The way to the top is in zigzag and I knew Fuji-San is a volcano, but, even so, I was a fool trying to imagine it: many rocks and dust on the ground, just it! No trees or forests, no flowers, just a big darkness, and our spotlights trying to give us notion from the biggest mountain in Japan. We stopped several times, the altitude, the rarefied atmosphere and the exhaustion absorb anyone; the ground doesn't give sustentation to the feet, and the rocks move when you try to step. Many, many, I said, many people climbing the mountain in a week day, Tuesday to Wednesday (summer holidays); many old age couples, families with young children, teenagers and grandfathers with young grandsons, because the mountain here is considered holy. After 6h climbing, finally, the TOP!!! The feeling is unspeakable!!! My only one thought was: "I got it, I reached the top of Fuji-San!".
A cold wind was blowing since we started and it began to rain, too; so, we entered in a primitive construction, a kind of shelter, where we can eat and drink something hot and take a rest. We spent there an hour and half; the clouds carried by the wind showed, sometimes, the brightness of the blue sky: it was the break of the day. We left the shelter and sat down on a wood bench, looking to the east, just waiting the sunrise; the wind was really cold and Kevyn had brought a thermal protection; we put it around our bodies and just looked appreciating the marvelous vision: the clouds carried by the wind, the dark sky turning into blue, the sun coming up, slowly, drawing a "gold snake" around the clouds. The silence took possession of us, after all, in these hours the nature speaks what human people can't put into words. Photos and more photos... it was plain day and on the watch it was only six o'clock in the morning.
We had still a long way to do and we decided to start to walk. After say "goodbye" to that altitude, we started to go down. We took 2 hours and half; our feet slipped among the rocks and dust; our shoes turned the color, clothes, too; my eyes were completely dusty and I could feel dust inside my mouth. When we reached the bottom from the mountain, the day was very bright and the sun emphasized more Fuji-San; but the vision I saw then was frightened: a mountain with 3776m formed just by rocks and dust; some green plants just at the bottom; of course, the famous mountain in Japan is a volcano! And my eyes had never seen a volcano before, so close.
Looking from the bottom to the top, I could see the way we made at night and day; the shelters, called stations, places to take a rest, eat, drink something and go to the bathroom (so primitive!). The vision was really frightened; just then I realized the exactly extension we walked and in which kind of mountain: the "dead" landscape oppose to the holy idea of Fuji-San. But nothing can change the good sensation when you are at 3776m high, rarefied air, the altitude over you and a gorgeous vision of the sunrise in front of you. No money in the world can buy this kind of experience and nothing can erase it from your soul, from your memory.
I think just people who passed through this experience can understand why Fuji-San is considered holy and there are no words to explain. Or, better, there are words, but they will never be suitable with the truly experience; in these moments you can realize the abyss between heart and brain; the brain explains, but doesn't feel; the heart feels, just feels, but doesn't explain.
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Last Updated December 5, 1998 by Ângela Musskopf
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