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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?


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2015-04-24T22:52:50.967
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2015-04-25T07:10:53.927
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question
yama-no-susume
Is Fuji-san really that easy to be climbed?


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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_Decimal_System), 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.


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2015-04-24T23:36:50.343
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2015-04-24T23:36:50.343
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answer


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.


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