Hey! Let's climb Mt. Fuji at Night! Sounds like a great idea?!?!?

I've done some questionable things in my life, but this past Saturday night (July 12), around 1AM, I was really wondering if I'd lost my damn mind...

You see, J. and I, on the spur of the moment more or less, agreed to go on a little adventure with some of her co-workers. We agreed - and then jumped in the car and actually went along - on an "overnight" hike to the top of Mt. Fuji. Fuji-san is considered a national treasure here, as it should be. It is perhaps the most spectacular natural wonder I've ever laid eyes on. On a clear day, it can be seen from virtually anywhere in this part of the country. It rises boldly into the clouds with its snow-capped peak. Not a chain of mountains, per se, just one. Just one beautiful monument to remind us all that the natural world is bigger, more beautiful and more complex than anything man hath created - no matter how hard he tries.

As such, Mt. Fuji is only open to hikers in July and August due to the weather conditions in the upper altitudes and general safety reasons. So, climbing Mt. Fuji is something of a rite of passage to the people here and the window for accomplishing it is narrow.

To add a further wrinkle, many, like us, climb the Fuji-san at night in order to catch sunrise from the top of the mountain. We arrived and loaded our packs, hitting the trail just after 9:30PM Saturday night. Since Mt. Fuji is a dormant volcano (last erupted in 1707), much of the terrain, and thus, much of the trail, is soft volcanic ash/sand with a number of old lava boulders here and there. Therefore, our hike felt as if we were trying to climb a massive sand dune over...and over...and over. Around 3AM, exhausted and very cold (it was around 30 degrees with 30 mph winds), we stopped just above 10,000 feet. At that point on the trail, 2-3 trails came together and there were people wall-to-wall and we were told it would take another 2-3 hours to get to the top. We decided to sit tight and catch the sunrise where we were.

Right on cue, at 4:30AM, the sun began to peek over the horizon and was a beautiful site to behold. Worth the trip! But I have to say, it was great to do once, but not sure I'll be going back to tackle it again anytime soon...