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In the second season, episode 6 it is said

by Aoi, who is trying to persuade her mother to let her climb Fuji-san

that ‘Fuji-san is a mountain that even beginners can climb.’

That got me wondering. The mountain is over 3700 m high and to the best of my map-reading knowledge, the valleys surrounding it can’t be too far away from sea level. That means it’s a climb of — let’s be cautious — 3000–m. To a height that can likely cause altitude sickness to untrained persons (and let’s be honest: The girls are pretty untrained, considering which peaks they have climbed so far). All these factors scream out to me that Fuji-san will be anything but an easy climb.

Am I wrong and is the anime right and if so, why?

Jan
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2 Answers2

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This is more about real-life mountain climbing than it is Yama no Susume, so it's only really marginally on-topic here. But it turns out that the series itself does a good job of addressing it, and is relatively realistic.

But to address your question, altitude is only one factor in climbing, and far from the most important. Mt. Fuji is an extremely popular tourist destination (one of the most climbed mountains in the world), and as such the trails are well-paved and developed, with many rest stops. The trail isn't particularly steep, and there's no difficult rock-climbing sections; it's basically a hike to the top. In more technical language, the routes to the summit are YDS class 2, which involve little to no technical skill. Endurance (the climb can take over 6 hours) and altitude sickness are really the only major hindrances in climbing Mt. Fuji (other than under-preparedness). Some climbers bring oxygen canisters to combat the altitude sickness, though experienced climbers usually only use these on much higher peaks (in excess of 8 km high). So yes, a beginner in decent shape could do it, though not all will make it to the top.

That isn't to say that it's a cake-walk though. Indeed, the anime shows that this is not a trivial climb. Aoi was somewhat exaggerating her preparedness for it, as we see later:

During the climb, Aoi develops altitude sickness after reaching the 8th station on the path. Despite trying to go farther, her exhaustion worsens, and she eventually gives up. Kaede stays with her, while Hinata and Kokona make it to the summit before sunrise.

Both in real life and in the show, Mt. Fuji is the kind of mountain a beginner can climb without special techniques or equipment, but it isn't completely trivial and does require some endurance.

Logan M
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    As a person who actually climbed Mt Fuji I will add that most people take a bus to lower stations and start from altitude of ~2000m. There are also huts halfway up the mountain so you can divide the climb in two days. The biggest problem for me was not the difficulty of the trail but the temperature. It's popular to climb Fuji at night to see the sunrise from the top but the temperatures at ~3am even in Summer are ridiculously low. My 4 layers of clothing were not enough, I thought I'd freeze. – makhan Apr 25 '15 at 04:12
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In 2008 a friend and I climbed Mt. Fuji. We were both in our mid-20's and in reasonable shape. We started from the bottom at a shrine and made it to the fifth station by the end of day 1 and summited by the afternoon of day 2. At the summit, we got caught in a lightning storm and had to descend on the opposite side of the mountain, which took us about another day (including spending the night at another fifth station).

Personally, I laugh whenever people say that climbing Mt. Fuji is easy. Yes, it's more of a hike than a climb, but the route is not paved, the altitude got to us both, and you really must have more than your average suburban endurance to make it up.

matmat
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