Hi

Wasn't sure whether to put this in the Asia section or in the Pacific Island section. Feel free to move it wherever is most appropriate.

Anyway, I'd like to plan a trip to Japan and do a spring (May?) ascent of Fuji-San. What is the best route for this? I like spring climbing, but have only done two spring ascents (Hood and Baldy). So, when I say best route, I mean most reasonable and SAFEST! I don't know anything about crevasse rescue or ice screws. Looking at the SP mountain info, I don't think I really need a guide service and would prefer not to use one.

TIA

My wife and I climbed it in 2007. If you search through the forums you will find a similar question to yours.

No glaciers, so no crevasses. Biggest objective dangers are avalanche and wind.

We phoned ahead and booked a night at the mountain hut at the base of the mountain. Only by booking ahead could we get a meal. The hut was named something like Satogaya and was opened for ski mountaineers.

We got a bit lost on descent due to the conical nature of the mountain and we were lucky we did some GPS waypoints on the way up. We took axe, rope and crampons. Didnt use the rope. We were also very lucky to catch the last bus down that was just taking tourists to the shops at the base of the mountain.


Approaching summit Mt Fuji - May 2007 by radson1, on Flickr

If you're not too fixated on Mt Fuji, I'm looking for partners for Kita-Dake from May 19-24. It's the second highest mountain in Japan and located in Japanese Alps near Nagano. I'm looking into some of the technical routes which should offer more adventure than snow trek up Fuji.

Hello I'm Henri a french Alpinist, I'm try an ascent late april. Directly from the station from Fuji Yoshida, one overnight in the mountain and the other day to the summit (something like 20km long to the summit perhaps more !). If you're interest : henrilevequehanoi@gmail.com

I'm also looking into climbing Fuji-San this April, or possibly later this spring. Does anyone have any information about snow levels, avalanche conditions, etc.? I haven't found any web sites that give warnings or conditions. I'm from the US and don't speak Japanese. On line info seems to suggest that avalanche danger is particularly bad on Mount Fuji, although a lot of these warnings seem to be aimed at discouraging unprepared hikers. Any information on Avalanche danger or conditions is appreciated. Thanks