American, Japanese climbers found dead on Mt. Fuji

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

TOKYO — An American and his Japanese colleague were found dead on Japan's Mt. Fuji after freezing to death in cold and wet weather on their way down from the peak, police said Friday.

The deaths on Japan's most famous and scenic mountain came a week after 10 senior citizen climbers also died of exposure in northern mountains.

Police and rescuers found the body of Jerry Yu, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen who worked for a Japanese communications company in Tokyo, off the trail just below the mountain's peak Thursday, said Yamanashi prefectural (state) police official Takahiro Omata.

His colleague, Tsuyoshi Nakamura, 27, was found dead Friday lower down the 12,388-foot (3,776-meter) mountain.



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[Ex Lurker]

1. hypothermia kills n/t

[Hugabear]

2. Reminds me of an old Japanese saying...

"If you visit Japan and don't climb Mt. Fuji, you're a fool. If you climb it more than once, you're a bigger fool."

I climbed Mt. Fuji back in the 80s when I was living there as a teenager. It's a beautiful mountain, and an experience I'll never forget. That said, it's not as easy of a climb as it looks. Yes, you can pretty much walk up most of the mountain, but there were a few parts where we had do some physical climbing. And it gets cold up there. Even in August, when it was nearly 100 degrees at the base of the mountain, it was in the teens at the summit.

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. A familiar story...

..to anyone who lives near New Hampshire's Mt. Washington. "Hey, it's only 6000 feet, thousands of people climb it every year, hell -- there's even a road to the summit. How hard can this be?"

Hypothermia is very insidious.

[catnhatnh]

6. Yep,

And the winds up there seldom exceed 200mph....(Mt. Washington recorded the highest documented wind speed on earth).

[angstlessk]

10. I did that climb years ago and we did it pretty quickly...the trick is to pace yourself

at first it is just a walk uphill, got out of breath pretty quickly, somehow I paced myself and not a problem again, until we reached the rocks to be climbed and again quickly out of breath...pace and not another problem. Got to the 'summit' (or so I thought) and my whole body just RELAXED..then we got to the stairway to the REAL summit. I could not pick my legs up. I had to grab the rail with one hand and lift my leg with the other all the way up the stairs. We took the bus back down!

[natrat]

11. so screwed if unprepared for this

[otohara]

4. My Son Climbed Fuji-san Lastweek

said it's so crowded - hundreds everyday

[sakabatou]

5. Probably better, less crowded places to go in Japan

[slackmaster]

7. I did it in 1996 - More like 50,000 people do it every day during the summer season

It's quite an experience for anyone who is physically up to it. I saw a lot of suffering up there. A lot of Japanese people do the climb even though they are NOT in shape.

Vendors along the trail sell oxygen in containers the size of hair spray cans among many other things. The freakiest thing was seeing a man struggling up the mountain with a lit cigarette in one hand and a small can of oxygen in the other.

There are vending machines at the summit. Among the items you can buy from them are cigarettes.

[Honeycombe8]

8. I hate that they died, but they assumed the risk and knew it could happen, and

chose to do it anyway.

I just wonder who paid for the rescue.

[Honeycombe8]

9. Hypothermia---best way to die?

From movies I've seen, interviews with people who came close to freezing to death, I get the impression that someone who freezes to death goes into a trance like state, doesn't feel the cold or anything, starts to hallucinate, and then just drifts off into unconsciousness.

If that's true, as far as ways to die, that sounds like about the best way that I've heard of. Car accident, burn to death, die from cancer or other terminal illness, heart attack....all those seem worse to me.

But I doubt I'll ever be in a place cold enuf to kill me.