Mountain training and teenage humour

 

I’m not going to bang on about Facebook but for goodness sake, they don’t half make my life difficult. After a lovely sleep with just a couple of hours awakening in the middle was good to go. Those hours quite useful for research so I could establish when to leave for the summit of Fuji tomorrow. Streaks of light at 4am so that’s when we will embark from our mountain hut. Today was about getting there.

The weather had changed considerably since yesterday, blazing blue skies and optimism abounded. Kawaguchiko seemed to have transformed overnight, Chrissi and I took a stroll to get breakfast provisions and life everywhere. I noted it is the “Keswick” of these parts, hiking shops and backpackers everywhere. Also a bit of an adventure sport type paradise. But most important of all was it sitting at the base of Mount Fuji, another of those icons you have grown up with. Our first sight was a good one, the picture in front of Lawson supermarket is also the done thing I was to hear later on.

We needed to get sorting and joined the queue to buy tickets to the 5th station, Fuji base camp to all intents and purposes. Random chat with fellow hiker in the queue, quite a traveller, many stories. All set we used Lawson for its main purpose and returned to the Airbnb for a bits and pieces breakfast.

Did a bit more research and whilst it was tempting to do a bit of mooching in home comforts I was conscious that I wanted to get us to the mountain hut before sunset so heading up earlier rather than later would be the sensible approach. So it was time to clean up our acts, Chrissi had done so much washing with all our mod cons we realised we could have brought half the gear. That would have been less to have manoeuvred about yesterday. Still, many clothe options from here on in. Packed quite a few for our expedition which started at the bus station and took us up to the 5th station, already half way up Fuji and pretty much the equivalent to two Snowdons in height before we put one foot in front of the other.

I guess this as about as sanitised a hard climb as you can get. They take you up half way and the route is carved and marked out for you. That’s not to say it’s not steep or scrambley but feels doable. The amount of people around you sort of tells you that too, although it is pretty much the pilgrimage for Japanese folk. The mountain envelopes the whole culture with its spirituality both looking up and then being part of it as you pick your way in the ascent. Very conscious of this whole altitude sickness malarkey so we all took it steady hoping that helps the acclimatisation. We only got around a third done today but that was the plan, weather was marvellous, views already magnificent.

No obvious symptoms of altutiude sickness unless hallucinating I am in a dorm in Japan with some absolutely stinking feet somewhere in the vicinity and a family on the brink of hysteria by the novelty of it all. We actually got to experience some authentic Japanese dining at high altitude but ironically in very low posture. Some wonderfully home cooked chicken, sweet and sour accompaniments including pickles, and soup and tea. It was both hearty and delicious.

Sunset and cold setting in meant a few photos to end the day and confirmation that further climbing at night even in these conditions not to be advised. So is back to the dorm, a good place to blog actually, albeit the quiet and darkness punctuated by the odd fart and bursts of laughter from my lot. Is like been back in school, but we are all in this together.

(Carys)

More of a lie in felt like a treat today, as did the double beds which were comfy, so I woke up feeling very well rested. We enjoyed some breakfast in the kitchen (thanks Mum and Dad going for it), of which I had fruit, little donuts and juice. 

We had a couple hours of not doing mum, so I started reading my book, and then we got ourselves ready for our mountain adventure. Having done 2x Duke Of Edinburgh’s I took some confidence and also had some flashbacks from the last couple of years. This is very different of course, but I’ve felt some themes re-occurring which will be mentioned later on. All suited and booted we walked to the bus stop and queued amongst some others, and then took the bus on the scenic route up 2km to the start of where the mountain trail begins. 

They’ve got the base camp there really organised with lots of shops and all so we had some chips to give us beginners energy and began the climb. The first few hundred metres, through pretty were undulating and irritatingly quite downhill, considering we’d have to start going up very shortly. When we did, it was stepper than I expected, with gravelly ground, but still good. We spent the next couple of hours walking and breaking and walking and breaking, as to get used to the high altitudes and prevent anyway being ill, which hopefully continues. The later parts of the trek were more scrambly, feeling like proper rock climbing which I love, though may prove difficult coming down tomorrow. 

But the views have been astonishing and very rewarding, especially at our lodging. We passed a few before we reached our own so when we arrived we felt quite pleased. We were shown to our ‘quarters’, four individual bunks in a row with curtains and sleeping bags, which was also better than I’d anticipated - I’m not quite sure what I’d pictured but this is all nice enough. , and we even have Wi-Fi which feels lucky. 

We settled in whilst other people arrived to bunks above and across from us, making this feel like some kind of big treehouse. It’s a bit odd that we’re all 8n here together technically but cosy nonetheless. When food was ready we took our seats (the floor) around low tables, which felt very cultural, despite being a bit squished back to back. My vegan meal was top notch, consisting of a curry that tasted like chip shop curry sauce, rice and a soy burger with a bbq sauce. Very warming and so delicious, I was very pleased. 

We enjoyed the views outside a little longer, and visited the outdoor toilets and brushed our teeth. Some climbers were just heading off now to the summit to catch the sunrise in the morning, which one day I would love to do. But for now, it’s lights off and we are settling down, amongst some snores of certain people.