We hiked to the top of Mt. Fuji in Japan. We watched the sunrise, and shortly after, I launched my Mavic Pro drone.
Before the Youtube commenters go nuts, Japan has specific rules about where you can fly drones, but as this area is sparsely populated its actually legal to fly there. I checked with the government before doing it, and here is the site you can check for yourself ( . Besides these no fly zones, technically you can’t fly above a certain height from the ground. However, even though the Mavic in this video is at 4300 meters in elevation, its still only 500m off the ground. That being said commercial airliners do not fly directly over mt Fuji, and certainly well above 500m from the summit.
Despite high winds, freezing temperatures, and thin air, the Mavic flew like a damn champ. Aside from when I was literally ripping it through a cloud into high speed winds, it never even bobbled slightly. Also, hiking it to the top of the mountain was no big deal as its so light. I’ve owned a lot of drones, and this one is the best.
Highlights:
0:30 Lateral view of summit and crater
1:10 Central Crater
3:00 Ground literally miles away + horizon + Mt Obora in the deep background.
3:45 Most of the hiking trail from the base
5:18 The Shadow of the mountain itself cast on the clouds by the rising sun (shot about 5:30am)
7:45 Two nervous americans as the drone started to struggle with the winds inside a cloud despite being in sport mode.
8:20 Two very weary climbers happy to have gotten their drone back safely!
PS: If you’re thinking about hiking Fuji all the way to the summit, be in decent physical shape and prepared with the correct gear. We saw many obese Americans tapping out before even halfway up. Also, halfway up there was a constant mist of rain as we were inside clouds. Had we been in shorts and a t-shirt (like many of the unprepared people we saw quitting early) we would have been miserable. The summit is freezing cold and windy. Furthermore, there is no slide to the bottom when done (or if you quit halfway). The hike down takes about 5 hours, and is absolutely brutal on your knees as the decline is also incredibly steep. Also the air is 11% oxygen at the summit (about half normal) so I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone with breathing problems. We were both physically fit people and it was pretty difficult to do and I was sore for days. That being said, watching the sunrise at the summit was beyond beautiful, and something I recommend any human put on their bucket list if they can do it.
AloJapan.com