Some com­men­ta­tors will regret Geeklawyer’s visit was acci­dent free. Not so much as a turned ankle. More per­turb­ing was the earth­quake that shook, no rocks landed on his head and the earth moved for women around him.

Mount Fuji is  hard climb of that there is no doubt. It is some 3776 metres to the sum­mit and Geeklawyer felt each and every damned metre. But he did, at least, make it while many don’t; those many months hill­walk­ing in the UK paid some dividend.

Some of the dif­fi­culty was down to the ruck­sack load Geeklawyer chose. He had been told incor­rectly that no water or food was avail­able on the moun­tain, so he cal­cu­lated for 24 hours of needs: lots of food & 9.5litres of fluid to com­bat 85 degree heat and 90% humid­ity — even dis­count­ing high alti­tude. In the end the pack was about 40 pounds all in. It turns out to have been a dis­as­trous mis­cal­cu­la­tion and some bad infor­ma­tion: food & water was avail­able at the top five sta­tions (rest huts) on the moun­tain: it was merely expen­sive. Geeklawyer has done some tough trekking but this damned near killed him: he car­ried the 40 pounds up about 2000 metres before decid­ing to give away half the pack to grate­ful Japan­ese nearby.

20 hours  of climb­ing later, much of it done at night so as to hit the top by dawn, as Japan­ese reli­gious tra­di­tion requires, Geeklawyer arrived. The guid­ance reck­ons around 11 to 12 hours from the base of the moun­tain so he was a lit­tle below par, but those 20 hours includes 5 hours sleep­ing at sta­tion eight at 3000 metres. And, mind you, that fig­ure is arrived at by tim­ing Japan­ese grannies, who all seem to sprint up the hill car­ry­ing their own body­weight in sup­plies, so not too shabby.

While up the moun­tain Geeklawyer even met a very sweet Aus­tralian chick who expressed the desire for Geeklawyer to keep her com­pany on the ascent. Geeklawyer wasn’t sure what to make of this: a) a hot Aus­tralian chick, and b) one who didn’t run away scream­ing notwith­stand­ing the obsta­cle of the life affirm­ing ascent needed to make good an escape. Per­haps she was mad? Per­haps he should rebuff her firmly. Still, he thought, never screw some­one on the way up — you may need them on the way down. She retired from the moun­tain with her hon­our and san­ity intact. Not many women can say that. Thanks Ailsa.

A once in a life­time event he can’t wait to repeat. Was the view worth the effort?

mount fuji at dawn

More Mount Fuji pics here.