Mt. Fuji

What did I like the best of my Mt. Fuji experience?

The part where I was done!!!!! Heh heh... seriously, I didn't want to climb it to begin with... all I wanted was to be able to say that I climbed it... and, now that I have climbed it... I'm happy to be able to say that I climbed Mt. Fuji.

I knew it was going to suck... but, knowing and actually experiencing it are completely two different things... heh heh.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not regretting it at all... just not too happy about it since my body is still sore and all beat up from it.

But, no worries... give me like a week of being in a vegetative state... and then, maybe... I'll talk about it in a more positive way... heh heh...

But, yeah... it was cool getting to see two of my friends I haven't seen in a long ass time. We started the climb with each other... but, I soon broke away from one friend in particular who had a whole time schedule of when to be where... which, meant his pace was much too quick for me.

So, yeah... I broke away and climbed it for like an hour by myself. Then, I stumbled across my other friend who also wasn't having the killer pace... especially for our first time.

But, yeah... it was cool overall.

Started off at the 5th station... since, that's what is recommended for people who aren't exactly crazy to consider this as fun. What I don't get is why we started descending... I found it to be quite counter-productive.

But, we eventually started going up... and it wasn't bad at first. Then the wind started to pick up and that's when I decided I hated life. I was also going solo at that point... so, just popped in my iPizzle and got into Zen Zone. Didn't do that bad and eventually caught up to my other friend. We then tag-teamed Mt. Fuji almost the whole way to the summit. So, it was cool that I didn't actually climb it all by myself... that would've been not that great of an experience since I went there with friends.

We got to this point where everyone bunched up... and they decided to do the Japanese Proper "Hey, let's climb Mt. Fuji in a line!"... which translated to going uber slow... like ridiculously slow.

I enjoyed going at my slow pace... but the line pace was toooooooo slow. What annoyed me more was that the path was very wide... so, there was no point in going in a line. This is when I decided to implement my "Victor Path" and just sky rocketed up the mountain. It was cool because it was like actual rock climbing... not just going up a path. I made up a lot of time and passed loads of people. I don't care if that was rude... but, I don't really think they minded since when I turned around... I saw a group of followers that were like... "this dude has the right idea."

So, blew past that section pretty quickly. However, after the 8th station... I decided to do the line deal since the wind was crazy strong... I didn't want to be implementing my "Victor Path" since that usually meant going through the steeper, more dangerous sections... that tended to be near an edge... so, I figured I'd go with the group. I also was beginning to feel the effects of climbing for 3 hours by then as well.

After the 8th station... the people also began to disappear as more people had to take breaks. But, with reason... the rock path became a slippery, gravel path that would slide down at every step. Not only that... but take strong winds into account... and it was a very slow and tiring path. My friend and I resorted to taking more breaks at that point... and that's when I realized I wasn't going to make it to the summit for sunrise. However, we pushed forward and I got pretty darn close to the summit by the time sunrise started. I was only 10 minutes away... which, at the slow pace people were climbing at that point... wasn't that far away at all. I felt this huge relief when I reached the summit... especially since I was very demoralized by the very end. Luckily the sunrise gave me some motivation.

After that... I met up with the others and we began to descend. It wasn't bad really... especially compared to the climb. But, if you take into account that the path all the way down was mostly that slippery, gravel... we had already climbed 6 hours... we had no rest... and the sun was out making it hotter... it wasn't exactly something I was excited about either. I wasn't tired... I really wasn't... I just lacked energy/motivation to get myself to go fast. I went ridiculously slow... but, it also had to do with the fact that I didn't want to pop my knee out since I kept slipping and sliding in awkward knee positions that could easily pop my knee out. The gravel also kept getting in my shoes AND socks... which made for an uncomfortable walk down. I took the gravel out of my shoes about 5 times... but, it made no difference since as soon as I started walking again... a shitload of gravel would go in.

Man... I got to the point where I was seriously considering just sitting down and just not budging at all. Luckily though... I reached the point where there were trees and plenty of shade... plus the path became less steep and more level... where I just gunned it and pushed myself.

Overall... climb and descent... probably 9-10 hours. I don't think that's bad at all... especially for me. I'm very calm and slow... I don't like being rushed. So, I find that time to be pretty awesome for my slow pace.

Definitely... will... NOT... do that again... heh heh... but, I'm glad I have the experience.