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Mount Fuji:
My Incredible Expedition!
Colin Griffith
As Napoleon Hill once said,"Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." It was a cold, rainy September day in the mountain city of Gora, Japan. My dad, Lance, and I were patiently waiting for the weather to clear. It had been raining for three days and our goal was to climb Mt. Fuji. Rain or shine this climb was going to happen! One of the main reasons of visiting Gora was that it was close to Fuji. We decided to hike on Wednesday, our last day in Gora.
At 4:30 am Lance woke me up and asks me if I was ready to hike, sleepily, I was ready. Next, Lance leaves to go find my dad. I jump out of bed and do ten jumping jacks, wash my face with cold water, get dressed, and start eating my breakfast snack. Dad and Lance come into the room holding a computer with the weather forecast. They tell me that we are going to climb the volcano on Thursday because it will be clear. The next day we went to Gotimba Shopping Outlet to gather supplies. When we were there, we talked to some locals. Their responses were not encouraging, "Fuji-San? Whoaaaa ohhhh, Snow! Dangerous! 0h, oh, ho, ho, Fuji-San?," they replied.
Once in Gotimba, we found the cheapest hotel we could find, The name of the run down, old place was The Station Hotel. When we arrived, we were greeted by an older, puffy haired man with glasses. He said, " You are Westerners! No westerners have reservations! Wrong hotel, you lost." Dad and Lance were confused and thought that he was telling us no Westerners were allowed. Then they realized it was a misunderstanding and we ended up staying. The room we received had two single beds, a desk, and a strange bathroom. The room reeked of smoke and disgusting unknown things. Also, there was dust everywhere which made my nose itch. That night we went out to dinner, and on the way I spotted an amazing sight, Fuji San! As I took pictures, I was thinking about the climb, 12,388 ft. I was a little nervous, but I knew I could do it! Then we walked to a cool place to play darts at an empty restaurant, called Casual Italian Dining. After, we walked around the strange city of Gotimba.
At 3:30 am we were up and ready to go, I was a little tired. In the lobby Lance and I got pastries out of the vending machine. Dad was running a little late, as usual, so we got a pastry for him. We got in the taxi and told the driver, " Subasheari, please. " Like all the other locals his response was, " Subasheari? Subasheari! Ohhhh, ho, ho, Fuji San?" On the way up the mountain, in the taxi, we saw many animals: does, bucks, fauns, and foxes. Also, I could feel that we were going up because my ears were popping. On the way up, I had stuck my hand out of the window so I could feel how cold it was. I knew I was not going to like getting out of the taxi. Finally, after a long, curvy drive, we arrived at a parking lot.
Next, we put on our head lamps, and at 4:31 am we started hiking. It was dark, cold, and uninhabited. The beginning of the trail was very easy, not like I had expected it to be. As we walked through the thick forest, I could see where water had eroded and made false trails. As we ascended, we came into a clearing. The view on the horizon was starting to light up with a variety of dark colors. I could make out the shady outline of the top of Fuji. I was excited!
Eventually, it got lighter, but the sun would not rise. "We should not stay and wait for so long because we need to keep moving," said Lance. The vegetation was becoming less and less as we climbed. It was just high enough that we could not see over it. Because of this, I was afraid we would not find a clear spot to see the sun rise. I would stop every chance I got to take a look off the beaten path, but still no sun! Then my dad and Lance said that we can stop at a clearing because they think that the sun will rise soon. I was starting to feel the altitude. For example, when I tried to run, I quickly became out of breath. We waited, and waited, then suddenly the sun peeks over the horizon. There is an explosion of colors, mainly shades of orange. There are deep blues, glowing oranges, calming greens, warm browns, and icy, cold whites. For the first time Mount Fuji was totally visible!
After the sun rose, we hiked for a while and got to our first station. Once there, we sat down on some rocks and had a snack. As I surveyed the scene, I noticed that there was not a cloud in the sky, "What a beautiful day!" I exclaimed. We started up again and by now the trail had become more difficult. As we climbed, so did the sun! By 8:00 am we were half way up the mountain. Dad, Lance, and I stopped at many stations, but the half way up station was the largest one so far. There also were people, a restaurant, toilets, and cute, fluffy, white dogs. My favorite of the three dogs was the the smallest. He was looking out at the amazing view, perfectly at home half way up the tallest mountain in Japan. I took off my soft, blue RHKYC fleece because I was warming up. Even though I was going up in altitude the sun was rising and heating up Fuji San.
As we ascended higher the trail got steeper and steeper so it zig-zagged even more than before. Only a few stations more, but at every one I had to take a break. Someone that needed the breaks more than me was my dad, he was dehydrated so he was getting cramps in his legs. With more water and salty snacks, dad overcame these obstacles. We took a break and I realized there was snow! I made a snowball and we had a small snow ball fight.
By the second to last station to the top, I was exhausted. I felt like everything was in slow-motion. The trail had become snowy and super steep! I tried scrambling up the incline, but it was too hard! I had to take many mini breaks and my dad kept saying " You can do it! Keep going! Come on Colin! Almost there!" I could tell it was hard for both of us. Even though Lance had gone ahead and was all ready at the top, I took a long break and ate RITZ Bits crackers with my dad. As I sat I thought about why the air was thin and low in oxygen.
I climbed up the rest of the way and made it to the top of a peak! While Lance was waiting for us, he had asked around and an old man told him that it was the peak on the other-side of the crater. The same man passed my dad and I, and told us that it was the one with a big building on top. Then we had a small, delicious lunch snack and for desert a surprise. The mystery surprise was three Snicker Bars! As our little group moved along, I took tons of pictures of the huge crater and the view from Mt. Fuji. There were actually multiple craters. The largest had 200 ft cliffs and gigantic boulders the size of houses. After walking up two smaller peaks, we finally got to the top peak! I realized every step I took was higher than I had ever been before in my life. My stomach had butterflies, I could not wait! I bounded up the rest of the steps and got to a short, red, granite triangular pillar. At 11:08 am, I had finally made it 12,388 ft. and to the top of Japan!
I now took a second to take it all in. This really was an amazing achievement. I don't think many 14 year olds have accomplished climbing a mountain of this extent. Happiness helped me forget about my tired muscles. I felt great to be able to share this experience with Lance and my dad. This will be a life-long memory. I had succeeded in my goal and now had a personal understanding of Napoleon Hill's message. (Patience + persistence + perspiration = Success!!)
Then we started to descend from the tall peak. I had started to get a little headache, but I did not say anything. When we got to a red building with many Buddhist and Shinto shrines we asked a man for directions into Gotimba from where we were. He happened to be from Hong Kong, visiting just like us. My Dad and Lance talked to him for a while, and they came to the decision that we would take a trail a little to the left of where we were. I was excited to go down. The site said that the nickname for what we were going to do was called, "The Slide." As we started down, I thought to myself that the landscape looked like I had landed on the Red Planet, Mars. The trail was steep switch-backs all the way as far as I could see. To make it worse my headache was getting really bad. The path consisted of loose, red stones ranging in size from sand to rocks the size of my head, tumbling down in front of me as I stepped.
Eventually we got to a service trail, aka The Slide. It was nice and even because it was plowed flat, but still steep! The path was marked with large, white,wood pillars. The ground was a sandy,red gravel and you could slide, but even if you fully committed yourself, meaning you jump and slide down the slope, you only went about two feet. The gravel is becoming black now and was getting steeper. Then we rounded a corner and the sight was unbelievable! The trail goes straight down, no turns, just straight all the way down to the low lying cloud layer. My dad was the first to speak. "Wow!" Thats all he could say.
When we started down the path, I came up with a name for this section, the Black Desert. Next, we went into the cloud layer, I could only see ten feet in front of me and the only way we could locate the trail was by the white columns. It was unbelievable how long it took to get to the parking lot. We found a bench and sat down. The first thing I did was take off my back pack, then my shoes. We were all very sore and hungry, as we waited for the taxi, dad called Mom and told her that we had made it down. I told her all about the hike and she said, "I am very proud of you, great job Colin!" Then we called Nagota Son to thank him for calling the taxi. As we drove away I looked through the back window, and I could see the faint outline. Goodbye Fuji San!
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