For Fuji? Not enough, I think

For Fuji? Not enough, I think
by Shifty (2019-06-17 13:16:27)

In reply to: Are you preparing at all? posted by DBCooper

I am walking around a bit, but I can't really prepare for the altitude.

We will do Bear Mountain or Breakneck Ridge either 29 or 30 June just to get used to walking uphill.

Frankly it will be a challenge, but not insurmountable. That altitude is not fun, but at the very lower bound of hypoxia danger. As we are healthy with no lung or breathing problems, I think we'll be fine. The trail is well traveled with aid stations and if anyone is in trouble we'll head right back down.

Toughest bit of Fuji-san climb is waiting on old folks ahead

If I recall, you lived in Japan, so perhaps you've already climbed from one of the 5th stations upward. If so, maybe it will be more strenuous below.

I did an overnight hike from one of the fifth stations, and I thought it was pretty easy (I don't even recall any scrambling), and that the only difficult part was the annoyance of waiting on groups of older Japanese (mostly women) in a couple very narrow spots. In fact it was so crowded that I probably could have done it without a headlamp and relied solely on light from others. I would advise hiking sticks for the descent. I sank and slide quit a bit on each step down for the first couple hundred yards.