Mount FUJI-san!!

It's official. My two friends, Dacia (day-sha), Phoenix and I, successfully reached the top of Mt. Fuji. All 12,395 feet/3776 meters of it! 6.5 hours up and 3.5 back down. The air got extremely thin the higher we got. We could definitely feel the difference in our chests and head with the altitude change.We even climbed the volcano through Typhoon Etau. Seriously. Once we got above the clouds, it was a gorgeous day on top of the storm! :0) It is almost surreal to me at this point. But I have a climbing stick that I got branded at every station on the way to the top, and lots of pictures. We were literally climbing over near-vertical rock walls, and switchbacks and stone walls for stairs in some portions. This was not like hiking through the woods on some beaten path. We had camel backs, rain gear, climbing gloves for the rocks, hiking boots, lots and lots of snacks to keep our sanity. Going down was not easy. In fact, I would say it was worse coming down that it was climbing up. By then, we were so exhausted, our knees turned to jelly, our toes were jammed into the tip of our hiking boots, and our ankles became, "Kankles" just trying to support ourselves down miles of steep slopes of 6 inch deep, loose lava rock. I wish Ron had the chance to do this. But, when we get to Guam, Japan is only a 3 hour flight, so that can be his next vacation once we get there. I've posted some pictures, will post more once I get the rest of them from my friend, Phoenix! Once we reached the summit, we celebrated in our bikinis! Fun times and memories I'll never forget!