just aren't going to cut it.
Socks are equally as important. Friction is the enemy when you're wearing boots, so here's a little trick that helps a lot: Wear two pairs of socks - a thin, silky or very sheer and close fitting pair underneath (thin business socks will do in a pinch, guys), and then thick pair of good hiking socks on top. That allows the socks to slide over each other instead of rubbing against your skin. Bring a backup set of both.

When you get to the top, take your boots off for a while and let them dry out a bit. Water (sweat) makes your socks to stick and causes most of the friction (that's why you gets blisters later in your hike as opposed to the outset and they seem to get worse). Remember, pain is a message. Listen to your body and stop and fix problems early before they get worse.

Definitely definitely recommend getting hiking boots. They don't have to be expensive, just something with good tread on them because as you're going up or down the rocks, something with grip will come in extra handy. I actually found mine at the local hardware/home store that sells everything (Juntendo, whose name is constantly reminding me of Nintendo) for pretty cheap. The laces were pretty crap, and it had been a while since I had worn shoes with ankle support, but I'm really glad I had mine. I'm pretty sure I would have died without them.

Clothing
The key is LAYERS! It'll be relatively warm at the bottom and then really cold up at the top at 4am. You'll want to bring several thin layers that you can mix and match, not one bulky one. That said, don't skimp on the warmth; it's possible there'll still be snow up there. You'll have to decide how best to balance the heat of the bottom with cold of the top. You may also want to swap out a sweaty layer or two at the top so you don't get cold.

Suggested layers -
Top: you want at least two if not three layers
Close-fitting: thermal underwear (or something similar) with a short or long sleeved shirt
Mid-layer: polar fleece vest, hoodie, etc…
Top-layer: heavy fleece, jacket, etc…
Bottom: you want at least two layers, DO NOT WEAR ONLY SHORTS
Close-fitting: thermal underwear (or something similar), tights, etc…
Top layer: thick pants
You can change/add layers on the side of the trail or at the stations.
*I highly recommend that you bring or invest in a good wind-and-water-proof shell set that will help keep you dry and warm.

Ditto to the wind-and-water-proof shell, though make sure it can go over all your stuff. The things I have double as rainy season/rain gear since I have to bike/walk to work, so it's extra handy (especially now that rainy season has ended).

Actually though, I found that it was still pretty chilly at the bottom of the mountain; chilly enough to where I started the hike out in hiking pants and my thermal long sleeve under my shirt at the bottom. So warm really mean 'warm as compared to the top of the mountain' rather than 'warm like a summer day.'

I spent soooo long trying to find good pants to hike in. Like literally, I have jeans and capris, but that was it. I didn't want to destroy my jeans either. I got a pair of track suit pants (which are more expensive than I thought! But mine were on sale) for general use and walking around with in the fall/winter - I decided not to use these on the hike though. I also got a pair of hiking pants from the Sports Chalet in Kurashiki - they were pretty pricey, but they're light, flexible, I actually wouldn't mind wearing them in the heat, and more importantly, they fit. Seriously. It's ridiculously hard for me to find pants over here, and I'm just out of range of normal young people size in the states (hooray women's sections). Japanese women, and most Japanese men, are really skinny.

I did however, succeed in finding 3L men's rain pants to wear. And the hiking pants were LL and they were super super stretchy so that somehow managed to work.

In retrospect, thick pants would have been really good, since there were places with rocks, and rocks on those stretchy, thin, pants made me worried.

Water
You should bring at least 1 liter of water but personally I recommended bringing 2 liters. It depends on what you want to do, and how much you can carry up the side of the mountain, but better safe than sorry.

Definitely bring water. I also brought a bottle of sports drink with me as well, then used that bottle as a kind of easy-access to water since the other water I brought was in the 2L bottle. Having easy access to your water - like in a side pocket or something, is really convenient, cause otherwise you have to stop, haul out your giant 2L bottle, drink, and then fit it back into your backpack. Much easier to pour water into your smaller bottle and drink from there. You could buy drinks at the hut, but nothing was less than 400 yen at the 7th station, and sometimes these huts were closed since we were going in the middle of the night. Also, make sure you have at least a bottle (500ml) for the hike back down. There are NO huts on the downwards (yoshida) path, and while it's not as strenuous as going up, it's still difficult.

Related: damn, water is HEAVY. On a good note though, your pack will be ridiculously light coming back down.

Food
Do not bring foods high in sugar and salt. Bring food that will give you energy and not make you thirsty, or crash from a sugar rush.
Bring enough to last you up the mountain and back down. There are some food shops at the top where you can get hot udon and even beer, but prices are steep! We're talking around 1100-1500 yen for a styrofoam bowl of udon, and 800 yen for a beer (though admittedly it may be the best beer of your life). If you don't mind the prices, you can warm up a while and take your boots off to dry out.

Good food to bring:
Onigiri
Trail mix / gorp / nuts
Dried fruit
Dried meat
Sandwiches

I brought way way way too much food with me. Rice balls were really good, and the dried fruit was nice to snack on, but we didn't really eat much during the hike itself. We kind of munched on the dried fruit and meat, as well as Calorie Mate. This was the first time I had calorie mate, so I tried the chocolate flavor. It basically looks like a biscuity cookie. And it is like a dry, dry, biscuity cookie. I was super glad I still had water left.

What food I didn't eat eventually got squashed at the bottom of my bag. Someone else brought bananas that also got smashed at the bottom of her bag. Oops.

Other Supplies
Although you will want to pack as light as possible - you gotta carry it - below is a list of additional items you may want. Please bring what suits you!

Extra batteries
Sunblock (important!!)
Hand/face towel
Toilet Paper (esp. ladies - when is there ever TP in the ladies' bathroom?)
Headache medicine?
Camera
Small blanket
Sealable bags for food and supplies
Money (you can buy food/water at the stations, but be warned that the closer to the top, the more expensive items will be)
Gloves and a hat
Plastic bag for wet clothes
Trash bag(s) - pick up along the trail for extra kudos
Hking stick - available at the bottom (5th Station), you can buy a fetching wooden hiking stick for 1,000 yen and then have it stamped (branded) with a seal at each of the stations. Each brand costs 200 yen, so in total it costs 2,000 yen, but it's a pretty kickass memento if you're into that kind of thing.

Most of the huts/stations on the Yoshida trail have bathrooms - decent bathrooms (though I heard from my friends that the one at the summit was disgusting)- attached to them, and they all had toilet paper, so next time I would skip out on that. They do, however, ask for a 200 yen donation for upkeep, so make sure you bring change.

The hiking sticks were really really cool, and useful if you don't already have poles. Pretty much every hut and station along the way offer stamps/brands for 200 yen, so you can actually spend quite a bit on the brands if you aim to get them from as many stations as you can. Just know though, if you're doing the night climb that some of them might be closed or not giving out stamps during the wee hours of the night. My friends also said that at the summit, you can get two different stamps too. They're pretty badass; they're burned into your stick with an iron rod.

I also brought a small first aid kit - and by that I mean band-aids, neosporin, tape, and wrapping for under the tape. Oh, and headache medicine, but I put it into a smaller bottle.

I was super freaking out right before the climb because I wasn't sure if I had everything, but now, in retrospect, I probably packed too much. I did end up putting on all my layers (save the rain pants), but that might have been in part because we were going slow enough and resting often enough to where it was getting kind of chilly. But yeah, it as long as you keep moving, you actually stay pretty warm throughout your hike until you get to bits where you slow down or rest.

I, along with a couple other people, brought cannisters of oxygen. The guy who organized the trip said (with a touch of distain and contempt since he's a really fit dude) we shouldn't need oxygen, even those of us who weren't in good shape cause we were all young and blah blah. I talked to someone else, who recommended bringing some with, and I found it was a good idea. It helped some of us with altitude sickness or tiredness - when I started to get really short of breath, take a swig of oxygen and everything is good again. Slight headache? Oxygen away! It doesn't help everyone though - my friend and climbing buddy tried it on her headache and nausea, but it didn't help one bit.

Yeah though, that was just the set up! Another one of my friends who's done Fuji has told me that she went with far less preparation, but since we were doing a night climb... to not be prepared implied that there was a chance that we would die on the mountain.

More to come:
bus ride
rest stops
Starting out.
gandalf stick & good headlamps (or not good headlamps)
altitude sickness
zigzag paths & small goals
guys who brand sticks
price of water D:
water is HEAVY
rocks of stupid annoyingness
hooray rock climbing... in the dark!
8th station
Friendly people
Going back down
ohmyjesus hornets and other flying things
Nearly getting lost
hiking downhill on the way over...
hiking boots are awesome

onsen
20 minutes, LOLS