Twenty miles plus and I didn’t even touch the snow or get above the tree line with a seven-hour effort. Since the official climbing season for Mt. Fuji closed at the end of August, there were no buses running to provide a higher altitude starting point. So, leaving from town I started my ascent. After climbing on a road for four hours I came to a serious road gate, spikes and all, which definitely made the point that the road was closed for the season. Disappointed, I began the descent and not a moment too soon.
The temperature was in the upper 30’s and with wind chill was down right freezing. After making the turn to come back down the mountain my core temperature plummeted. It was miserable with the chill being so deep that the veins in my arms hurt. With the emotional letdown of having to turn around, my body really began to complain in the form of aching feet and knees. Pavement is an awful thing on which to wear hiking boots. I immediately began to drink lots of water and down some calories to get the inner furnace stoked again. Every ten minutes or so another clothing layer was added. The challenge was being chilled to the bone, yet still sweating. The gradual approach to increasing thermal layers eventually paid off.
Hopefully, this was all good learning for later alpine adventures on Everest in January and then later Kilimanjaro. The primary take away was to make sure that all skin surfaces are covered, even when a merino t-shirt seems to be the perfect layer. The wind was stealing warmth from my arms while the core was pumping out heat on the ascent, however, after making the turn the reduced effort did not produce as much energy and the pre-chilled extremities drug the core temperature down aggressively.
I had to laugh at myself, because the verse about “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” came to mind. Instead of the verbatim, after taking a picture it came to me that this is “the face” of one crying in the wilderness. Sorry, no tears, but the pain was easily discernable. Haaa…
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