My Son and I Climbed Japan’s Mount Fuji Together

In 1992 my son Tim and I climbed Mount Fuji in Japan. Tim was 17 at the time, and I was 41.

“Mount Fuji (富士山, Fujisan, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, standing 3,776.24 m (12,389.2 ft). It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra) and the seventh-highest peak of an island on Earth. Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano that last erupted from 1707 to 1708. The mountain stands about 100 km (62 mi) southwest of Tokyo and is visible from there on clear days. Mount Fuji’s exceptionally symmetrical cone, which is snow-capped for about five months of the year, is commonly used as a cultural icon of Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and photography, as well as visited by sightseers and climbers.” — Wikipedia

We made our climb in early September because climbing Mt. Fuji in the winter is treacherous, and climbing in the dead of summer is just too hot and humid.

There are various stations set up along the way. Most people start their climb at Station 5 because it provides easy access for busses and cars. In 1972, I was stationed with the Army at Camp Zama, accompanied by my family. Each year the Camp Zama Morale and Recreation Office schedules a trip to Mt. Fuji. Our bus departed very early in the morning, and we arrived at Station 5 around 9 a.m.

The first thing we did was buy a walking stick at a station hut. The walking sticking helped us navigate up the mountain. But it also allowed us to record our journey along the way by getting commemorative engravings burned into the side of the stick at each station. The last hut at the top of Mt. Fuji was at Station 10.

The journey up the mountainside was quite arduous and exhausting, especially for the middle-aged guy I was at the time. However, I was in pretty good shape because of my ongoing Army physical training requirements. My son Tim was just 17. He was in great shape from playing soccer for his Zama High School team.

As we made our way up the mountain, it soon became apparent that Tim was zipping along at a rapid pace, and I was lagging behind while trying to keep up with him. He would quickly race up ahead of me and then sit on a big rock waiting for me to catch up. This pattern continued throughout our climb up Mt. Fuji. Each time I reached the rock Tim was sitting on, awaiting my arrival, I then had to take a few minutes to catch my breath before we resumed climbing.

It took us about seven hours to reach the summit. As you might expect at such a high elevation, the temperature was quite chilly that far up. Once we got to the top, the climb up was well worth it because the view from all directions was amazing. After taking in the incredible vistas for a good while, we started our descent back down the mountain.

While you would think that going down the mountain would be a lot easier than going up, that is only marginally true because Mt. Fuji is mostly covered in volcanic ash. With each step going down the mountain-side, our feet became buried in the ash. Tim quickly figured out how to navigate through the ash without much problem. I, however, had a much more difficult time with my knees paying the price. One false step and I could wind up tumbling head over heels down the mountain, possibly smacking into one of the big rocks along the way. I managed to avoid this fate but came close on a couple of occasions.

Finally, I told Tim to go on down without me, and I’d join him back at Station 5. I think he made it down in record time, around a half-hour or so in duration. Suffice to say, the time it took me to make my way through the slippery ash was a lot more than thirty minutes. I was very relieved when I finally got back to Station 5.

But in the end, we completed our mission of climbing the famous and iconic Mt. Fuji, which left us with some wonderful memories we’ll always cherish.

I don’t have any plans to climb Mt. Fuji again. The Japanese like to say that “a wise person will climb Mt. Fuji once in their lifetime, but only a fool would climb it twice.”

If you ever get the chance to visit Japan and explore its many wonders, I heartily recommend you add a climb of Mt. Fuji to your list of things to do.

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Thanks for reading. Copyright Terry Mansfield. All rights reserved.