I had to stop my Mt. Fuji hike just short of the top.

On July 3rd & 4th, 2024, we hiked to Kamaiwakan hut just past the 7th station on Mt. Fuji. Zach left at midnight to try and catch the sunrise from the top. I left around 4 so I could walk when there was more light out. Right around when Zach made it to the top was just before I started my ascent and when the wind really started to pick up. The gusts were literally knocking my body over, and the staff I was carrying really wanted to fly away. When I made it to the 8th station, I met multiple hikers who said they were turned around at the 8.5 station because of the windy conditions. Just past the 8th station, I decided to turn back as the wind was getting even harder to deal with on a terrain that often requires your full attention. I could’ve gone to the 8.5 station and waited for a bit to see if the wind would die down, but it seemed to only start picking up not too long before. Not finishing a hike I set my mind to is very difficult and disappointing for me personally. That being said, talking to other hikers and my friend who made it to the top confirmed it was the right thing to do. Even if I made it to the top, I was adding a lot of extra risk just for the satisfaction of getting to the summit. Physically, my body felt more than capable. Mentally, I decided to trust my instincts and live to hike this another day.

all right so here we are we are at the fifth station you can see signs way back there and we are at 2300 M I want to say and today we are going to be walking up to what are we doing 2900 M 2900 M today the Hut and then tomorrow we finish and we go to the top seeing Fuji from the bus looks way more doable now that we drove up over halfway so check out this beautiful view so now we begin a few hours walk from the fist station see you at the 7 so we’ve been walking about 20 minutes made it to the first toilet station ask for tips what was at 100 yen to use them beautiful views all around now so at each of these Huts you can get your stick stamped that’s the first one it’s got a cute little piggy on it so we just made it to the seven station Kamaya con Zach how you feeling great walk another one look at that wind blow through his hair those now Luscious Hair he had to get a special brush just for his hair in this trip you look fantastic you already lost brush look at this beautiful view overall compared to Vulcan de fego which I did in Guatemala also volcano hike of course this one’s not too bad it’s more the elevation that you have to contend with I guess you get a little sweat yes you’re working your quads and your calves so if you’re training for this make sure you condition those pretty well but uh the elevation I’m already noticing even when I did a sneeze you know how you breathing you go like even there is it was different it’s hard to describe but it it felt lighter so it feels good that we’re going to be climatizing here I’m going to snack a banana water we get dinner here and yeah I think maybe I’ll go to sleep take a nap and then after dinner go to sleep and wake up sometime around 4:30 uh go up and we have three and a half hours so here’s our Hut and this is the beautiful view picked a great couple days to come up here this hey everyone so I didn’t make it to the top of Fuji I’m feeling a little disappointed it did make it to the a station I was about maybe 60 minutes at most from the 8.5 station cuz there’s not a ninth and people were coming down saying they were being turned away now the reason why well one there is no visibility at the 8.5 station and above not that that was a big deal for me but what was noticeable even from the Hut I was sleeping at at the seventh station is the wind was bad I’m talking 40 50 mph gust now I got one of these stabs here and I got a bunch of imprints on it take it from me if you get one of these mail it back don’t take it to the airport cuz when I did that in Spain after the Camino it got lost in the check baggage or they threw it out I don’t know so if you do want the stick probably get the smaller one but anyways this stick even with that small surface area was wanting to fly out of my hand down the mountain and there were times I had to stop completely because the wind was so bad [Applause] so a little disappointed but at the same time there’s no substitute for being safe making smart decisions and you know I could have went up to the 8 and a half station wait waited for the weather to possibly get better um but it was already pretty cold and I knew even if I made it up there I didn’t want to wait around forever maybe half an hour two an hour at most um but yeah guess that just means I’ll have to be back but overall you know as far as the hike going up um you do have to battle with the elevation a little bit nothing that’s not doable I’ve done Bulan the Fuego in Guatemala and I thought that was tougher maybe not terrain wise but the thing with the terrain is you know I’ve seen a lot of things about going down being tough and it is but if you take your time and just look one step at a time in front of you or even two steps it’s really not that bad so you know overall like I feel fine I don’t feel tired or nothing maybe just like 10% TIR um very doable hike if you’re in any bit of decent shape and you know yesterday when we got to the Hut at about noon we were contemplating doing a bullet hike all the way up and hind site be in 2020 probably should have could have made it there but you know it is it is what it is um but yeah um I I think if one were to do a bullet hike they would be fine um I’ve dealt with elevation altitude stuff before but if you make it up there and then back down to your hut you’re probably going to be okay especially if you’re only spending half an hour at the at the peak so anyways yeah sorry I wish I could have been bringing you better news but you know the the views were still absolutely fantastic even at the seventh station even at the eth station the views are absolutely incredible so no regrets about that came here gave it gave it a great shot and you know that’s that’s that’s the most I can ask for and I’m okay no injuries or anything like that so anyways thanks for watching guys hope you’re all doing well take care