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I am very keen! Also have a couple of friends who want to do it this year.

 

Been reading japanese blogs from people who have done it and it seems that most people aim for the end of April/beginning of May timeframe. Looks like crampons should be sufficient to get up there but the ride down will be pretty variable = pretty much frozen on top, good in the middle and slush at the bottom.

 

Does anyone know of any guides that will take people up there? Would really want a pro to assess the weather hazard and snow stability

 

Cheers

-D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Err.. Bump? A couple random questions..

 

- Gear - would couteaux (ski crampons) work at all or is it better to just use boot crampons+ax?

- What's the Japanese name for the form you fill out with the police before heading out and what's involved in that?

 

Cheers!

-D

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  • 1 month later...

Rode out for a quick recon mission around Fuji today. All the free access roads are still closed, including the rindos on the north side :( so looks like the toll road is the only option until GW..

 

Hopefully this gives an indication of the snow conditions at the moment to someone who's more familiar with the mountain. It was about 8*C at the base (1000m) so probably quite chilly still up top. Weather was perfectly clear though, with very little wind. No sign of plumes at the top either, but a big banner cloud over the East face developed pretty quickly in the afternoon and prevented me from getting a good shot of that side.

 

 

 

Looking beautiful though! Quite hard to grasp the scale, and some pretty crazy looking terrain. Looks like there may even be a way to sneak into the Hoei-zan crater if one were so inclined..

 

Also got a kick out of seeing people "skiing" at Yeti on what looked like a 30cm carpet of snow. Not exactly blower..

 

Cheers

-D

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I really want to do it, but I know I don't have the BC or mountain experience necessary to lead the charge on something like this. If we can get a good group together, I'm definitely there though! My most useful function at the moment is probably as cheerleader - Leeeeet's Fuujii! :clap: :banner: :groovy:

 

Added a couple more shots from that day. Anyone care to venture a guess at what these features are in the snow? The big lines on the right could probably be fracture lines from previous slides, but they don't look like normal slab crown fractures.. On the left side though, those crater like things look even more strange. Termites? ha...

 

 

IMG 8234 North   crop

 

And the weather is definitely something to watch out for.

 

5:24pm

IMG 8237 North2

 

5:31pm

IMG 8240 North3

IMG 8243 North4

 

This is early April though, should be a bit quieter later in the month?

 

Cheers

-D

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Those aren't from slides. The lines are where the wind has blown the snow off the mountain to expose ridges. What you see up there is almost 100% ice and not snow. The wind is howling up there pretty much every day this time of year and it removes most of the fresh snow pretty quickly.

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Yes because it is still below freezing up there and with the wind the snow just gets blown off.

It is however whiter than normal for this tie of year the snow / ice line is certainly lower than usual.

Don't know about this time of year but in summer you can get into the crater, I have been in it.

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I was just thinking about that this morning snowdude. I wonder when the roads to the 5th stations will be opened this year because there is certainly a lot more snow up there than usual... and it looks like its still getting top-ups. When it starts melting it melts quick!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Still tons on snow on Fujisan at the moment, it looks almost as white as winter, just receeding up a bit. Not sure it would be very stable to climb up there at the moment either.

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Fujisan is out in full glory today, and looks like a fair bit of snow has fallen on it yesterday it is completly whitee, looks more similar to January.

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Saw it last night at Trailwalker finish line. It was nighttime but could tell it's still quite white, nice! Fresh snow is not great thou, let's give it a bit more time to stabilize then..

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July and August . When I climbed was 1st August 2000 was no snow at that time, but previous couple of years they have beenxsending teams of people up in July to break up he snow otherwise it wouldnt all melt away.

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