"I will take the Ring", said Mary, "Though I do not know the way".

Okay, so I may have paraphrased a little .

It has to be said though, the comparisons between that fellowship and ours, that epic quest and ours and ultimately their success and ours, is striking. Sure, we didnt fight all that many orcs. And I guess you would have to say that our contact with magical elves was minimal at best. However we did overcome all the odds to climb a volcano, suffering considerable hardship and discomfort along the way. Indeed, there was a time at which I would have killed to be inside the fiery depths of Mount Doom.

It all started on the evening of July 25th. We had enjoyed a couple of days to recuperate from our trip to Kamakura, and it was now the night before our big climb. As I stared at the half empty rucksack sat in front of me, occasionally catching glimpses of Ali stuffing his Pikachu onesie into his half-empty rucksack, I couldn't help but be concerned that we would be a little under prepared for the task we were about to undertake . I had a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, walking boots and socks, a fleece body warmer and waterproofs. My rucksack was really only for water, of which I had 2.5 litres.

I took solace in the fact that Mary, Marion and James were similarly outfitted. "If I'm screwed," I chuckled to myself, "at least we will all be screwed together." Needless to say I wasn't chuckling at the summit, some 28 hours later. 

So the next morning, we took a bus halfway up the mountain (a luxury that Frodo and Sam did not have... I'm well aware). The idea was to start the climb from the 5th station at about 7pm. This way, we would manage the majority overnight and arrive at the summit in time to see a famous eastern sunrise. There are several trails you can choose from to climb Fuji. We opted for Fujinomiya, which is the steepest but also the shortest. The trail is broken up by stations along the way. Despite numbering 5 to 10 there is actually 7, as there are two 7th stations and a 9 .5 (which was incredibly annoying!). 

Having arrived a little early to the start of our climb, we had a quick lunch and played some card games to kill the time. There was a bit of nervous apprehension in the air. I don't think that any of us really knew what to expect, and Ali was already suffering a bout of giddiness from the altitude. Or possibly just on account of him being Ali, it is hard to say. In any case, as we got geared up and posed for photographs before setting off, I was definitely a little nervous. 

Before coming out to Japan, I had twice 'scaled' the lofty peak that is Pendle Hill in preparation for this climb. Both times I had been absolutely knackered. Even the significantly smaller portion of the trail that we would be doing on Fuji was almost 3 times the size of Pendle Hill, so perhaps my nervousness is understandable.

We set off. Worryingly, there was a little rain in the air and light was fading fast . The latter was obviously to be expected, but it was still a little disconcerting. If you fall off the trail at this height it is fairly safe to say you can cancel any dinner plans you may have had. 

The rain was really light to begin with (you know, that fine rain that soaks you through? :P) and it was really causing problems with visibility. It had gotten dark very quickly, and our headtorches were simply illuminating the rain and fog right in front of our faces. I had to run my hand along the guide rope at the edge of the path and basically hope that each footfall wasn't my last. It did get gradually better, especially after I had taken the torch off my head and started holding it out in front of me, but the first hour or so was slow going. 

The path was steep. It was essentially a huge set of zig-zagging stairs, but in some places the path was eroded so much that you had to basically scramble up. I was panicking after about 15 minutes when the burning in my thighs and calves reached actual pain levels, but it never really got any worse than this and I realized that I may yet have a chance at reaching the top . We reached the 6th stage after about 40 minutes of climbing and it was at this point that we turned around and took stock of the view. And boy, was it some view.

The lights of neighbouring cities were stretched out pretty much as far as you could see, and suddenly stopped where land met sea. Much more awesome however, were the lights above. Somewhere off in the distance, a storm was raging. Flashes of lightning illuminated the sky and clouds. We couldn't hear any thunder and so it was clear that we were a safe distance away, but it was still quite a sight to behold. We tried to get a few pictures, but unfortunately nothing came out very well.

15 minutes, a gulp of water and a handful (okay, two handfuls) of Haribo later, and we were back on our way. Michael had accompanied us on this venture, and he was struggling at this stage. He had decided that having a beer would be ideal preparation for scaling a volcano, and his less than appropriate footwear was taking its toll on him . I was going to start that last sentence with 'For some unknown reason', but, he is Irish. So I think that pretty much explains that! 

He dropped behind, and we soon only began to see him at the different stations as we were setting off and he was arriving. Somewhere between 6 and 7 we got stuck behind a large group of climbers. They were all in one group and were sensibly climbing at the pace of their slowest member. Unfortunately for us, this was much slower than we wanted to be progressing, and the path was rarely big enough to fit 2 people abreast. We had to pick our moments and make a break through their ranks, and we only stopped very briefly at 7 in order to build up a bit of a bigger lead on them. This was a particularly difficult bit of the trail, and when we did stop I became uncomfortably aware of the cold.

When had that happened!? At the 5th station the temperature had been a reasonably warm 20C, and all of a sudden I was starting to shiver . I realized the answer shortly afterwards. The exertion of the climb, combined with the several layers we were wearing to keep out the rain, had caused us to get quite a sweat on. Me more so than most, as I'm sure you can imagine! The wind had picked up and was causing us to really feel the wind-chill factor. This put us in really quite an annoying situation. We were too tired to carry on without a rest at this point, but resting made us so cold that we didn't really want to get going again. We opted to huddle in a doorway at the second 7 station. We must have been there for a good 30 minutes, shivering and cursing our stupidity for not bringing more dry layers. 

Eventually we got going again, but only made it to the next station before another lengthy stop. This time, we found a little first aid hut which we all squeezed into. Marion was struggling with the cold at this point, so she stripped off and hung her clothes up to try and let them dry out a bit. In total, we were sat in this little hut for about an hour and a quarter . We were still well ahead of schedule, so it was time well spent. 

Now that I look back on it, the climb wasn't all that difficult. You were perpetually out of breath and your leg muscles burned from start to finish, but we were managing okay. Reaching the 9th stage was a relief though. We knew that between us and the summit was just a little more effort. We encouraged each other onwards, and set off the last leg of the climb. Only, it wasn't. I did think that the next station looked suspiciously like it wasn't the summit, and so it proved to be. It was station 9.5, which seems a particularly cruel joke. I half expected to come up against station 9.75 and 9.99 before we got to the top!

We did eventually reach the top however. The sense of accomplishment was significantly dulled on account of the freezing temperature. I would guess that the actual air temperature was around 6 or 7 degrees Celsius, but the wind chill factor pushed it below 0 . Once Mary had wandered off to drop the ring into Mount Doom, it was all we could do but group cuddle on the floor to stay warm. It proved to be an ultimately futile endeavour however; teeth chattering and bodies shivering, we awaited the dawn. 

Unfortunately, it never really came. I mean, it obviously did come, but it was not the amazing experience we had perhaps expected. On account of being well ahead of schedule we had arrived at the top 2 hours before sunrise, in relatively clear weather. This was sadly not to last though, and we were enveloped by a cloud for the half an hour that the sun was rising. So the murky grey that surrounded us got gradually lighter until it was clearly daytime, and that was it. 

Freezing, and more than a little annoyed by the weather, we decided to head back down. It took a long time to get back down, but the views were spectacular once we had descended below the cloud cover. You could see for miles, and you got a real sense of being on top of the world. Ali had stripped down to his Pikachu onesie, and become something of a celebrity with the people making their way up the mountain in the morning. He must have got about 25 high-five's and stopped to have his picture taken at least 10 times! Needless to say, he was loving the attention.

It wasn't really until we turned around and looked above us that we realized how difficult the climb actually was. The darkness had most definitely been our friend... I am almost certain I would have given up if I had realized how big it really was, and how far you had to go. I was most definitely glad I was not one in the crowd of people climbing up in the early morning sun, that's for sure! 

We arrived back at 5th station at about 9am. We were all absolutely shattered, but pleased with what we had managed. And I have never been so happy to see a bus in all my life! Unfortunately for us, this was just the beginning of another very long but amazing day in Japan, which you can (hopefully!) read about it in my next blog.

So the fellowship had made it up and down - and we didn't even need huge birds to help us. It was honestly one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. There is a popular Japanese expression which essentially translates to "Anyone would be a fool not to climb Mount Fuji once - but would be a fool to do so twice". Ali and I are hoping to test the truth of this next year!