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Jeff Climbs Mount Fuji

On 7 August, Jeff (and his friend, Dave Rupprecht) headed up the slope of Mount Fuji. Fuji-san is a dormant volcano (last erupted in 1707) that stands alone on the Kanto Plain at 3776 meters, or 12388.45 feet. It is visible in Japan for hundreds of miles when the weather and pollution conditions allow. It is only available for climbing in July and August - even then, the temperature on the summit is about 40 degrees. The air is pretty thin - 60% that of sea level, which probably accounts for people's judgement when they decide to keep climbing. They day we went, it was windy, cold, and rainy, but glorious when we broke through the top of the clouds and made it to the summit.

The Line to the Top

Here is the string of people behind us at about the one third point. It thinned out a bit as we climbed higher, but it was nice of these people to smile when I said "Cheese."

Jeff at the Top

Here is Jeff standing on the edge of the summit. It would have been nice if it was clear to get a view all the way down to the Kanto Plain and across Sagami Wan to where we live - On a nice day, you can see Fuji from our house. But we lived here for 6 months before we knew that!

Into the Crater

Here is a look into the crater - about 150 feet. We are hoping that the volcano stays dormant for at least 10 more months.

Here are Jeff and Dave standing at the rim of the crater. We stayed long enough to get our sticks stamped, have a bowl of ramen, buy some souvenirs (OF COURSE they have souvenirs) and then we got down - it was cold and we were wet in those shorts. It took 3 hours and 32 minutes to get up, and 1 hour and 45 minutes to go back by a slightly different trail. The tree line ends at 8000 feet, and the climbing was difficult on volcanic rock and dirt and ash that was a few inches deep. But it was worth climbing. Once.

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