Campaign diary on 24 September 2008

Today the majority of the planning team in Atsugi climbed up Mount Fuji to see the famous sunrise on top of Japans biggest mountain (3776m) as there was no flight and the weather forecast looked promising. Thanks to Sarah and Johannes for representing us at the daily planning meeting.

We already started yesterday at 22:30 LT from the base towards Kawaguchikoguchi 5th station the uppermost point reachable by car at about 2300m altitude. Thanks to Christian and his new Japanese friends who spent half of the day with organising a car to drive outside the base. Our journey was accompanied by a nice voice coming from the navigation system unfortunately in Japanese. Nevertheless we arrived there at 1 LT and started with the ascent. After a woody part and a lot of stairs in the beginning we followed a steep track over volcanic rocks. The most exhausting part, the last around 400m were accompanied by the rising sun. Few clouds on top disappeared quickly when we arrived there at 615 LT and we got a nice view also inside the crater. For the first time in Japan we all were cold because of the temperature of about 1 degree combined with a strong wind. Endless serpentines in volcanic material brought us back to the car and we were all very tired for the rest of the day. Despite all strain we enjoyed this great experience of a sunrise on Mount Fuji.

Click here for some impressions.

Author: Andreas S.