Mt Fuji

The highest mountain of Japan and somewhat holy.
After it was not clear if we could actually go up today or tomorrow, the weather forecast was finally good enough. The bus from Fujinomiya Station to the 5th trail station leaves at 6:35, seats are on a first comes first served basis. So getting there early sounded like a good idea.

Well 6:15 was not early enough and I was in line for 80 minutes standing.
Had I been a bit later (7 people to be exact), the second bus was all seats again. Well bad luck.
After the coming up all the way, the next step was now inscription at the trailhead and a 1000 Yen donation for the restoration work.
The helmet that I could have lent for a deposit was skipped. – Maybe not the best idea. More on that later.

After all the preparations up it goes after an onigiri for breakfast and some water to start the motor.
I was not the fastest in the group but at the first few stations I was the first to leave. Even when my body decided getting rid of weight via bowel movements would be a good idea.
That’s 300 Yen please. For a freshly cleaned toilet up at more then 2000m.
I was happy to pay that.

The way up did not kill my knees or leg muscles as much as I thought and the 2l water was done when I reached the post station at the top of the volcano before my personal extended cut off time. (Official time of latest return was 14:00 , my let’s see 13:00 and my hard 13:30). The hike was challenging but doable. And the thinner air made it a bit harder. The thing is: I did not feel the exhaustion but I knew that I needed a short break and take it slow.

I started my way back down late at 13:45 but saw that one person from our group was further up and seemed to struggle with the descent. There are a few tricks in gravel that can either make the trip down harder or easier. So I decided to stay back and try to help. When that person came up with the “Everything hurts, I don’t want to continue.” song, my response was not very sympathetic. “Down or die. – Preferably before sundown at 18:30.”

We managed to crawl down at a steady pace. On the way we were met by mist and very limited view . And during that a few mountain guides brought up other climbers with the correct gear. The tempo of the guides was very interesting as they walked very slowly in front of the groups with one foot before the other.

And now for the helmet part. I slipped a few times. But that was more of a shock moment and Ass to the ground moment. More interesting where the moments when my knee did not hold on the step I jumped to and I had those slow-mo experiences with something is wrong, the direction of the fall is not as planned, what do you want to do?
The first one was a squat that was too deep on the left knee and I could not hold it any longer. So go to the left and take a seat on the floor. I was told it looked quite dramatic. That’s when I took out my hiking sticks because the weak knee didn’t feel trustworthy any longer. Maybe I was a bit low on sugar and water as well. I don’t know.

The second one was a bit more movie worthy.  Knee did not hold and I was on  a few stony outcrops down. So the trusty left sit again. But there was the way down in front. So what to do? Well let’s try a slightly sideward roll towards the decline. Which did work. The result: A bottle next to me to pick up, ripped trousers, a rip in the long-sleeved t-shirt and a very nice, bleeding abrasion along the left lower arm. The other smaller wounds  underneath the trousers did not blead. One of the hiking poles did not survive  the fall either. The clean water was of course already used up and I was still on the mission to get the other person down in time. So manly man that I am when it does not make sense I continued my way down to the next station. (It did not hurt that much anyway and not just because of the shock.)
There I bought some very expensive water to wash out the dirt before applying an antiseptic. As this was luckily the last station before the entrance I decided to postpone even more (blood is good) and we finished the trail at the entrance. When the guys with the helmets asked how I liked the climb I was like. The climb was good the way down not so much and showed them my arm. They where very fast with a wipe, band aids and antiseptic spray. So I could clean out my wounds and because of the size I used some sterile swabs and an elastic bandage to cover it up. (Thank you dear Japanese helper.)

While my wounds were tended to, the person from my group suddenly collapsed. Nice curled up position, like sleeping. Not responsive for a few seconds. Hail to my first responder courses! The other guys are already there and trying to find out what happened and if we need an ambulance. So speaking and soft touch at the shoulder (elbows were tucked in). Thankfully, after a few seconds back to speaking. Suddenly everything went black and pressure on the ears. A chair and some dextrose seemed to be the correct response. As the foot ration for the hike had already been consumed earlier, no more food. And suddenly, there were a few cookies. That seemed to do the trick. Water was already refilled earlier.
After some very nice care by the people it was time to go to the bus station.
But wait. What about the helmet?
Well as I was packing up my stuff it turns out that the front and back side of my hat have dirt on them. So at some time I must have made soft contact with the ground during my fall. (Dirt was not caked in enough for a strong contact.)
So had I worn a helmet intended for stones coming down the mountain, it might have  been useful for me falling on stones.

After the bus ride back home I was looking for some antiseptic and big band aids to cover my abrasions. Unfortunately the combini around the corner only had small band aids.
But the attendant sent me to a pharmaceutical shop while apologising profoundly. I did get my stuff there on the self serve isle.
On my way back there was lightning in one of the clouds attached to the cloud attached to Mount Fuji . As if someone was not very happy with today’s events.

Back in the hotel I did another general cleanup of my wounds and the antiseptic did burn this time. But on the other hand it seems like the abrasions where even less severe than I thought. Going to the onsen tomorrow might be an interesting choice. The inside might like it. The outside might not. I’ll try to let the main one dry put over night and then we’ll see.