13 Mistakes I Made Dragging My Family Up and Down Mt. Fuji

Avoid these mistakes when you face your own mountains, literal or figurative.

If you are looking for practical advice on how to enjoy summitting Japan’s famous Fuji, this is not the right place. If, on the other hand, you want to smile smugly at the hubris of others who did it all wrong and possibly learn some applicable life lessons in the process you are in luck.

There was a moment halfway down the mountain when I laid down on the stones, looked up at the beautiful stars, and contemplated how pleasant it would be to just stay there, drift off to sleep, perchance to never wake again. Whatever. It seemed preferable to standing up and continuing down.

As a sort of public service, I offer you this cautionary tale along with helpful tips applicable to any mountains literal or figurative that you may be facing in your life.

Don’t do it if you don’t have time to prepare properly.

Our time in Japan was running out. The Fuji season is very short encompassing only two summer months when the weather is mild enough to evade the risk of dangerous winterlike conditions. We had been waiting for our children, now 15, 13, and 11, to grow old enough to make the climb with us and had backed ourselves into a corner. It was a jam-packed summer, and if we juggled things carefully, we could just fit it in.

What we didn’t have time for was to prepare correctly in terms of physical conditioning. Ideally, we would have been doing several shorter climbs near home in preparation for this trek. But there wasn’t time.

Don’t lock yourself into an unrealistic schedule.

Truly Tokyo states, “You can climb in one day if you’re fit. But it’s better to spend a night in a mountain hut on the mountain”

This is advice we should have heeded. We were traveling with a group of families who all planned to go up and down in one day. We planned to be at the station five starting point at 5:30 am and we had until the last bus left station five to bring us back to our car at 10:00 pm. The estimated time for our chosen trail was 4–6 hours up and 3 hours to descend. So over 16 hours to accomplish a 9-hour journey gave us plenty of time right? Wrong!

Don’t take it easy in the beginning stretch when you are fresh.

The early stages of the climb were like a walk in the park, literally. The first stage of our chosen path, Subashiri, wound back and forth through a lovely forest. We made a good time up to station six where we enjoyed a long rest while watching our fellow travelers trudge quickly by. While a short break was a good idea we lamented every extra minute wasted that was much more needed at the higher levels.

Don’t ignore the warning signs.

As we continued to ascend our lack of prior conditioning began to catch up to us. While some of us were fit others weren’t. Staying together meant our family of five could only move as quickly as the weakest link. At station seven, our youngest first suggested that maybe heading back down the mountain now was a good plan. At station eight both the 11 and 13 year-olds protested strongly that there was no way to keep going.

We had fallen far behind the other families we had traveled with and now began to meet many of them as they gave up on the ascent and decided to head back down. But we barely even considered such an option. We came to get to the top and get to the top we would.

Don’t expend all of your energy pushing someone else.

From station eight to station nine my husband and I began running one-on-one defense. The eldest was still going strong but the younger two needed constant encouragement to continue putting one foot in front of the other. My job was the middle child.

“You can do it. Just keep going,” was my continuous mantra.

“I can’t. I hate this mountain,” was hers.

At station nine, the younger two refused to go any further. We rested for awhile drinking from our rapidly dwindling water supply but the clock was ticking and we were taking much longer to ascend than we had anticipated. We scooped the kids off of their benches and forced them forward. At this point, I was practically dragging my daughter up the mountain. I had my arms around her and was pushing and pulling her to keep her moving.

It took every ounce of energy I had to get that child up to the summit at station ten. The situation was much the same for my husband and our youngest. We arrived at the top completely and totally spent.

Don’t stick rigidly to the plan when it really needs changing.

We arrived at the summit at 5:30 pm twelve hours after we began our ascent. The last bus from station five to our car would leave at 10:00 pm. The guide said the descent should take three hours. Could we make that bus? Any idiot would see that if it took us twice as long to ascend as suggested it would probably take twice as long to descend as well.

But we continued to be overly optimistic idiots. We briefly considered doing the sensible thing and paying a fortune to stay in one of the huts at the summit but the primitive conditions packed in tight with other hikers sleeping on the floor seemed like a poor substitute for pressing on and getting back to hot showers and warm beds.

So after a brief rest and quick glance around at the beauty that is the summit of Fujisan we started the trek down.

Don’t be so focused on the goal that you forget what comes next.

I had used every muscle and ounce of energy in my body getting us all to the top. There was nothing left over for the descent. As the Fuji Mountain Guide notes,

“Although descending Mt. Fuji is twice as fast as climbing up, it is also considered by many to be twice as difficult. The trail leading down is made up of loose rock and pebbles and is a hazard for slipping and falling flat on your back or face forward.”

My legs were shrieking at me in protest as we began to descend. My knees began to tremble as I struggled to keep my footing in the loose volcanic rubble. The children I had pushed to the top now raced ahead of me. While I had genuinely enjoyed large portions of the uphill climb each step going down was painful and difficult. Night fell but we continued on in the delusional hope of making it to the bottom in time for that last bus to showers and bed.

Don’t forget to replenish supplies along the way.

It is nearly impossible to carry enough water up Fuji. Water can be purchased at the various way stations but the prices climb steeply along with the mountain. Knowing this we set out with as much water as we could reasonably carry. All of us wore full Camelback backpacks. In addition, we carried as many plastic liter water bottles as we could fit along with the snacks and inclement weather gear and the layers necessary in case Fuji threw icy rain at us as it so often can.

I realized our water supplies were getting low. As we approached the seventh station we saw that access was slightly off the downward path. No one but my husband needed a toilet break.

“I’ll go to the station,” my husband said. “You continue on and I’ll catch up to you. Do we need any more water?”

I swear to you that my answer was, “Yes, you need to buy lots of water. We are almost completely out.”

What he heard however was, “Yes, we have lots of water. No need to buy any.”

I stumbled on in the darkness with the children. We drank the last of the water knowing that more was coming soon. “I’m still thirsty,” said one child.

“It’s okay,” I assured her. “Dad went to buy water and he’ll catch up to us soon.” We continued on.

By the time he caught up to us and we realized our serious mistake we had covered a fair bit of ground from station seven. Turning around to head back uphill seemed impossible. The best choice was to carry on to station six which surely would be coming soon. We didn’t realize the downward path skipped station six.

Don’t split up the team.

Our lack of water was getting more and more serious. We were skidding our way down the loose volcanic rock and kicking up a lot of dust in the process making the desire for water even more intense.

Fuji can be famously crowded as it is a popular climb but by this point, we were totally alone. Many people climb up Fuji in darkness in order to see the sunrise from the top but no one is foolish enough to descend in the dark.

Our middle child was proclaiming with every step that she hated this mountain, us for bringing her here, and she was going to die of thirst at any moment. My knee was getting more painful by the moment. We had pretty much given up hope of making that 10 pm bus and now just wanted to make it down the mountain alive.

My husband decided to go on ahead to the next station since he could move faster alone. He would buy water and bring it back to us. Splitting up didn’t seem like a good idea, but dehydration was setting in and we realized how dangerous that was. My cellphone was still good, but his was long since dead.

We carried on. As 10:00 pm came and went we got slower and slower. If it hadn’t been for our lack of water we would have just laid down on the rubble and taken a long nap but I made the kids keep moving forward.

Don’t forget to bring a good light.

Eventually, we hit the tree line. We had never expected to still be on the mountain when darkness fell so were not well prepared to illuminate our way through a forest. We had two LLBean baseball caps with a tiny light in the brim that could be switched on and two small penlights with on switches that had to be held down with your thumb.

One of the penlights would light up bright but fade off quickly until you gave it a little rest. This was the one my husband took in his ill-fated quest to procure water and bring it back to us. He got twisted around in the woods and ended up in his exhaustion and confusion following the uphill path not realizing it until he arrived at station six.

We meanwhile were picking our way through the forest. My eldest lead the way with her flashlight carefully watching for signs of which way to go. The other two wore the baseball cap lights and watched the ground carefully as the path had many branches and roots that had to be stepped over.

Whenever we reached an obstacle in the path my youngest would turn around and sit down pointing her headlight at the branch. My knees and muscles were in such a state by this point that I would have to stop, prepare myself and then use my arms to help lift my legs up and over the low root one at a time.

Don’t hallucinate.

It was at this point that my youngest started hallucinating.

“Why do you have a lobster on your back Mom?”

My cellphone rang and it was my husband. He had borrowed a phone from a fellow hiker to call me. He told me to carry on with the kids, take a taxi back to the car, and then the hotel and he would find his own way back to us eventually.

Don’t give up.

At 1:30 am, a mere twenty hours after we had first headed up Fujisan, the kids and I arrived back at a deserted station five. The vending machines full of bottled water were the most wonderful thing I had ever seen.

My husband had a more challenging journey but eventually reunited with us at the hotel at 5:30 am a full 24 hours after our ascent began.

Don’t forget you made it through.

There were so many things that went wrong. So many poor choices we made. But we did make it to the top of Fuji and back down again. No matter whatever else life throws at us we always have that. Sometimes the going is tough. And sometimes that’s your own fault because you screwed up big time. But if you keep putting one foot in front of another no matter how slowly you will make it through.

Read all of my travel stories here. Join Medium to read not just my stories but all the other fantastic content lurking around every corner. Use this link and I’ll get a small commission when you sign up.