Hiking Mt. Fuji in a Typhoon! – August 15th 2024

So, we start off our series of blog posts talking about our hike along the Subashiri trail on Mt. Fuji.

From the middle of July, we began planning a hike up Mt. Fuji as a way of varying fitness routines in preparation for a 10k run in November. We also wanted to do the sunrise hike, so hike at night to reach the summit by sunrise. This was our first hike of Mt. Fuji, but we had been wanting to do it for a long time! We began researching and found out that from this year, sunrise hikers had to book a hut on the mountain to be allowed to hike. This was not the case if you were hiking by day. This seemed fairly reasonable, but actually turned into a big pain as the hike date approached. We booked our hut on one of the only free days we could, along the Subashiri trail, which was the 15th of August.

We prepared everything we needed, but as the hike date approached, we were becoming a little concerned about how a typhoon was also approaching. It looked as though it would not hit the area, but it was still a cause of concern. We kept receiving emails from our hut booking agency telling us that “Your hut reservation is coming soon!”, but we had no email about cancellations due to the typhoon. We also would not be refunded fully if we cancelled due to what they called “bad weather”, and would only get fully refunded if it was deemed too dangerous.

On the day, we travelled by train and bus and of course by foot. The bus from Gotemba station was bustling and the day looked cloudy, but not so bad! We met some other hikers who were extremely nice, and we were looking forward to our sunrise Mt. Fuji hike ahead! We arrived at the trailhead at about 12pm and received an email from our hut booking agent telling us we could cancel without paying due to the storm. A little late, right?! We set off after buying some souvenirs at the 5th Subashiri station at about 12:30.

Our hike to the hut was minimal. We had reserved the Setokan Hut at the 6.5 station, and arrived at about 4:30pm We got some nice views during our hike up, though it was a little cloudy.

At the hut, we were greeted by its caretaker, who gave us forms to sign and fill out, and told us the rules. Mostly everything was in Japanese, though he could speak enough English for a non-Japanese speaker to understand. Corrine speaks great Japanese, so that wasn’t an issue. We sat down and drank a couple of beers we brought and the caretaker brought us our food. Sadly, no photo! It was what looked like a pre-prepared meal; curry and rice, hambaagu steak, and some vegetables. The temperature here was already low, about 10c or so. In comparison, it was about 34c in Tokyo!

As night drew closer, many of the other hikers had already gone to bed. We decided to try to get some sleep, as we would need to wake up at midnight to continue our hike. We were given our breakfast package, which included some sweet cakes, mixed nuts and a bottle of water.

Neither of us could sleep very well. At first the hut was a bit cold, but once it got to about 8 o’clock, the entrance was closed and it got a lot warmer, to the point where the bedding was a little too much! Anyway, we woke up at 12am, and we began getting prepared to hike to the summit! There were a few other hikers who were doing the same, though not very talkative!

We caught a glimpse of the nearby town as the cloud cleared, and we were feeling pretty good!

We started the hike. Cloud covered the mountain. No longer could we see the twinkling lights of the nearby town, only the twinkling particles of cloud dancing in torchlight. We had about 2m of visibility. Thankfully, the trail was well marked, so we didn’t have much trouble, just a sense of unease as we climbed up to the various stations on the mountain.

We found a group of Thai people who had slept on the mountain overnight. They slept without a tent, and it must have been cold! As we passed them, they got up and also began hiking up. We would encounter this group all the way up.

We edged towards the 7th Station. The light from the station giving us a little more visibility.

We made our final steps and the Thai group was following behind. We were going at about the same pace, and we passed each other a few times. When we arrived at the 7th station, we caught glimpses of their flashlights, and were relieved when they made it up to us. They decided to take a break, and we tried asking if they were okay, but they couldn’t speak any English. We continued on.

Our hike to the 7.5 station was much the same as the other legs. It was getting colder, and visibility was about the same. Once we reached it, we saw the flashlights of the Thai group behind. We rested for a while, ate some food and got hydrated. The Thai group caught up and did the same.

We began our hike up to the 8th station. This was a long segment, but it was fun! The wind had picked up a little, but it was not too bad, a few gusts here and there. We were within a 20 minute hike of the 8th station when we encountered many people hiking down. They informed us that the summit was off limits, and that we could only hike to the 8.5 station – about an hour away from the summit. We were really bummed and annoyed that we didn’t get notice of the potential danger sooner. We decided to continue hiking, in case our information was wrong and to just get as high as we could. We kept going and got up to the 8th station.

It was cold. Perhaps about 2c. We put on our gloves. The area at the 8th station had about 15 hikers waiting. I guess they were deciding where to go next. A large group of hikers took the Subashiri down trail, whilst a small group continued on to the 8.5 station. We followed towards the 8.5 station about 50m behind, but we realised that we couldn’t go any further. Our torches were getting dim, and there were no visible trail markers to guide us in the dark and cloud. We turned back to the 8th station. We then thought we could go down the same trail as the large group, but we encountered the same problem. We had about 1m of visibility at this point, and it was too dangerous to continue. Again, we headed back to the 8th station to recharge/replace our batteries. The Thai group were the only ones here now. They looked tired, cold, and worried. We were discussing about what we would do next and were thinking of hiking back down the Subashiri upward trail, although we recounted the other hikers struggling to make their way down. We waited for about 30 minutes. It was about 4am. Suddenly, two hikers from the small group going to the 8.5 station came back! We had already met and spoken with them since Gotemba. They told us that they got a little lost on the way back and that a Japanese man that was with them decided to go another way which they now thought went up to the summit. They had been told that anyone going to the summit would not be allowed to hike down to prevent others trying to hike up.

We got talking and decided to hike down together. They wanted to take the Yoshida down trail. The trail would take us to the Subaru Fuji Line, where we could get a bus or taxi back to Kawaguchiko.

The hike down was not bad at all. It rained a lot. I found out how easily my waterproof clothes repelled water. Corrine and I got drenched, adding perhaps another 5kg of weight in water. We passed many emergency huts and toilets on the way. At one, I changed into some other waterproof trousers. In one toilet, some people were sheltering from the elements, likely waiting until sunlight.

We kept going, it was a tedious descent, but a nice change from the rocky upward climb. On the way down we met no other people, apart from the ones hiding in the toilet.

It hit 5 o’clock, I was ready to get my picture of the sunrise.

At this point, it was funny, but we still had another hour or so until we made it down to the Subaru Fuji Line.

We spoke with the couple we hiked with, both really nice, and perhaps a little more prepared than we were! At the last leg of the downward hike, we came across many shelters for falling rocks. I think we were both pretty broken at this point!

Finally, we made it to the Subaru Fuji Line. Unfortunately, we were informed that the road had been closed due to the typhoon and that we could be waiting until the next day until it opened again. They also told us that another 3 hour hike from there would take us to another town where we could get a taxi. We summed up the situation. The couple needed to get back, as they were on a fairly tight schedule. They really wanted to hike the 3 hours. Corrine was also up for it. However, and not wanting to be a party pooper, I was probably at my limit. I was almost shivering from cold at this point due to the rain getting through my “waterproof” clothes. I was also another 5kg heavier. I was worried about hiking another 3 hours, and then not really knowing if there would even be any transport available anyway. I told Corrine and we decided to part ways with the couple. We hope they made it back okay, but we lacked the foresight to ask for their phone number to check!

We sat inside an old unused building made into a makeshift shelter for the hikers making their way down. We changed clothes and hung out our wet ones to dry. In total there were about 20 other people, including one child. We were told at about 9am that a bus would come at 12pm and that we would have to be ready to board it.

I think everybody cried a sigh of relief once the bus arrived. We all boarded the bus, and drove to Kawaguchiko.

As sad as we were that we couldn’t catch the sunrise, let alone hike to the summit, we actually really enjoyed the hike! We decided that we needed to hike it again, though in a day, just to reach the summit. That’s where the idea for Japan Tanken started. We decided that we will hike at least once a month, blog about our experiences with the end goal of hiking Fuji in August 2025.

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Thanks for reading and until next time! 🙂