On Saturday, July 12, Chris, Rosie and Bob climbed Mt. Fuji. The day started by catching a 4 am bus from Camp
Zama headed for the 5
th station at Mt. Fuji. The bus ride was a little over 2 hours. We started climbing at about 6:30 am. Here we are before we start the climb - notice the smiles. They'll be replaced by tiredness at the end of the day.
We all made it to the top in the allotted time. We needed to reach the top before 1 pm in order to make it back to the bus by 6 pm. Here are shots of Chris, Bob and Rosie at the top. Chris is next to the crater of the
volcano. Note: Mt. Fuji's summit is 12,395 feet high. The temperature was considerably cooler at the top. A light jacket felt nice.
Here's Bob by the marker pointing to the trail back down the mountain. Since he's tired already, he's not really looking forward to the climb back down. Is there an escalator or maybe a
toboggan ride down? At least the Great Wall had a
toboggan ride.
Here's Rosie at the tori gate entrance to the top of Mt. Fuji. She's giving a great bonsai shout - or maybe singing opera - who knows about that woman.
The climb down lasted about 3.5 hours. We got back to the 5
th station at about 4:30 - plenty of time to catch the 6 pm bus. The bus ended up leaving at about 6:30; we waited 30 minutes for one of our members. She never showed and the bus finally left without her. We arrived back at Camp
Zama at about 9:30 pm. Most of us were tired and slept a good part of the way back. However, we had a great sense of accomplishment! I do know I slept well that night.
We all made it to the top in the allotted time. We needed to reach the top before 1 pm in order to make it back to the bus by 6 pm. Here are shots of Chris, Bob and Rosie at the top. Chris is next to the crater of the volcano. Note: Mt. Fuji's summit is 12,395 feet high. The temperature was considerably cooler at the top. A light jacket felt nice.
Here's Bob by the marker pointing to the trail back down the mountain. Since he's tired already, he's not really looking forward to the climb back down. Is there an escalator or maybe a toboggan ride down? At least the Great Wall had a toboggan ride.
Here's Rosie at the tori gate entrance to the top of Mt. Fuji. She's giving a great bonsai shout - or maybe singing opera - who knows about that woman.