Went to see the hole of the volcano

My family and I went to the 6th point (elevation 2490m) of Mount Fuji last year, there is the road to the 5th point (elevation 2400m) so it was easy to go. My son said he wanted to go the top but I said I heard it is tough to go because of low temperature and low air pressure. My son and I were interested in what the hole of the volcano like, we can see the picture but wanted to stand on the edge. :)

We decided to go the top this year, I bought shoes for him but I didn't know what else should I prepare. I read and heard what we need. The temperature of the top is 4-8 degree Celsius, the 5th point is 16-20, a city is 25-30, so we need summer cloth for the city and change to spring cloth on 5th point and change to winter cloth on 7th or 8th point. And need to prepare the rain. I thought we can use could use cheap rainwear but we need to wear it hours and rain or sweat will make wet inside, it's hard to stay in the winter rain. So we prepared rainwear and some small winter clothes what we can carry on our back and I booked the mountain hut on 7th point (elevation 3010m).

1st day, the 5th point was smokey like last year so we put on rainwear. It looked smoke but the water dropped from our hat. The rainwear worked nicely, it kept inside dry. The trail was tough to me but it seemed easier to my boy, he always go faster and waited for me on next point. There were trees on 5th point, but it wasn't any on 7th point. It seemed all イタドリ(Fallopia japonica) on the red ground. I felt already a lack of air on 7th point so I couldn't get good sleep but my son seemed slept as always. He said he already accustomed to low air pressure next morning.

2nd day, I woke up 4 am and prepared to see the sunrise but we couldn't see it because of all smokey weather. We started climbing 5 am, my son went faster than me as the previous day. Most of the trail was natural stair of rocks so it wasn't like walking, it was like climbing. It was getting more tough to me, I felt I couldn't inhale enough air when I moved quickly but I needed move quickly when I walked up the rocks. So I climbed up slower. In the city, I usually check the time and go faster so I forgot I can get to where I want to go even I go very slowly. I always got next point, it was a fresh surprise to me.

Plants were gone on the 8th point (elevation 3250m) but I found birds on the 8th and the 9th point (elevation 3460m). The birds didn't afraid climbers, they got very close to us. I noticed the birds eat moths, moths were gathered to the light of the hat in the previous night. There were more kind of moths than I pictured.

We got warm food on the hat of the 9th point and went on. There were snow remains above the valley of the 9th point. Luckily the smoke was getting gone and we could see the scenery of 9th point to the top. We could see the top but it didn't come closer, walk a little by little, 2 hours later, finally I got to the top, where my boy was waiting. :)

There is the post office on the top, we can get the postmark of "The top of Mt.Fuji", we posted one. :)

photo 1: left

photo 2: right

Climbing down, was another tough event. Air or the temperature didn't bother me anymore, but it was very tough to my legs. My boy went faster but I went slower, it was getting dark when we went back to the 5th point.

Posted on 07 August, 2017 13:11 by harumkoh