In 2017, I climbed Mt. Fuji in sneakers. This was not a deliberate alternative to extend the challenge-it was the results of glorious analysis and poor judgment about what that analysis really meant.
Every little thing I’d learn steered that Mt. Fuji was the “cakewalk of mountaineering.” Bodily, the toughest parts amounted to scrambling over some large boulders. Many of the climb was no extra taxing than mountaineering or climbing stairs. Japanese of us of their eighties made the journey for non secular causes. There have been huts alongside the way in which for relaxation, meals, and water. Based mostly on this analysis, I concluded that sneakers could be completely sufficient.
The ascent was every thing I’d been promised. I skilled sights I’d by no means imagined-cities glowing by breaks in clouds from above, strolling by paths of gray nothingness the place the path disappeared into cloud cowl. Every station marker introduced real delight and accomplishment. Even the pre-dawn summit queue with 5,000 different climbers, standing in freezing darkness for hours, felt manageable. We reached the summit earlier than dawn, and it stays one of the lovely moments I’ve skilled.
Then got here the descent. That’s the place I realized that each one the analysis on this planet about reaching objectives doesn’t put together you for what comes…
