A new feature - "Boarding Fuji" by Glen Falting - has been put online.

http://www.snowjapan.com/e/features/features-boarding-fuji.html

"It's 4:30 a.m. and none of the staff are awake when we unlock the front door of the hotel and load our gear into the rental van. I’m a bit worried that if someone wakes, they’ll think we’re skipping out without paying. But no one stirs, which is just as well. It would be difficult for us to explain in our broken Japanese that we're just on our way to climb and then snowboard down Mount Fuji and that we'll return later.

My friend Oli (a fellow rider who also moonlights as a lawyer) and I comprise the summit team, while our wives hold down base camp in a local town's cafe. Oli and I do a lot of snowboarding together. We work for the same law firm in Tokyo, and together we've explored many of the ski resorts around Japan. This past season, equipped with snowshoes and avalanche gear, we started to explore the hills and backcountry readily accessible from the local resorts. As they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and after a few days' worth of backcountry experience, Oli and I are both confident that we can take on Ol' Man Fuji."

http://www.snowjapan.com/e/features/features-boarding-fuji.html

Some extra photos as well:
http://www.snowjapan.com/e/features/features-boarding-fuji-photos.html

Please note that the views expressed in any Features on SnowJapan are not necessarily those of SnowJapan.

Discuss it here...

Fab! I'd like to do that one day

Nice one Glen, enjoyed reading that and the pics

Thanks Guys. I wrote up the piece a while ago as a bit of fun. It’s a great memory to have of my time in Japan.

Thanks for that, interesting. Was it cold up there?

GG - it was pretty cold. We ended the climb wearing our gloves and most of our boarding gear. The wind across the top of the crater was pretty fierce. Getting caught on the mountain in bad weather would not be good for the health. If you could get good weather earlier in the season when the snow was still decent it would be a fantastic ride down but the avie danger and the possibility of the weather closing in are good enough reasons to put up with crap snow in May.

Sounds like fun.

Well, the down part anyway.......

Thanks rag-doll. I like the pics too, bet you took a lot of them!

You'd think NTT would have got a keitai tower going on up there by now....

Docomo works no probs up there. It's the other carriers that don't.

Silly me!

I was uing J-Phone..only slightly better than two tins and some string.

I really enjoyed that thanks Rag Doll. (Shame about the phone, hey?) Would like to do that myself.

Thanks Karnidge. It's actually not that hard to do. We hired a van, went up the day before to do a recce and climbed the next day.

The trick is getting the right weather.

Does anyone attempt to do this in winter?

I tried to read it all but there is so much. The babel online translator made some strange things also! but it is very interesting thank you.

Thanks Echineko. I'm sure it will come back to haunt me when I'm telling my daughter not to ride out of bounds in a few years time, but it was fun to do and it's not everyone who can say they have snowboarded down a live volcano

2pints - mate, I have not heard of anybody doing it. There would be some pretty serious wind crust on the upper slopes and it would be bloody cold.

It sure would. I've not heard of it but I'm sure some people will try.

Lucky bugger. I really regret never doing Fuji. I didn't know crap about mountaineering when I left Tokyo so probably best I didn't attempt it. Nice story though. What's up with the bit about the snow not being soft or deep enough to use snow shoes? What are you using, flatland Elma Fud duck hunting snow shoes?? I know I sound like a broken record, but I love my snow shoes on ice or packed snow and often walk on mixed snow and rock, so long as it isn't steep. MSR snow shoes are like all terrain vehicles, tough and lots of grip. Also very useful for wet slippery rock patches in the snow line when crampons would be over-kill.

Good on you for not giving up.

"What are you using, flatland Elma Fud duck hunting snow shoes??"



Kind of sounds that way doesn't it. We were carrying 1230 Atlas shoes. We were moving from rocks to snow to rocks and back again most of the way up. It was often a close call as to whether it was easier to use the shoes or keep to the rocks and existing tracks. With hindsight we should have at least tried them on the conditions – it might have saved some effort.

By the way, I’m very impressed with your recent efforts. Please do keep posting your TRs, it’s great to be able to share the adventure. What safety/first aid gear do you carry? Would your girlfriend be strong enough to get you off the mountain if you were incapacitated?