05 ~ 06 August, 2010
07
Yoshida (5th Station) >> Summit >> Yoshida (5th Station)
[A beautiful sunrise]
07
Yoshida (5th Station) >> Summit >> Yoshida (5th Station)
[A beautiful sunrise]
Before I account for my 7th climb on Fuji a few words about the Mt. Fuji Race. I had attemped the Mt. Fuji Race a week or so earlier and it had ended without the success I had hoped for. Success for me would simply have been measured in terms of getting to the summit finish.
I had turned up the day before the race and stayed in a hotel in Fujiyoshida. On the morning of the race, I and some of the other runners staying in the same hotel were dropped of near the start point and just looking around, it was clear I was in a completely different field of runners than the usual marathon runners. I still had no clear idea what the road route was that took us to the 5th Station. I still had it in my head that we would make our way around to the toll road that takes all traffic up to the Yoshida trail 5th Station and then proceed from there. What I did know was that there was a cut off time at the 5th Station and another at the 8th Station. If you missed one, your race would be over and you would be direced back down to the Yoshida 5th Station.
The race started on time and there was a surge of runners that came running past me. The incline started after just a few hundred yards and then continued on towards Fuji on a road that was not the toll road I had imagined it would be. The toll road is actually quite steep in places but this one thankfully was not as steep but still it was inclined and more so than your average road. It continued steadily for about 11km at which point we joined a regular hiking trail. Once on the trail everyone was queued up behind each other and all you could do was keep up with the person in front. When I arrived at the first cut off point which was near the 5th Station, I thought I had done enough to make it through but I was soon to discover, as were many of the runners in front and everyone behind me that our race was about to come to an abrupt end. I had missed the cut of time by about 10 minutes.
It had been about 15km to the first cut off point and despite the disappointment I felt reasonably happy because I had tried my best. To just take part in such a gruelling type of race is maybe a victory of sorts but I already had it in my head that I wanted to come back next year and try again. I had been running for just a little over 12 months and I felt I had failed in part because I had lacked the confidence in myself to be able to do it. Next year I was determined would be a very different story. [Mt. Fuji Race 2011]
I finished work later afternoon on a Friday, returned home and headed back out and took the train to Kawaguchiko and then a local bus to the Yoshida 5th Station. I stayed around at the 5th Station as long as I could and then shortly before 22:30 I set of slowly towards the summit.
The sky was perfectly clear and the weather forecast was also forecast to be perfect. There were a lot more people climbing Fuji than I had expected on a Friday night but nothing like the crazy weekends. I made steady progress and didn't really stop even when I came upon big groups of climbers. On the upper parts of the trail it is often very difficult to pass so you end up with long lines. On this occasion I just skirted round many of the other climbers and continued on up. I seemed to be full of energy for whatever reason and I arrived at the summit in 3 short hours.
With the sky clear it was also a little colder than usual. Thankfully the wind was not so strong so there was little added wind chill. I got dressed in all my layers and waited near the main area where everyone usually waits on the summit to see the sunrise. An hour or so before sunrise much larger numbers of climbers had gathered on the summit so I decided to head away to right to a slightly more elevated area. From there I sat and enjoyed a really fantastic sunrise. There was misty cloud down below covering the distant mountain ranges and thicker cloud all the way back to the horizon spread out nice and smooth. The sun then slowly emerged from beind the horizon, almost red in colour. It remained perfectly round until it rose above the thin haze and then send out rays of sunshine everywhere.
It was undoubtedly one of the best sunrises I had seen from Mt. Fuji. The colours too had been amazing as the night turned to day. I then just slowly made my way back down the descending trail all the way back to the 5th Station. I found myself a spare seat on a bus back to Shinjuku and before long I was heading back home again. It was still just the middle of August so there were still a few opportunities to return to Fuji again.
I had turned up the day before the race and stayed in a hotel in Fujiyoshida. On the morning of the race, I and some of the other runners staying in the same hotel were dropped of near the start point and just looking around, it was clear I was in a completely different field of runners than the usual marathon runners. I still had no clear idea what the road route was that took us to the 5th Station. I still had it in my head that we would make our way around to the toll road that takes all traffic up to the Yoshida trail 5th Station and then proceed from there. What I did know was that there was a cut off time at the 5th Station and another at the 8th Station. If you missed one, your race would be over and you would be direced back down to the Yoshida 5th Station.
The race started on time and there was a surge of runners that came running past me. The incline started after just a few hundred yards and then continued on towards Fuji on a road that was not the toll road I had imagined it would be. The toll road is actually quite steep in places but this one thankfully was not as steep but still it was inclined and more so than your average road. It continued steadily for about 11km at which point we joined a regular hiking trail. Once on the trail everyone was queued up behind each other and all you could do was keep up with the person in front. When I arrived at the first cut off point which was near the 5th Station, I thought I had done enough to make it through but I was soon to discover, as were many of the runners in front and everyone behind me that our race was about to come to an abrupt end. I had missed the cut of time by about 10 minutes.
It had been about 15km to the first cut off point and despite the disappointment I felt reasonably happy because I had tried my best. To just take part in such a gruelling type of race is maybe a victory of sorts but I already had it in my head that I wanted to come back next year and try again. I had been running for just a little over 12 months and I felt I had failed in part because I had lacked the confidence in myself to be able to do it. Next year I was determined would be a very different story. [Mt. Fuji Race 2011]
I finished work later afternoon on a Friday, returned home and headed back out and took the train to Kawaguchiko and then a local bus to the Yoshida 5th Station. I stayed around at the 5th Station as long as I could and then shortly before 22:30 I set of slowly towards the summit.
The sky was perfectly clear and the weather forecast was also forecast to be perfect. There were a lot more people climbing Fuji than I had expected on a Friday night but nothing like the crazy weekends. I made steady progress and didn't really stop even when I came upon big groups of climbers. On the upper parts of the trail it is often very difficult to pass so you end up with long lines. On this occasion I just skirted round many of the other climbers and continued on up. I seemed to be full of energy for whatever reason and I arrived at the summit in 3 short hours.
With the sky clear it was also a little colder than usual. Thankfully the wind was not so strong so there was little added wind chill. I got dressed in all my layers and waited near the main area where everyone usually waits on the summit to see the sunrise. An hour or so before sunrise much larger numbers of climbers had gathered on the summit so I decided to head away to right to a slightly more elevated area. From there I sat and enjoyed a really fantastic sunrise. There was misty cloud down below covering the distant mountain ranges and thicker cloud all the way back to the horizon spread out nice and smooth. The sun then slowly emerged from beind the horizon, almost red in colour. It remained perfectly round until it rose above the thin haze and then send out rays of sunshine everywhere.
It was undoubtedly one of the best sunrises I had seen from Mt. Fuji. The colours too had been amazing as the night turned to day. I then just slowly made my way back down the descending trail all the way back to the 5th Station. I found myself a spare seat on a bus back to Shinjuku and before long I was heading back home again. It was still just the middle of August so there were still a few opportunities to return to Fuji again.