Climbing Mt. Fuji: Tips, Q&A, and Climber Stories

With a near-perfect volcanic cone and snow-capped most of the year, Mt. Fuji, Japan’s highest peak and affectionately referred to by the Japanese as Fuji-san, is considered one of the world's most beautiful mountains.

Mt. Fuji is climbed by at least 300,000 people every year and, including the hundreds of thousands of tourists who travel up to the 5th Stations for sightseeing & don't even climb the peak, it comes as no surprise that Mt. Fuji is generally regarded as the most visited mountain in the world. And since its designation by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site on June 22, 2013, the peak has now become even MORE popular.

The author’s love affair with Japan's high country has now spanned over 24 years, and in addition to scaling Fuji-san twice, he has climbed all of the 29 highest mountains in Japan, and 38 of the tallest 50. And in the Fall of 2012, he published his 1st book on Japanese mountains entitled "The View from the Top of Japan: My 2-decade-long quest to scale the nation’s 25 highest peaks."

The author also runs a website focused primarily on the highest mountains in Japan, and most of his mountain pages rank among the top 3 to 4 results at Google, and several of them are #1. His "Climbing Mt. Fuji - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)" page has become the most highly visited page on his entire website.

It's from this vast reservoir of content that he’s drawn upon in this book to share information on things such as climbing trails, recommended clothing & gear, transport access, fun facts & recent news stories, some select questions and answers from his Climbing Mt. Fuji FAQ webpage, as well as some of the more remarkable stories & pics kindly shared by visitors to his website who’ve already scaled Mt. Fuji.

Unlike some other books written about Mt. Fuji which spend a lot of time talking about its history, culture, geology of the dormant volcano, and other non-climbing aspects of Japan’s iconic peak, the author has chosen instead to focus on providing just the essential information necessary for future climbers intent on scaling the mountain.

If in the future you’re planning to climb Japan’s highest peak, it's likely this book will prove to be a valuable resource.