Climbing Mount Fuji: Learning To Do The Impossible

What do you say to yourself when faced with a challenge? Six years ago my husband and I climbed the magnificent Mt Fuji, the highest volcano in Japan at 12,388 feet. In this podcast, I retell the grueling climb, what I told myself to get through it and the valuable lessons I learned.

Transcript

Hi,

I'm Jo Hatcher.

Six years ago,

My husband and I climbed Mount Fuji,

The highest volcano in Japan,

At 12,

388,

000 feet.

Little did I know that this experience would help me be able to deal with the current troubling times we're in.

This was an epic trip for me.

In the telling of this story about our adventure,

It's important to give you some background information on what it's like to climb Fujisan,

Or Mr.

Fuji.

Mount Fuji is a dormant volcano that erupted in 1708.

It was a Buddhist monk in 700 A.

D.

Who first climbed Mount Fuji.

A temple was built at the summit 400 years later,

And it became a pilgrimage site for the Japanese.

In 1860,

The first foreigner climbed Mount Fuji.

In 1868,

Lady Parks,

An English woman,

Defied a ban on women climbers and ascended the peak.

The ban was lifted afterwards.

What a badass woman she was,

Eh?

It was my husband's idea to climb.

Tom had dreamed about this climb even before we moved to Okinawa in 2013.

He'd always said to me,

I'm going to climb Mount Fuji.

Well,

I really didn't want to go on this trek.

I had heard about the hike from people who had climbed as well as those who hadn't.

It's a thing that many Japanese do every July and August.

I learned that only about 1% of the Japanese population has reached the summit,

Although it's reported that 300,

000 people climb every year.

There's a Japanese saying,

He who climbs Fuji once is a wise man.

He who climbs it twice is a fool.

Some Japanese have climbed dozens of times.

When I told people I was going to climb Mount Fuji,

I got quite a few statements like this.

It's harder than you think.

You can do it,

But it's tough.

What no one really said was that it wasn't a hike.

It was a monstrous,

Hardcore,

Gut-wrenching climb over rocks and boulders,

And that it was flat out grueling.

While packing for the trip,

My son Andrew,

An active duty recon Marine at the time,

Asked me,

Mom,

What are your power words?

And I looked puzzled.

Well,

He said,

When things get tough,

You're going to need something to say to yourself to keep going.

I asked him what he used for himself.

I thought to myself,

I need to listen to him.

Andrew knows what he's talking about as he and his Marines do certifiably crazy things like running up mountains with bricks in their backpacks.

He replied,

I say the recon creed.

It is my choice and my choice alone.

I texted my younger son,

Rob,

Also an active duty Marine at the time,

To find out what he would suggest I use for a power word.

He said,

Indomitable.

Confession.

I had to look it up.

The definition of indomitable is unable to be defeated or subdued.

Hmm,

I thought,

Good one.

I put a request out to my sisters and friends.

I even asked on Facebook for power words,

And I received a ton of helpful ideas and words.

I typed them out and laminated these words on a small card to carry in my pocket.

Little did I know that these words would save me from quitting and giving up as I attempted to take on one of the hardest things I had ever done.

And to this day,

I have used these phrases over and over during the times of not knowing what will happen next with a pandemic.

In a way,

COVID-19 is like climbing a mountain.

And thank goodness this experience of climbing Mount Fuji has given me the resilience to know that I can weather whatever comes my way.

I prepared for weeks ahead,

Not so much physically because of my daily CrossFit workouts with Marines,

But I was nervous about the mental part.

Would I be able to handle being uncomfortable?

And if we got soaking wet,

What would I do?

What would I do if I got too cold?

I hate being cold.

So we flew to Tokyo first as part of the trip before getting to Fuji.

And we spent two days walking around in the city,

Which felt like an inferno.

Tokyo was brutally hot in July,

And there were no breezes between high buildings.

It was fun,

But the thought of what we were about to do was always in the back of my mind.

The night before the big climb,

We checked and rechecked our backpacks.

Flashlights packed,

Maps.

How about sunglasses and sunscreen?

We filled our camelbacks,

And we checked to see that I had packed my extra pair of socks.

We were prepared and ready.

It was 11 p.

M.

That night when we finished packing,

And I tried to sleep,

But it was impossible.

One hour of sleep.

That's what I got before I heard the alarm buzz.

The bus left for my hotel at 2.

45 a.

M.

Most people slept on the ride to Mt.

Fuji,

But not me.

I was too excited.

We arrived just after 4.

30 a.

M.

By 5 a.

M.

,

The sun was rising,

Peering out beneath the clouds to greet us on our journey as we retrieved all of our gear.

And then we started to walk.

I thought of the quote,

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

How silly,

Joe.

It's not a thousand miles.

It's just a mountain we're climbing.

That's what I said to myself.

So we started adjusting our backpacks along the way and the things that weren't quite right.

Others in our group took off way ahead of us,

A family with a three-year-old and a six-year-old.

They had decided they'd see how far the kids could go before they turned around.

Another young woman we met who was six months pregnant was already hiking.

Was she going to do this?

She looked ready enough.

And there were others who didn't look so fit.

But all of us were determined.

We all had our wooden hiking sticks purchased before we left.

We knew that at each station along the arduous way,

We would get a stamp branded into the stick,

A symbol of our progress along the way.

And quite a badge of courage if you could get all the stamps all the way to the top.

We had begun the hike at Station 5.

I had no idea how long it took to get to one station or the next.

I only knew that it was the place to get a stamp,

Water,

Use the restroom,

And get a bit of rest before carrying on.

There were even places at some of the stations where you could sleep and then climb up and be on the top before sunrise.

We were climbing all in one day.

I looked up ahead of me.

Is that the top?

I was so naive.

It was so high that there was no way we could see the top from where we were.

At that moment,

I realized the craziness of this adventure.

We were insane to try to do this,

I thought.

And yet,

We were there doing it.

The incline was 20%,

I had heard Tom say.

I think that's steep,

But I didn't know.

Well,

I found out what 20% is that day.

It's crazy steep.

I remember thinking,

It's time to use my power words.

I'm choosing and I am alone choosing to climb this mother of a mountain.

Tom was struggling already.

I heard him say,

My feet are hurting.

We shouldn't have walked around so much yesterday.

I was a little worried that was only the beginning and he was having a hard time.

For someone with COPD,

It's rather insane to think his lungs would hold up.

A year later,

We discovered that he had an 80% blockage in his heart.

I thought about my power words.

I thought of the tips that some of my friends use.

Count to 10,

Then say,

Yes,

Yes,

Yes,

Then start again.

We did that until the next resting place.

Tom,

I said out loud,

This time we're going to spell everyone's name in our family as we go up.

I looked up and saw where the steep trail touched the blue sky.

I felt so grateful it was a clear day and not raining.

After brief rest,

We kept going.

I was sweating now,

But there was a slight breeze that cooled us off.

I looked around and I could see that it was a perfect day.

There were deep blue skies against the white snowy clouds.

The higher we got,

The more I looked back and I was rewarded with a gorgeous view and how much progress we had made.

We arrived at station seven for our first stamp.

It felt so good to give the branding guy my 200 yen or $2 to get the stamp.

Accomplishment,

Pride,

I can do this.

I am doing this,

I thought.

Tom arrived just behind me and we sat together on the edge of a wooden bench with hordes of other people taking a break.

And then it seemed worse suddenly.

There were rocks,

Huge ones to climb over.

What we had just done was like kindergarten climbing.

I have strong legs and a good heart.

Over and over again,

I repeated my sister Cecilia's words and I thought,

I'm climbing for you,

Cecilia,

Because your heart is not strong enough.

Because sometimes you can't walk and your knees are bad.

Keep going,

Joe,

I told myself,

Walk for her.

Another rest.

I looked back again and there was so many of us.

Why were we doing this,

I wondered?

Because it's a challenge,

Because it's a fun thing to do,

Because Fuji's sacred and we want to be near it.

What are we all doing,

I asked myself.

Are we all insane?

I wasn't sure why I was climbing,

But with each step I was determined to get to the top.

Steeper rocks loomed ahead of us.

Sometimes I forbade myself to look up because it seemed impossible.

It was too easy to say,

This is so not possible.

If you think you can,

You can.

I heard my sister May's words in my head and I felt her strong presence with me.

My feet were on fire.

I had worn thick wool socks.

I took them off at the next rest stop and added the second pair I had remembered to bring.

While I had my socks and boots off,

I slathered on moleskin.

For sure there would be blisters.

Up we climbed to level 7.

2 and then another level all the way to station 7.

6.

Yay,

We'd made it this far.

Well,

Tom didn't look so good.

His face was red,

He looked worn out,

But he was smiling because he was living his dream and he was determined.

We had a small canister of oxygen.

He took a hit of it and so did I.

We had been warned about altitude sickness,

Nausea,

Headaches,

Dizziness,

And the only way to get rid of it,

We were told,

Was to come down off the mountain.

My head was starting to bother me now,

More Advil and more water,

And we kept going.

Indomitable.

Unable to subdue or defeat.

It was powerful to say these words to myself as I heaved my left leg up onto a huge rock.

Indomitable.

I will not be defeated by this damn mountain.

I looked at my watch and said to Tom and one of the rest,

We're supposed to be a lot further up by 12.

It's now 11 o'clock.

We've been climbing for six hours straight.

I remember that the tour guide had said that if we didn't make it to station 8 by 12,

Then we had to come back down.

We were still at station 7.

I wasn't even sure how many damn stations there were.

In my mind,

I thought that we had to get to the station that was still quite a ways away by 12 p.

M.

,

But the bus wasn't leaving until 7.

So what was the big deal?

I didn't think it would take that long to come down off the mountain.

What the hell was he talking about?

Tom was slowing down.

I kept going to the next level ahead of him to get my stamp.

I wanted to stop and lay down,

But we had been warned not to do that.

The guide had said,

Don't do that because you won't want to get back up.

Rubbish,

I thought.

I'm sitting down and laying down anyway.

I got someone to take my photo before I collapsed.

I waited for Tom and was happy to see him cross under the tory and up to another station and rest point.

By now,

We had eight stamps,

One for each station,

And I felt proud.

It was noon.

We called Mark,

The tour guide,

As directed.

Hey Mark,

We're at 7.

6.

I felt the wave of disappointment when I heard Mark say,

You need to start coming back down.

You don't have enough time to get to the top.

Tom said,

Why don't you go on ahead and we'll meet up at the bottom.

You still have time.

You can make it.

I said,

No.

He pleaded with me.

Just go ahead.

And for a second I thought,

Well,

Maybe I can make it up to the top.

We're so close I can see it now from here.

I heard later that it was straight up from where we were.

The last stations were grueling.

It would have taken three hours from that point.

Tom would have never left me,

That's for sure.

I quelled my desire to race to the top and prepared mentally for the long trip back down.

I learned a very important lesson that day.

It's not always about the individual.

It's about the team,

Us as a couple,

The partnership.

Tom was my team,

My rock,

And the reason I was even there.

I discovered it isn't about the destination either.

It's about the journey.

And the journey we're all on today is just that.

It's a journey.

No one has prepared us for this time that we're in.

And like me,

I wasn't prepared for this experience.

And yet I learned how to deal with my negative thoughts in my head about how to climb this mountain.

And I'm learning,

Like the rest of the world,

How to deal with difficult times.

We climbed up to one more station.

The last steps were murderous.

Even this last section was impossible.

But I could see the small hut,

The station,

And repeated indomitable one more time to myself.

And I was not going to be defeated.

Stubbornly,

I said to myself,

I will not be subdued.

While waiting for my last stamp,

I met two women who were trying to get down.

They were going no further.

One was in tears.

I just want to go home.

She cried.

She looked exhausted.

Along the way,

It was fascinating to watch the variety of people climbing.

I saw a couple of Japanese men downing beers as they climbed.

Tom saw a man smoking.

Some people were obese.

Others fit.

What a range of people that were making this trick.

There were even young children climbing with their parents.

A pregnant friend I found out later made it all the way to the top and back down.

Tom and I sat and rested before we started the climb back down.

We were in wonderment about the fact that we were over 10,

662 feet up on the mountain in a foreign country,

Gazing out above the clouds.

What have we just done?

I had promised myself that I would do a headstand on the top of Mount Fuji.

I decided that this would be the closest I would get above the clouds with people around everywhere,

So I lifted my heavy boots up over my head,

Wondering if I could actually pull it off.

It was surreal to be upside down,

Looking out at the top of the world.

And no one seemed to notice that there was this crazy lady standing on her head.

I think everyone was just trying to survive.

The trip back down was hard.

The incline was insane.

But it was easier than going up,

Although nothing about it was easy.

I kept thinking I could fall flat on my face.

It was so steep.

We constantly repeated short switchbacks back and forth,

Back and forth.

After hours of turning back and forth,

We made it to the bottom.

We were beyond exhausted but incredibly proud of ourselves.

It was all I could do to hold my head up.

Six years later,

I'm still processing this phenomenal experience.

I learned so much about myself and what I could do.

Most of all,

I learned how to be resilient and to know that I can do more than I think I can,

Just like now.

We will all get through this time because we are stronger and more capable than we think.

These are the power words and phrases I use.

These are the things to say to yourself when things get hard or you feel like quitting.

I'm choosing and I alone am choosing to do this.

Indomitable,

Unable to be defeated or subdued.

If you think you can,

You can.

I have strong legs and a good heart.

Count to ten and say,

Yes,

Yes,

I can.

Find a way.

Spell out loud or silently everyone in your family's names.

And my very favorite,

Think of someone who isn't able to do what you can do and think of yourself doing it for them and send them strength and courage,

Whatever they need.

So over to you.

Challenges in life come in all forms.

We are living in one of the toughest times in history in this global pandemic with climate change and a world that's facing unknown outcomes.

Think about the times when you've been challenged in your own life.

It could be right now or at another time.

What did you say to yourself?

How did you keep going?

I invite you to choose your own power words and write them in your journal so that you'll remember them.

Because you can do this.

You've got it,

But you have to be ready.

You can find more encouragement and resources on my website,

Joehatcherretreats.

Com,

To help you deal with the unknown.

Reviews

Thank you for this this INSPIRING recounting of one of your biggest life CHALLENGES❣️
While my personal Challenge is not climbing Mount Fuji, it holds many of the same Emotional Challenges you encountered.
Our challenges, while personal choices, more often than not, unfold with each step we take adding delight OR extra challenges we could not anticipate.
Thank you for reminding me that the JOURNEY is the thing that BUILDS CHARACTER and, in hindsight, is a REEARD unto itself. 🙏🏻💕

Thank you for sharing this story, I loved i

Jo thank you for your powerful and inspiring story. Keep on trekking.