I climbed Mt Fuji. It was pretty cool. 3,776 meters / 12,388 ft.

I brought a pulse oximeter out of curiosity. 98% SPO2 at the little base town where we were dropped off. 82% at one of the stops, compared to 95% of the woman working inside. 71% at the peak.

The peak was terrifying. I went up the Yoshida trail and down the Gotemba trail. The Yoshida trail is most populated. Plenty of people hiking and little stops up the trail that will brand your hiking stick for a few hundred yen each ($1-3).

Once at the peak, we had to walk around at the top through a storm to find the Gotemba trail. The storm was brutally cold. I remember there was a guy wearing his girlfriend’s dress cus it was the only dry clothes they had while trying to take shelter.

The clouds lingered the rest of the way down. It was insanely foggy.

Overall it was cool. I had the chance to hike it again the next year and opted out.

Just got back from Boulder, did South Boulder Peak which was 8549’. The climb to Bear Peak just below South Boulder was the best part, it was so steep, we climbed 3000’ in two miles.

Here’s a cool pic from the top

It wasn’t “mountain climbing” with ropes and harnesses and such, it was hiking, but I’ll share my experience.

When I was 17 I went with my scout troop to Philmont, which is a huge property the Boy Scouts of America has out in New Mexico, to go backpacking. We spent about a week on the trail and did about 50 miles. The highest mountain we hiked up was Mt Phillips at 11742 ft (~3579M) which is right around the elevation most people just start to really feel the effects of lower oxygen levels. And that’s my highest mountain.

It’s been a while, so forgive me if I mix up some of my details, I’m also gonna start you off with some basic Philmont info and a side story that isn’t really about the mountains.

When you first get to Philmont, you spend some time in Basecamp, making sure you have all the necessary gear, getting a quick rundown on how things work there, etc. And you spend the night in one of the tents they have set up already at base camp. If you’ve ever been to a BSA summer camp, you know what tents I’m talking about. For those unfamiliar, it’s a big canvas tent on a wooden platform with 2 cots inside.

Philmont base camp isn’t exactly what I’d consider the desert, at least not the stereotypical desert we all picture, but it’s certainly a lot more dry and dusty than most in the US are used to if you’re not from the southwest (which I am not) and it doesn’t get a ton of rain.

But I could probably count the number of camping trips I’ve been on where I didn’t get rained on at least a little bit on one hand, and Philmont was no exception. IIRC, that night at basecamp we got more rain than they had gotten in any 24hour period in the previous 10 years. (Coincidentally, the last time my troop sent a crew to Philmont, they also got poured on, and I believe it had been about 10 years prior)

I’m not sure if it just rained that hard, or if because they don’t usually get that much rain the Philmont staff had gotten lazy waterproofing the tents, but almost every tent leaked that night, and the way the wind was blowing everyone on the one side of the tents got wet while their tent mate stayed dry. I ended up on the wet side, luckily I woke up pretty quick because the first few drops landed right on my face, so I packed up my sleeping bag, pulled on an extra layer of clothes and my rain gear, crawled under my cot and went back to sleep, so I managed to escape the worst of it. Lots of people had to dry out their gear the next morning before starting their trek.

It was pretty cool though, because you hear about how the desert comes alive after a good rain, and we got a good taste of that because the next day everything sure as hell was a lot greener than when we arrived. From base camp you then get on a bus to head off to where you start your trek (there’s a lot of different trail options) but because of the rain, most of the road had turned to mud, so we had to get dropped off a couple miles from where we were supposed to start and slog through the mud to get there. By the end of the day though everything was bone dry.

A few days in we camp near the top of a mountain that wasn’t quite as high as Mt Phillips would be. Our itinerary had us spending 2 nights at this particular spot, they had some activities set up for us to do, and we could rest up a little for the second half of our trek. There was a bit of an open field so we bust out a frisbee we brought with us, and toss it around a bit. That was probably about the best shape I’ve ever been in, and we weren’t too beaten up by the hiking because A. we were young and healthy, and B. had plenty of training before we went. Even still, we could definitely feel ourselves getting a bit winded faster than we would otherwise because of the altitude.

Anyway onto Phillips. Our itinerary had camping basically at the top of Phillips. There would be no potable water at the top, so we decided to have our hot meal for the day (which involved boiling water) for lunch before we started up so we’d have a chance to refill and make sure we had plenty to get us through the next day.

As we got closer to the summit a thick fog rolled in. By the time we made it up, we were all damp, cold, miserable, tired, it was getting late, and we didn’t even have a hot meal to look forward to. We pretty much set up camp and went right to bed.

The next day we wake up, and actually take a good look around, enjoy the views, etc. With the fog gone, we get to look down on the valleys below us and we see… clouds. It dawned on us then that it wasn’t just fog we hiked and camped through, but a cloud. If a mattress salesman ever tells you “it’s like sleeping on a cloud,” fucking run, clouds suck.

While looking around and exploring we also found a decent little pile of snow up on top of the mountain. Now these aren’t snowcapped peaks exactly, but it was definitely chillier up there than elsewhere in Philmont, and with the right altitude, and a shady nook behind some trees I guess you can keep some snow hanging around in New Mexico until late June/early July.

I have a few other cool little stories from Philmont, but that’s pretty much the extent of what pertains to mountains, with a bonus side story about getting rained on.

Don’t remember the elevation, maybe 11,000 something… but I hiked to the peak of Mount Rose outside of Tahoe. It just so happened the monarchs were migrating through at the time and it was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. There must’ve been millions of them everywhere. It was like a black cloud flying around us. So many were on the trees it looked like the trees were breathing.

About 30-40 meters. Not sure exactly. It was a hard climb without a path. Just rocks and bushes. Quite steep too. But the view was terrifying.

Longs Peak Colorado (14259ft / 4345m). A lot of people get altitude sickness on this one and my girlfriend at the time did. So I left her behind. Jk. We eventually made it to the top. It was an amazing view and only took us the day but we had to get started early in then morning (like 5am) so that we were done before it got dark in the evening.

Jebel Toubkal in Morocco, 4,167m (13,671ft), the highest mountain in north Africa. We were on a two-week trek in the Atlas range, so quite well acclimatised. Stayed overnight in the Neltner hut and started the ascent early in the morning. There was quite a bit snow, despite it being summer, but only a little at the summit itself. Fantastic view of the Atlas Mountains. The descent was quicker, in part due to us sliding down one big snowfield on our bums. A meal was ready for us when we got back to the hut, from memory in the mid-afternoon, but I had no appetite, too tired. We went up to the bunk room and rested. A very satisfying day. (Edit to add pic)

Mt Pelvoux, 3900m via the coolidge couloir, a 500m high ice couloir.

Nice route, but require some basic mountaineering experience.

Still need to improve to do the Bionnassay route for theMt blanc zhich is way harder than the normal one bus less crowded

All the way from bottom to top while hiking, the highest was probably Old Rag Mountain in Virginia. About 900 meters (2952 feet) at the top. Trail is moderate incline with a little rock scrambling at the top. Big boulders at the top to lounge on and great views. It used to be fairly obscure and you wouldn’t see many people but now it became popular with the Northern VA/DC/MD crowd and it got so crowded you have to pay a fee and I believe make a reservation to climb it now.

I have also climbed straight up a wild mountain with no trails in Grant County, West Virginia. It’s about 700 meters (2296 feet.) We crossed a river and went straight up, using trees to pull ourselves up the steep slope for most of the way. I’m not sure what the mountain is called, but it is rocky at the top and has a great view of a campground below.

Highest elevation so far Mt Whitney (14,505’, 4,421 m). Pretty uneventful climb since it was the end of over two weeks on the John Muir Trail. The previous 5 days was almost entirely avoid 10,000 ft. We slept on the shoulder of the mountain and sauntered up in the morning in about an hour.

Highest climb from the bottom to top was maybe Mt Williamson (14,379’, 4383 m). Trailhead is about 6300 ft, so at least 8,000 ft of climbing (2440 m). It was very difficult, climbed over 2 days. Not much time to adapt to the altitude. The hardest part was the realization that the top is exactly half way. I just wanted to paraglide down or get a helicopter ride. Some very difficult rocky terrain.

Honorable mention is Mauna Kea (4207 m). I had a magical elixir of coffee and Maca (REBBL Chocolate flavor), and powered to the top without altitude sickness. I haven’t tried it since, but I will try Maca again next time I’m going up in elevation above 10k ft.

The highest mountain I ever climbed was the two meter hill near my old home. I had to climb it whenever going to and from school. You could sometimes find me chilling half-way up the trek.

2142m/7027ft to Prislop in Tatras, from the parkink place at 900m, so the climb was 1200m on foot. Also 2100 at Mangart saddle in julian alps, but with motorbike 😆

Uhh probably some big ass hill idk