So this weekend, Amy and I decided it would be fun to climb Mt. Fuji again. We only decided to do it last week, but we figured it would be OK, given that we'd both done it before. So we booked bus tickets (which proved harder than you might think to use, given the language barrier!), got O2 and headlamps on base, and set off yesterday afternoon.

We arrived at Fuji san at about 7 and set off...It was quite cool up there, I was surprised! I guess when Helen and I did it last year, it really was unseasonably warm, as it wasn't nearly as chilly as yesterday's climb was. Off to the side was a lot of lightening, which was pretty interesting. It lasted for a few hours and didn't seem to move too much. Which was handy as it was aways away--where we wanted it!

My number one goal for the expedition was to make it up and down without puking a la last year, which I thought was food poisoning. Unfortunately, it turns out that I'm just not designed for high altitude, and so after summiting in 5 hours (maybe we should have gone a bit slower?!) We huddled first under a small bulldozer and then in some rocks in the BRUTAL wind, and then I puked again, not once, but twice. It's turning into quite a pattern--wake up, puke, watch sunset, drag myself down a hill). I'm not entirely sure how cold it was, but we'd seen that it was 6C a couple of stations down, so assuming it was a bit colder, maybe 4-5C and then factoring in the wind chill I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was below zero.

It's a pretty big mountain really--3778m, and the walk down, at least, is about 8km (there are a LOT of switchbacks). Going up is more direct, but also much more rocky...

However, we got a pretty good sunset, so that was good, and I am glad we did it, even though I certainly won't be climbing again any time soon!

Click on the sunrise to see more pictures.

xox
D

PS. GOOOOOO Canada! We're finally beating Togo in the medal standings!