A bass player for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra died on Mt. Fuji yesterday. He started to climb with another Austrian from Yoshida trail in Yamanashi pref. and slipped around the 9th station of Subashiri trail, without any crampons, police said. He was visiting Japan for the performance tour from Nov. 1st to 10th, but there was no concert yesterday.
I understand that you want to climb Mt. Fuji when you visit Japan. But please don't do that out of season....
Then, why is it still open in snowy season? I have straggled with that matter since I worked at a tourist information center. I was frequently asked by tourists from overseas, mostly from Western countries though, about climbing Mt. Fuji in winter. Many of them took a risk even if I begged not to do that. And some of them wrote success stories on their blog after climbing. It makes people think climbing Mt. Fuji in winter is as if " fun and easy"....
Do you think climbing Mt. Fuji in winter should be banned by law or something?
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/vienna-philharmonic-member-dies-on-mt-fuji
3 comments:
terrible accident, and I feel sad that someone has died on beautiful Fujiyama, but I don't think it should be banned by law, as people who want to will climb anyway, despite the law.
Sad to read about this all too typical accident.
A good friend of mine said "City is city; mountain is mountain" - meaning that mountains set their own laws. One of them is not to climb Fuji in winter without crampons and enough experience ... "Closing" the mountain would be impossible to enforce. But perhaps it could be made more widely known that often in Japan rescue costs have to be paid out of your own pocket if you have or cause an accident. That might be a deterrent to rash undertakings ....
A friend of mine used to say "Mountain is mountain, city is city" - meaning that it's useless to wrap wild places like mountains in rules and regulations, as if they are city parks. But the dangers of Fuji in winter should be well publicised, especially on the web and in as many languages as possible. Here's where your web pages provide a valuable public service.
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