Climbing Fuji-san in May?

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395guy

 
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Climbing Fuji-san in May?

by 395guy » Sun Jan 21, 2018 12:53 am

Weather permitting, I'm considering climbing Fuji-san in mid-May. I know that's outside the normal climbing season (July to mid-Sept), but it's not dead of winter either. I've been up Rainier (2x) and Pico de Orizaba... so this would not be my first time on snow & ice. Obviously, I'd utilize crampons, ice axe, helmet, and winter gear.

I found this link which has helpful info:
https://www.garyjwolff.com/climbing-mt-fuji.html#2

Sounds like 3 biggest threats are (1) avalanche; (2) winds; (3) hypothermia. So a few questions about an attempt in May:

(1) Do some routes have less of an avalanche threat?

(2) Is there one route that is used more often in Spring?... is it used enough that there is a visible trail in the snow & ice?

(3) Is post-holing bad in May?... are snow-shoes necessary for snowfields?...

(4) Looks like mid-May has about 14 hours of daylight (4:40am to 6:40pm)... is that plenty of time to go up and down without spending the night on the mtn?

(5) How often is the summit a white-out in May? Almost every day? Rarely? Half the time?

(6) Are any of the lower huts ever open in mid-May?

(7) How difficult is it to understand the trains and taxis and such if you don't know Japanese?

(8) Any other advice or feedback?

Thanks in advance.

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jblyth

 
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Re: Climbing Fuji-san in May?

by jblyth » Tue Jan 23, 2018 7:04 pm

Climbed it in May of 2017.....had great weather and everything went well. Only saw 10 other people the whole day, great time of year to climb it.

(1) Do some routes have less of an avalanche threat? - not sure, we did the standard route from the 5th station, Subaru line

(2) Is there one route that is used more often in Spring?... is it used enough that there is a visible trail in the snow & ice? I think the Subaru route is standard

(3) Is post-holing bad in May?... are snow-shoes necessary for snowfields?...we didn't bring snowshoes. it was a warm day, so we post holed a bit coming down

(4) Looks like mid-May has about 14 hours of daylight (4:40am to 6:40pm)... is that plenty of time to go up and down without spending the night on the mtn? Depending on your speed, yes, plenty of time. We did 8-9 RT

(5) How often is the summit a white-out in May? Almost every day? Rarely? Half the time? No clue

(6) Are any of the lower huts ever open in mid-May? No....everything was boarded up

(7) How difficult is it to understand the trains and taxis and such if you don't know Japanese? Super simple, much easier than you would expect

(8) Any other advice or feedback? Take the bus to fuji kawaguchiko, spend the night, take a taxi first thing the next morning (buses start running too late), climb, then take the bus back to town.

Feel free to pm with other questions.

Have fun

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deungsan

 
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Re: Climbing Fuji-san in May?

by deungsan » Sat Mar 17, 2018 3:17 pm

Short May TR and photo here...

post985450.html

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kotetsu

 
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Re: Climbing Fuji-san in May?

by kotetsu » Thu Mar 22, 2018 8:32 am

(1) Do some routes have less of an avalanche threat? No clue

(2) Is there one route that is used more often in Spring?... is it used enough that there is a visible trail in the snow & ice?
No idea.

(3) Is post-holing bad in May?... are snow-shoes necessary for snowfields?...
I guess it's depend on the weather. Check the status before you go.

(4) Looks like mid-May has about 14 hours of daylight (4:40am to 6:40pm)... is that plenty of time to go up and down without spending the night on the mtn?  It should be enough if you are normally climb mountain over 3000m.

(5) How often is the summit a white-out in May? Almost every day? Rarely? Half the time?
No clue. But even Okuhodaka had white-out like condition during summer. It's good idea to get ready for it.

(6) Are any of the lower huts ever open in mid-May?
Yes, but only "Sato Hut"at 5th. During winter season(b/w mid Sep.- mid May), they open only if there are more than 5 people will stay there. You need to let them know 3 days ahead via fax.
http://www.fuji-satogoya.com/index.html

(7) How difficult is it to understand the trains and taxis and such if you don't know Japanese?
No clue. But why don't you try to use express bus? It's seems to be easy from airport and big cities.
http://bus-en.fujikyu.co.jp/highway/

(8) Any other advice or feedback?

I've been there several times, but not during May.
If you can use translation on the web (Using Chrome is quite easy), read this site. This guy climb Mt. Fuji all year around and this page is his blog for May 2017. He normally use Gotenba route.
https://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/sakuyahime200 ... 7/5%7D?m=l

Sometime, he uses double axis during winter. As you know, Mt. Fuji is an independent peak, so once you slide down, it could be a couple hundred meters or more. Wind is quite strong at Mt.Fuji and some people lost their lives because tents were blown away.


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