Mt. Fuji is a breeze during the climbing season, but can be deadly if you try to climb it earlier.
Add the fact that a whole bunch of senior citizens climb it all the time and it's no surprise that there are some deaths.
It feels like what I imagine is purgatory. It’s heaven but also hell and I’m just waiting for an elevator all the time. Whilst simmering with irritation at how busy it is
Some friends and I climbed it 2 years ago. In the final hour, lots of groups are leap-frogging back and forth as you go a few meters then rest due to fatigue and altitude. Some old man in shorts and a t-shirt just breezed past everyone without stopping. Some people are just built different.
Can confirm: I brought a can of beer because I didn’t want to pay the exorbitant costs at the mountain top shop. Still paid 900 yen for instant noodles since I wanted to warm up. Also brought canned oxygen which I didn’t use. I was not fit at all at the time but have involuntary training in low oxygen environments due to untreated sleep apnea… 😴
I snapped a pic of a guy on the edge, looking out away from the mountain, flanked on all sides by clouds, on his phone
Back in 2005 when I took it, I wish I had contacted Docomo about licensing it from me for ads. My American phone would drop signal everywhere in the US.
Yeah. Much higher risk. Even one day early.
This is because during the official climbing season, you have emergency services, literally thousands of other people who can provide help, vendors selling water, etc.
Outside the climbing season, you are basically completely alone on the mountain. Nobody there to help you.
Often when people die during the off season, their bodies are not found until the climbing season starts.
Really important things I hadn’t considered re: other people being around and water vendors etc.
It’s of course very sad anyway but somehow that makes it more-so - it feels very unnecessary and such a waste. There have been a few sobering stories recently about holidaymakers not coming home after making one bad call - usually related to weather (heat-related) and just not realising how bad things can get very quickly in seemingly innocuous circumstances.
I remember going hiking to a monastery (only a very small mountain and a route labelled ‘easy’) in northern Italy in August and the temp got unusually high even for that month, very quickly. Luckily we had taken plenty of water and there were many, many spouts along the route. It didn’t feel dangerous at the time at all but in hindsight it was a bad idea. I wouldn’t hike in those temps again, certainly not as just 1 or 2 people. It made an easy journey feel like wading through quicksand.
Do emergency services refuse to go up if someone is reported missing out of season on Mount Fuji?
There are a few accidents or deaths on Mount Snowdon every year and Fuji is 3x the size.
This isn’t anything new. Every year there are a few deaths involving people climbing before the season. It’s unfortunate but some people just don’t heed the warnings or just don’t care
Shame, it can be a tough climb and it’s sad it claimed 3 lives. I think tougher restrictions are to come.
One of the climbers was an ambassador for Patagonia so by no means inexperienced.
Heart condition was said to have played a role, but still, an experienced climber dying says a lot about the climb itself.
Patagonia is like North Face. It started out as a niche label for serious outdoors people, but realized along the way there's a way more lucrative market for people who want to feel like they're outdoors people but aren't.
Mount Fuji in June is not a tough climb for an experienced climber with the proper equipment. Unfortunately, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a thing
Keita Kurakami was a legit climber. Apparently, he had a heart condition that he knew could kill him, but wanted to keep climbing anyway.
https://gripped.com/news/keita-kurakami-yosemite-soloist-has-died/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0V6oclqNqhuByiugjDsAs99UN-oM0TcHTEhLXWt4RxCcFRbMDGbehRvWg_aem_-I41FOnu6sxpYWR5sx0M4g
“In 2021, Kurakami suffered a ventricular arrhythmia and nearly died, resulting in doctors telling him to stop climbing or risk dying. In 2022, he told a Sports Graphic, “I thought giving up climbing would be a choice I would regret. Even if I lived to be 70 or 80 without climbing, would that really be a happy life?” “
I just searched for him and found his Instagram, and [it's sad to look at](https://i.imgur.com/1F6XTfg.png). "I wanted to talk more, I wanted to climb together more. Rest in peace."
He had to choose between safety and enjoying his passion in life. That's tough...
Keita was a certified badass. An absolute crusher. The fact he died on Mt. Fuji seems absurd when you compare it with what he did in his entire climbing career. Fuji is probably class 2 hiking on the YDS at best. So it has nothing to do with the Dunning-Kruger effect. It’s just mere misfortune and the fact he already had a failing heart.
Be aware that many of Japan's mountains, even at low elevations, are more demanding than you might imagine. Fuji is also climbed by many people, so it is easy to think that there is no problem, but accidents due to lack of oxygen and falling accidents do occur. Fuji out of season is also a very dangerous mountain.
Last summer, 809 people were lost and 61 were dead or missing.
edit: haha, sorry, I didn't explain myself well enough. It's not just Mt Fuji, it's all of Japan lol.
The article I referred to is below.
[https://www.yamakei-online.com/yama-ya/detail.php?id=2721](https://www.yamakei-online.com/yama-ya/detail.php?id=2721)
[https://www.nippon.com/ja/japan-data/h02025/](https://www.nippon.com/ja/japan-data/h02025/)
Where did you pull that number out of? If 809 people were lost and 62 died in ONE summer on one mountain, we've got a serious international crisis on our hands... Even for all Japan that sounds ridiculously high, are you sure that's not a global mountain climbing statistic?
Its typical every year at least 20 people die. 2023 was more than usual. 800 was total incidents with half injured and found, half not injured and found and 62 dead.
Golden week always has deaths.
Its the whole country of course but mostly concentrated in northern alps.
Lots of retards who do back country skiing involved too. Last year was highest ever probably due to tourism returning for skiing etc
I'm reading the article and the way they present the numbers is sooooo confusing. I'll just take your word for it. Adds up if it's all of Japan and you factor in all incidents that occur in mountains like they do. This includes mountain climbing, hiking, eating wild plants (which was around 9%)... Lots of stupid ways to die in the mountain. They probably slipped suicide numbers in there too somewhere without mentioning it.
Yeah, that's what I thought too; there's a difference between "died while mountain climbing, ie, engaging in an outdoor sport" and "died while on a mountain" which could include choking on a dango at the Mt Takao rest area
Or died from heart attack due to age and couldn't get to a hospital fast enough, considering the age groups they're looking at its likely there are some like that... How do you reduce those numbers? 😂 Stay home old people!!! Die at home so you don't increase mountain death toll
I grew up near mountains and I'm always amazed at how so many people think hiking is like going for a walk in the park. No wonder so many accidents happen.
I tried bullet climbing Fuji via the Subashiri trail and thought I was about to die, the symptoms tracked with altitude sickness and even my very fit brother admitted he wasn't sure he would have been able to finish the climb. Had to turn back just after the fork in the paths, but I was fine after sleeping and entire day, thankfully
Did the bullet climb in 2016.
Its pretty chill until its 3am u want to sleep and its windy and cold and also oxygen is thinner.
Made it to the peak but the descent had its own challenges as it was hot af and i didnt have appropriate climbing shoes meaning i kept falling on my ass in the loose volcanic ash.
Yeah we tried napping on a bench in front of a hut like hobos but it was cold af and we felt like we'd barely rested. And you're right about the heat, it was actually impressive how fast the temperature went from cold to super hot. We were back at the trail head a little before 7 iirc and I was already sweating bullets (mad props to the Japanese ppl we saw going UP fully covered).
The volcanic ash was actually kinda fun but we did have hiking shoes.
How did three separate climbers die at the same time though? I’ve seen rumours of gas, is that true? Is it common for Fuji to vent suffocating levels of gas at the summit ?
I climbed it last August, and other than sometimes bipolar weather, the hike itself is pretty easy as long as you are mildly in shape. My mother had hip surgery about four months before and she even made it most of the way up.
Its a very, very easy climb with a bus most of the way up. It encourages a lot if absolute beginners to go without basics like crampons. So they slip and fall to their deaths when they go off the roped trail to bypass a closure or something. Its nothing new. People get overconfident and try to go up.
I haven’t personally been to the summit but interested to know about the conditions at the rim of the crater for these climbers to be found at the internal base? Ie fallen from the top to the middle
It is, in admittedly nonscientific terms, quite a long way down into that crater — long time since I was up there but maybe it’s 50 meters down, give or take? And it is just as steep down into the crater as it is on the outside. It would be a very foolish thing to try to climb down into it without the proper climbing equipment. That said, the path along the outside is wide and there’s nowhere that should present a risk of falling unless you’re doing something intentionally risky like leaning over the rim for a selfie.
Edit: Also it should go without saying that it can get incredibly windy at the rim. That could very well have played a role somehow.
There are sheets of ice still up there, especially in the crater. When you walk around you cannot see if there is pumice under the ice or you are walking on an ice overhang. If that cannot support your weight, you fall. It's a long way down and the crater has very unpleasant rocks and boulders.
They probably got injured, couldn't get up to the rim of the crater and died of hypothermia. There are also no trails to the bottom of the crater. The lowest temperature at the summit is about 0C now.
https://explorersweb.com/i-choose-climbing-keita-kurakami-dies-on-mt-fuji-after-years-with-heart-condition/
Regrading the pro climber. Unfortunate but not totally unexpected. He obviously loves the nature but maybe he should also give some love to his own body.
RIP to them.
at least, i knew my limits on july 4th 2019. i experienced altitude sickness because i climbed in middle of night in heavy downpour. thanks to the rain, i couldnt rest at each station.
i descended after the 8th station. not that i could climb much higher since [the top of the trail is cut off](https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13060122).
in 4 weeks, i'll be doing a Gotemba ascent plus Hoeizan stop (why am i punishing myself?) and Subashiri descent.
but this time, i managed to book a hut and will start as early as possible.. after that, i wont be going back to Fuji unless someone asked me to tag along.
I'm glad we didn't go actually climb the mountain then during my tour a few days ago. Unfortunately it was rainy so we couldn't see the mountain behind all the fog
Mt. Fuji is a breeze during the climbing season, but can be deadly if you try to climb it earlier. Add the fact that a whole bunch of senior citizens climb it all the time and it's no surprise that there are some deaths.
I mean, what a way to go out.
Next to a vending machine and 2,000 people wearing cheap DonQuixote character costumes.
I wanna go out listening to the donki music
I feel like I've died and gone to a really confusing version of hell every time I visit a donki.
It feels like what I imagine is purgatory. It’s heaven but also hell and I’m just waiting for an elevator all the time. Whilst simmering with irritation at how busy it is
don don don don don donki, donki, hoteru!
Ho-o-te
I think you did put an extra “don” there.
What about the Yakuza game or on YouTube?
I’m back home in aus and I still sing it
And bicu bicu bicu camera
you need one more bicu
Are you talking about the Fuji summit? lol
There is a vending machine up there, and it's really expensive. And people do bring costumes to take pictures in.
I have seen the vending machines, but I wasn’t aware of the costumes. Only saw people in outdoor/hiking gear when I did my summit
It’s a nice way to go. Let’s hope restrictions aren’t introduced.
A friend of mine spent some time in Japan and a (Japanese) friend they made took them up Mt Fuji. They only brought some tall boys and smokes.
Some friends and I climbed it 2 years ago. In the final hour, lots of groups are leap-frogging back and forth as you go a few meters then rest due to fatigue and altitude. Some old man in shorts and a t-shirt just breezed past everyone without stopping. Some people are just built different.
I was that old guy in my 20s Now I'm that young guy in his 30s
Can confirm: I brought a can of beer because I didn’t want to pay the exorbitant costs at the mountain top shop. Still paid 900 yen for instant noodles since I wanted to warm up. Also brought canned oxygen which I didn’t use. I was not fit at all at the time but have involuntary training in low oxygen environments due to untreated sleep apnea… 😴
Smoking a cig on top of Mt. Fuji is one of the crowning achievements of my lifetime.
Bloody hell, now i want to do that and i don't even smoke lol
I snapped a pic of a guy on the edge, looking out away from the mountain, flanked on all sides by clouds, on his phone Back in 2005 when I took it, I wish I had contacted Docomo about licensing it from me for ads. My American phone would drop signal everywhere in the US.
Not such a breeze when you're out of shape. ;)
A week early, though?
Yeah. Much higher risk. Even one day early. This is because during the official climbing season, you have emergency services, literally thousands of other people who can provide help, vendors selling water, etc. Outside the climbing season, you are basically completely alone on the mountain. Nobody there to help you. Often when people die during the off season, their bodies are not found until the climbing season starts.
Really important things I hadn’t considered re: other people being around and water vendors etc. It’s of course very sad anyway but somehow that makes it more-so - it feels very unnecessary and such a waste. There have been a few sobering stories recently about holidaymakers not coming home after making one bad call - usually related to weather (heat-related) and just not realising how bad things can get very quickly in seemingly innocuous circumstances. I remember going hiking to a monastery (only a very small mountain and a route labelled ‘easy’) in northern Italy in August and the temp got unusually high even for that month, very quickly. Luckily we had taken plenty of water and there were many, many spouts along the route. It didn’t feel dangerous at the time at all but in hindsight it was a bad idea. I wouldn’t hike in those temps again, certainly not as just 1 or 2 people. It made an easy journey feel like wading through quicksand. Do emergency services refuse to go up if someone is reported missing out of season on Mount Fuji? There are a few accidents or deaths on Mount Snowdon every year and Fuji is 3x the size.
Ah, yeah, fair enough. I was thinking purely mountain conditions.
This isn’t anything new. Every year there are a few deaths involving people climbing before the season. It’s unfortunate but some people just don’t heed the warnings or just don’t care
Not at this rate - this is not the random person climbing off season and slipping to their demise
Shame, it can be a tough climb and it’s sad it claimed 3 lives. I think tougher restrictions are to come. One of the climbers was an ambassador for Patagonia so by no means inexperienced. Heart condition was said to have played a role, but still, an experienced climber dying says a lot about the climb itself.
Patagonia is like North Face. It started out as a niche label for serious outdoors people, but realized along the way there's a way more lucrative market for people who want to feel like they're outdoors people but aren't. Mount Fuji in June is not a tough climb for an experienced climber with the proper equipment. Unfortunately, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a thing
Keita Kurakami was a legit climber. Apparently, he had a heart condition that he knew could kill him, but wanted to keep climbing anyway. https://gripped.com/news/keita-kurakami-yosemite-soloist-has-died/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0V6oclqNqhuByiugjDsAs99UN-oM0TcHTEhLXWt4RxCcFRbMDGbehRvWg_aem_-I41FOnu6sxpYWR5sx0M4g “In 2021, Kurakami suffered a ventricular arrhythmia and nearly died, resulting in doctors telling him to stop climbing or risk dying. In 2022, he told a Sports Graphic, “I thought giving up climbing would be a choice I would regret. Even if I lived to be 70 or 80 without climbing, would that really be a happy life?” “
I just searched for him and found his Instagram, and [it's sad to look at](https://i.imgur.com/1F6XTfg.png). "I wanted to talk more, I wanted to climb together more. Rest in peace." He had to choose between safety and enjoying his passion in life. That's tough...
Keita was a certified badass. An absolute crusher. The fact he died on Mt. Fuji seems absurd when you compare it with what he did in his entire climbing career. Fuji is probably class 2 hiking on the YDS at best. So it has nothing to do with the Dunning-Kruger effect. It’s just mere misfortune and the fact he already had a failing heart.
Be aware that many of Japan's mountains, even at low elevations, are more demanding than you might imagine. Fuji is also climbed by many people, so it is easy to think that there is no problem, but accidents due to lack of oxygen and falling accidents do occur. Fuji out of season is also a very dangerous mountain. Last summer, 809 people were lost and 61 were dead or missing. edit: haha, sorry, I didn't explain myself well enough. It's not just Mt Fuji, it's all of Japan lol. The article I referred to is below. [https://www.yamakei-online.com/yama-ya/detail.php?id=2721](https://www.yamakei-online.com/yama-ya/detail.php?id=2721) [https://www.nippon.com/ja/japan-data/h02025/](https://www.nippon.com/ja/japan-data/h02025/)
> Last summer, 809 people were lost and 61 were dead or missing. Mt Fuji, or Japan in general, lol?
>Last summer, 809 people were lost and 61 were dead or missing. Source? I can't find a source on this. If true those numbers are shockingly high.
Where did you pull that number out of? If 809 people were lost and 62 died in ONE summer on one mountain, we've got a serious international crisis on our hands... Even for all Japan that sounds ridiculously high, are you sure that's not a global mountain climbing statistic?
Its typical every year at least 20 people die. 2023 was more than usual. 800 was total incidents with half injured and found, half not injured and found and 62 dead. Golden week always has deaths. Its the whole country of course but mostly concentrated in northern alps. Lots of retards who do back country skiing involved too. Last year was highest ever probably due to tourism returning for skiing etc
I'm reading the article and the way they present the numbers is sooooo confusing. I'll just take your word for it. Adds up if it's all of Japan and you factor in all incidents that occur in mountains like they do. This includes mountain climbing, hiking, eating wild plants (which was around 9%)... Lots of stupid ways to die in the mountain. They probably slipped suicide numbers in there too somewhere without mentioning it.
Yeah, that's what I thought too; there's a difference between "died while mountain climbing, ie, engaging in an outdoor sport" and "died while on a mountain" which could include choking on a dango at the Mt Takao rest area
Or died from heart attack due to age and couldn't get to a hospital fast enough, considering the age groups they're looking at its likely there are some like that... How do you reduce those numbers? 😂 Stay home old people!!! Die at home so you don't increase mountain death toll
I grew up near mountains and I'm always amazed at how so many people think hiking is like going for a walk in the park. No wonder so many accidents happen.
that's an alarming number
I tried bullet climbing Fuji via the Subashiri trail and thought I was about to die, the symptoms tracked with altitude sickness and even my very fit brother admitted he wasn't sure he would have been able to finish the climb. Had to turn back just after the fork in the paths, but I was fine after sleeping and entire day, thankfully
Did the bullet climb in 2016. Its pretty chill until its 3am u want to sleep and its windy and cold and also oxygen is thinner. Made it to the peak but the descent had its own challenges as it was hot af and i didnt have appropriate climbing shoes meaning i kept falling on my ass in the loose volcanic ash.
Yeah we tried napping on a bench in front of a hut like hobos but it was cold af and we felt like we'd barely rested. And you're right about the heat, it was actually impressive how fast the temperature went from cold to super hot. We were back at the trail head a little before 7 iirc and I was already sweating bullets (mad props to the Japanese ppl we saw going UP fully covered). The volcanic ash was actually kinda fun but we did have hiking shoes.
How did three separate climbers die at the same time though? I’ve seen rumours of gas, is that true? Is it common for Fuji to vent suffocating levels of gas at the summit ?
Didn’t say they died at the same time. The other two bodies could have already been there since earlier in the off season
I knew they were not a group but I didn’t think about the fact that they may have died weeks apart , good point
I'd guess weather or slippery conditions.
I’m climbing it in august so that puts my mind at ease a bit
I climbed it last August, and other than sometimes bipolar weather, the hike itself is pretty easy as long as you are mildly in shape. My mother had hip surgery about four months before and she even made it most of the way up.
Its a very, very easy climb with a bus most of the way up. It encourages a lot if absolute beginners to go without basics like crampons. So they slip and fall to their deaths when they go off the roped trail to bypass a closure or something. Its nothing new. People get overconfident and try to go up.
I am not sure where you got this info - yes, people die on Fuji-San (especially off season) - 3 people in a short span is very very very weird
I haven’t personally been to the summit but interested to know about the conditions at the rim of the crater for these climbers to be found at the internal base? Ie fallen from the top to the middle
It is, in admittedly nonscientific terms, quite a long way down into that crater — long time since I was up there but maybe it’s 50 meters down, give or take? And it is just as steep down into the crater as it is on the outside. It would be a very foolish thing to try to climb down into it without the proper climbing equipment. That said, the path along the outside is wide and there’s nowhere that should present a risk of falling unless you’re doing something intentionally risky like leaning over the rim for a selfie. Edit: Also it should go without saying that it can get incredibly windy at the rim. That could very well have played a role somehow.
There are sheets of ice still up there, especially in the crater. When you walk around you cannot see if there is pumice under the ice or you are walking on an ice overhang. If that cannot support your weight, you fall. It's a long way down and the crater has very unpleasant rocks and boulders. They probably got injured, couldn't get up to the rim of the crater and died of hypothermia. There are also no trails to the bottom of the crater. The lowest temperature at the summit is about 0C now.
Humanity sometimes forgets that nature is a force not to be taken for granted. Sad for the family of those departed.
RIP to the three. Nature always has her risks.
https://explorersweb.com/i-choose-climbing-keita-kurakami-dies-on-mt-fuji-after-years-with-heart-condition/ Regrading the pro climber. Unfortunate but not totally unexpected. He obviously loves the nature but maybe he should also give some love to his own body.
RIP to them. at least, i knew my limits on july 4th 2019. i experienced altitude sickness because i climbed in middle of night in heavy downpour. thanks to the rain, i couldnt rest at each station. i descended after the 8th station. not that i could climb much higher since [the top of the trail is cut off](https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13060122). in 4 weeks, i'll be doing a Gotemba ascent plus Hoeizan stop (why am i punishing myself?) and Subashiri descent. but this time, i managed to book a hut and will start as early as possible.. after that, i wont be going back to Fuji unless someone asked me to tag along.
Its a good place to die
I'm glad we didn't go actually climb the mountain then during my tour a few days ago. Unfortunately it was rainy so we couldn't see the mountain behind all the fog
[удалено]
I don’t understand how this comment reflects onto the deaths here. Can you explain please?