Climbing & camping on Mt Fuji in Autumn - video
Posted: Sun 11 Dec, 2016 12:29 amA few weeks ago I headed up Mt Fuji and spent two nights in my tent on the summit.
The Japanese generally don't recommended climbing Fuji outside the official climbing season (Japanese summer, July-August). That's because it gets *&%$#! cold (down to -40C with the wind chill in winter), the sometimes crazy strong winds and avalanche risks.
But if you don't mind the cold, November is a great time to head up. There's a picturesque sprinkling of snow, and you have the entire mountain to yourself. And at sunset, it's gob-smackingly beautiful. The views are about the best you'll see, anywhere.
Fuji is a stratovolcano, so it towers over everything for hundreds of kilometres in every direction. When you stand on the edge of the crater rim looking out, you feel almost suspended in space - floating in the atmosphere high above the clouds, with nothing but sky all around you. It's probably my favorite climb, for the sheer amazeballs views across plains, seas of clouds, rugged coatlines, mountains and Tokyo.
Here's a video of some of the climb and the views at sunset.
(I don't know how to embed a Vimeo video, so here are a couple of links/attempts at embed codes. They all lead to the same video. Hopefully at least one of them works.)
https://vimeo.com/192082705
[video]https://vimeo.com/192082705[/video]
Cheers and safe hiking
The Japanese generally don't recommended climbing Fuji outside the official climbing season (Japanese summer, July-August). That's because it gets *&%$#! cold (down to -40C with the wind chill in winter), the sometimes crazy strong winds and avalanche risks.
But if you don't mind the cold, November is a great time to head up. There's a picturesque sprinkling of snow, and you have the entire mountain to yourself. And at sunset, it's gob-smackingly beautiful. The views are about the best you'll see, anywhere.
Fuji is a stratovolcano, so it towers over everything for hundreds of kilometres in every direction. When you stand on the edge of the crater rim looking out, you feel almost suspended in space - floating in the atmosphere high above the clouds, with nothing but sky all around you. It's probably my favorite climb, for the sheer amazeballs views across plains, seas of clouds, rugged coatlines, mountains and Tokyo.
Here's a video of some of the climb and the views at sunset.
(I don't know how to embed a Vimeo video, so here are a couple of links/attempts at embed codes. They all lead to the same video. Hopefully at least one of them works.)
https://vimeo.com/192082705
[video]https://vimeo.com/192082705[/video]
Cheers and safe hiking