Japan - Climbing Mount Fuji

On Wednesday I went with a group of friends to climb Mount Fuji and ski back down. We started climbing at 2299 meters at around 7:30 in the morning. I was able to climb up to 3100 meters by about 14:00 before I was too worn out to go any farther. I have mostly been in Tokyo at sea leave for the past month, so I was really feeling the effects of the thinner air as I climbed Mount Fuji. As I got higher, it got so that I could only take a few steps before I would need to rest and catch my breath.

Unfortunately it was really icy, so the ski down wasn’t that great. It was a fun challenge, but so much work.

Mount Fuji

The group heading out.

The original plan was to ski up the mountain using skins on he bottom of our skis. The skins and special bindings allow a downhill ski to work more like a cross-country ski and you can actually ski up the mountain. Once you reach the top, you can peel the skins off the skis, lock the bindings down and ski like you would normally. Unfortunately it turned out to be too icy for that to work, so we had to put on crampons and carry our skis.

Crampons on my ski boots.

I'm slowly making my way up the mountain.

It was a little hazy so the views were not as amazing as it could have been.

Happy to be heading down.

Jeff skiing down.

Top of Mount Fuji is 3776 meters (12,388 feet).
Our starting point was 2299 meters (7543 feet).
My max elevation was 3097 meters (10,162).

My Route.