We arrived shortly after midnight 3.2 kilometers below the 5th stage parking. 5th stage was completely full, thus we had to park and hike the extra 2 miles just to get to the trailhead. We chose the Fujinomiya route, as we’ve heard its good for beginners on the mountain. The trailhead guide warned we couldn’t move at our own pace due to the crowds,  so he highly doubted we’d make summit by sunrise. This wasn’t the best news, but we’d traveled 5 hours in a car, and we weren’t about to turn around.

The moon was almost full and cast a beautiful blue light over the mountain, making the climb breathtaking, and reminding me how much I love getting outdoors. The zigzag lines of headlights could be seen almost all the way the 8th station. I was tired and worn out from a busy day before, but the cool air kept me motivated to keep moving to stay warm. Fuji has it’s own weather system, like most big mountains, so as my family was sleeping hours away in 70 degree weather, I was close to 10,000 feet in 40 degree weather.

At the 7th stage, one of my friends had gotten a severe headache and was out of breath. His girlfriend decided she would stay back with him and try and rest. I volunteered to stay as well, but they both ushered me on to attempt the summit. I downed some water and high carb energy bars, and kept going. The city lights lay far below, blanketing the valley in a warm glow.

At the 9.5 stage hut, the summit was in sight, and dawn was coming soon so I quickened my pace. I rounded the bend to see the last kilometer to the top crowded with people the entire way up. The sun started coming up so I took a few shots with my Nikon of the amazing blues and pinks painted in the morning sky. I was still 30 minutes from the summit.

Finally a little after 5:30 I summited and immediately grabbed my camera to take some photos and enjoy the view. At 12,388 feet, Fuji is the tallest mountain I have yet to climb. It’s funny, as big and dangerous as it looks it is relatively easy to climb. I didn’t have any problems with headaches or anything related to the altitude like I was prepared for. Breakfast consisted of  cinnamon raisin bread and Wonda morning shot coffee, as I gazed watched the sun rise over the bed of clouds.

I made it back down to the 7th station where I joined my friends and we began the long walk back the car. As we descended thoughts flooded my mind to return to Fuji during the winter, for a proper winter mountaineering ascent. At the local sento, we relaxed our muscles and cleaned the lava dust that had enveloped us over the last day. Thankful to God for the beautiful weather, the sunrise and a beautiful world he created.

I’ll surely return to Fuji again…

On a tech/gear note, it was a great day to try out my new Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra GTX Trail shoes. They were perfectly comfortable and waterproof (main reason I bought them). I hate paying a lot of money for shoes ($140), but they were payed in full by my credit from my REI Visa so I thought they were a good investment. I’m interested in seeing how they hold up over the next 5 years, because I plan on getting a lot of outdoor use out of them…

We passed only a few climbers that day, and none that could tell us of good news on the summit conditions. They described it as cold, cloudy, and windy with no views whatsoever. We made an executive decision to try and summit, even though the conditions weren’t optimal. The last group we passed on the way up had good news. “The clouds broke and we could see for miles, absolutely amazing,” one guy said, “we could even see Mount Washington and the Presidential Range”. There was hope, and with that we worked our way up the mountain further as it grew late in the day. About 500 feet from the summit, the clouds broke, and an awesome view of the Franconia Ridge came into view. Twenty minutes later, Zach and I were on the top of the world, gazing out at the higher summits, the sun bouncing off the sea of clouds below. It was truly an amazing alpine moment to glory in the creation and creator of it all. I was blessed with a moment to reflect on how beautiful it really was…

The next day we decided to rest, so everyone could recover from their soreness and be prepared for our next challenging summit, Mount Adams at 5800 feet. We ended up spending some time in North Conway at the climbing store, grabbing lunch, and enjoying the atmosphere of the small New England town. Zach and I made the obligatory stop at a small coffee place to enjoy the local brew. We went to bed early that night, 8pm I think, to get strength for the toughest day ahead.

Jon and Jason still weren’t feeling up to climbing the next morning so Zach, Tristan and I were on the trail by 8 to get a good start. The trail was a non-stop steep climb until we hit the sign for the alpine zone. We broke for a quick snack and put on our heavier gear to brave the elements. While were strapping on the crampons, another climbing group caught up with us and we chatted about their routes. Turned out they were going for a much easier route than we were, not tagging any summits and heading down the Valley Way Trail. We all agreed we weren’t going down the Air Line Trail, which we ascended due to the steepness and probable cause for accidents on the way down. The other climbers agreed the Valley Way was much more gradual, but still plenty of grade to glissade if we wished. We wished them well and headed up the rocky ridge covered in ice above the tree line. Sure enough, as the lady at the AMC lodge had promised, we were rewarded with beautiful views of the gullies and ravine on our entirely exposed ridge. We took our time as Tristan and I had little accidents tripping over our crampons causing gashes in our gators. We made the summit on Mount Adams as the wind howled, I’m guessing 40+ miles an hour with much greater gusts. We found a huge rock on the top to take shelter from the wind and ate lunch with haste. I was the only one who had something hot to drink I had brought. Steaming hot mint medley tea hit the spot on the summit, so I decided to share some with my fellow adventurers so they could get some enjoy it, too. We were rewarded with grand views of Mount Madison to the North, and clouds pouring over the Presidential Range between us and Mount Washington to the south. Again, God had given us a beautiful barren landscape to stand in awe of His beauty in creation. We’ll be back again someday; we’re already planning our next climb for Mount Katahdin in Maine…

Levi, Fonzy, and I all decided to spend an entire weekend hiking and camping in the Three Ridges Wilderness. It took us 2 days of hiking 26.3 miles, with over 7,000 feet of elevation gain to realize we bit off more than we could chew. The final miles of the trek was quite possibly the hardest my body has ever worked. We left Friday evening and hiked for 3 hours, to reach the summit of Three Ridges where we set up camp under the stars, no tent, just us and the sky. Keep in mind it was in the 20s that night. I can still see Fonzy making his bed in the center of a pile of leaves…Levi made a campfire and we ended up eating two packages worth of brats, all the calories we’d need for the next day. We awoke the next morning to glorious sunrise, ate breakfast, and proceeded to break camp to get an early start. Saturday was mostly comprised of hiking, where we ran into a maximum of 7 people on the trail. By the time we got to the shelter on the Priest we were exhausted, dehydrated, and hungry. We thought we were dead when we realized the spring we were counting on our water supply, was dried up almost completely. After praying that God would have mercy on us and grant us water, Levi stumbled across another spring (not on the map) that was 200 south of our campsite. Praise God for keeping us alive! We ate a hasty meal then crawled into our sleeping bags for an 11 hour slumber. Awaking the next morning, we made the long grueling trek back to where we had started, half the time in the rain, but nonetheless perfect crisp, cool weather for the fall. We all agreed on the way back in the car that, our next outing would be a 2 mile hike, camping, then hiking back, not to exceed 4 miles!

Overlooking Little House Mountain

My sis and I on the summit

On the way down…

J.D. mixing the grains

The many choices of microbrews offered @ Queen’s City Brewery

Our two main hops, fuggles & williamettes

So Levi and I decided we need to get out more often. We’re always talking about going camping, but the weekends come and we’re sucked into the complexity of asking our wives for time away, football, and all the other wonderful things that weekends bring. So we just decided to leave midweek just for a quick overnighter,  and wake up early in time to be back for work. So we decided to hike up to Humpback rocks, and spend the night on the rocks, no tent, just sleeping pads and bags under the stars. Plus, I got to put my new Primus Omni-fuel stove to the test. This sucker will burn ANY fuel. Jet fuel, butane mix, diesel, even kerosene! I used whitegas and was very happy with the results. Levi made fun of me because it took me a while to get it lit and primed properly, due to the high winds that night. My mistake was not bringing a windscreen so my matches were getting blown out quicker than they would light. Finally I reaped the benefits and enjoyed a feast of pilaf rice and meatballs, while Levi was enjoying his baked beans and bacon strips over the fire. Needless to say it was an enjoyable evening until some pyschotic locals decided to crash our gathering, but that is another story…

I made this short video this morning, trying to capture some of Liam’s best moments when he wakes up. Since he has just started developing his little smile, we are trying everything to get him to smile all the time! What a gift from God to see him smile everytime he does!