5.45am, and Tom's ready for the expedition, with

his new bag, new trousers and new boots.

5.46am, and I'm ready with my old bag, new trousers
and old boots.

Rain, like we've never seen it before.

You can't really tell in this picture, but the

road ahead is flooded.  It was very scary!

From the train.  More miserable weather. 
This does no bode well. We were starting to
wonder if we'd be able to climb or not.
(incidentally a short time after our train left Fukui, all trains
through the city were suspended)
  

The wonderful shinkansen (bullet train)

First sight of Fuji-san

At Shin-Fuji station, Tom changes into his boots

Intrepid explorer Tom

Waiting for the final bus to take us to 
the fifth station, with Fuji-san in the background.
The weather looks pretty good, at least

Where did the mountain go?

Getting nervous...

Exhausted people at the fifth station. 
What are we doing??!

View of Mt Fuji from the fifth station.
Yes, it is completely covered with cloud.

The weather's starting to look a bit dodgy...

Tom seems happy, though!

Me, and my Decision Tree.
Last year, during my first attempt, this is where I 

put all my stuff down and decided I had to 

choose right then and there was I going to turn back

and sit on the bus, or was I going to press on.  

No such decision to be made this time.  The Decision Tree

had been conquered.

A happy Tom and Adele enjoying the climb

Sunset
  

Me at Station 7.

(2,700m)

You can get an idea of how cold it is already -

I'm wearing all the clothes I brought with me...and

I am cold!

Sun rise from Station 8
We battled on passed stations 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 and 7.6, 
reaching station 8 by 1 am.  By 1.30am we realised we couldn't
go any further.  The wind was getting too strong and the weather
too cold.  Maybe more experienced climbers could have made it,
but the climb from 7.6 to 8 had been quite frightening, as we'd both
been blown off our feet a few times.  In the dark, clinging to an 
almost-vertical cliff face in high winds is terrifying.  Especially since
there is no mountain rescue.  

If we'd pressed on to the top, or even to the next 
station, we'd have missed all this.  The clouds and fog
rolled in, blocking the view from about 20m above
our position.

4 years, 8 months, 26 days and 5 hours

Witnessing sunrise together at 3,100m.

Banzai!

Welcoming the sunrise

Warmth, at the 8th Station

3,100m

Tired, happy Tom and tired, happy Adele

A Jersey Flag at 3,100m!

Station 8, where we stayed the night.
It cost us around 12,000 yen (~£60) to stay here, 
and there was no running water, western style toilets, heating
(except for a fire downstairs) or even beds. 
Just a long double-decker sleeping area,
pillows and sleeping bags.  But it was worth every penny!

The view of the route up, from the route down!

Just in case you couldn't work it out...
 

Slipping and sliding down.

Again, you can't tell how steep this is from the photo.

The descending trail is nothing but red dust and loose

shale.  And boy, does that red dust get everywhere!

Tom and I standing by the "notice to climbers" that we...er...
didn't notice until we descended!
As it was, it looks like we did all the right things!
 

No idea what was going on here!

The Map

Homeward bound, smelly and exhausted