Climbing Mount Fuji To See Sunrise

by Aiden
(Sydney, Australia)

Hi,

I have always wanted to climb Mt Fuji and watch the sunrise. Do you have any recommendations on how someone would go about it or which tour guides/companies are good for this activity?

I will be travelling to Japan for 2 weeks (last week of Feb/first week March 2010).

Hopefully it's still permitted.
Thanks!

Hi Aiden,

Well I hope I'm not going to disappoint you too much but technically Mount Fuji is only open for climbing during the months of July and August.

This is when all the guided and organized tours take place with agencies like JTB or H.I.S as during these months, Mount Fuji has relatively stable weather conditions and is free of snow, making it less hazardous to climb.

Even during these 2 months, however, accidents do happen and unfortunately there are usually a couple of deaths each year as a result of accident or inexperienced climbers not wearing the right gear etc.

Transportation to the climbing areas also stops outside the climbing season making it more difficult and more expensive to get to where you need to go.

For experienced climbers, some mountain huts are open from June to September but I can't stress enough that this is only for experienced climbers.

From October to May, Mount Fuji experiences extremely harsh weather conditions and I would strongly recommend avoiding a climb during these months. Besides the weather, there is also a high risk of avalanche.

I am really sorry if you're disappointed by this news but I'd far rather you come back when it's safe to climb when you can really enjoy the experience and hopefully get your gorgeous view of the sunrise.

If you are an experienced climber and want to know more about climbing out of season then I'd suggest checking out this blog i-cjw.com and perhaps contacting Chris who writes it. He is an avid climber in Japan and I love reading his accounts of his adventures even though I'm not a climber myself.

If you need any more information just let me know.