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The story
On September 6, Shizuoka Prefectural Police’s mountain rescue team saved a man in his 20s who had become unable to move while descending Mt. Fuji near the 8th station. The man had climbed Fuji as part of an offline meetup with friends he’d met through a smartphone game, and forgetting the pants to his rain gear left him chilled to the point of apparent hypothermia. On 5ch, posters questioned why a smartphone game meetup turned into a Mt. Fuji climb and criticized the sloppy gear planning that skipped proper rain protection, while others with firsthand experience noted that cases serious enough to require an actual rescue transport are rare — most people simply recover at the 8th station rest hut — revealing a divide in how seriously posters take the risk of getting stranded on the mountain.
Sun, Sep 6, 15:54 JST
Shizuoka TV News
A man in his 20s who had climbed Mt. Fuji with friends he met through a smartphone game became unable to move while descending, and was rescued by Shizuoka Prefectural Police’s mountain rescue team. He is believed to be suffering from hypothermia.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Take it up with the generation that raised them.
Probably because a bunch of young idols and AV actresses have been posting "went to Mt. Fuji!" on Instagram this year, and he got suckered in by that.
Can't even read the first three words of the thread title?
Just summon your party from inside the game app lol
Moving keeps you warm in the rain only until it gets dark — after evening it turns brutally cold. Don't underestimate wet clothing.
Still better than a Yoshinoya meetup, I guess. (a nod to an old meme about a disastrous real-life meetup at a Yoshinoya beef bowl chain)
Rain gear really is handy, isn't it.
It's really common for beginners to underestimate how much they need rain pants on a mountain. Mountain rain splashes back up at you from below (and on Fuji especially, wind gusts blast straight up the slope), so you really can't handle it without them. Down at sea level it wouldn't matter, but up there it's a different story.
People who are genuinely in bad shape get airlifted out by helicopter — they're not slowly carried down. Most people just recover at the 8th station rest hut.
Maybe he wanted to test his limits, or just overestimated his own stamina. Even veteran climbers can run into danger from low oxygen and low temperatures.
Is this guy just really skinny or something?
If your body's wet and you catch the wind, your temperature drops fast. They say every 1 m/s of wind makes it feel 1°C colder. Once circulation to your fingers and toes cuts off, it happens quick.
Yeah, "the headache hurts," huh. (a callback to the same joke about redundant phrasing)
It's the 8th station we're talking about — even elementary schoolers are all smiles at the rest hut there.
Background and Key Points
Mt. Fuji stands 3,776 meters tall, and temperature is said to drop roughly 0.6°C per 100 meters of elevation, so even when it’s comfortable at the base, the area around the 8th station (over 3,000 meters) can dip into single-digit temperatures Celsius even in midsummer — and once clothing gets wet from rain, wind chill accelerates the drop in body temperature even further. Some posters in the thread claimed “even the summit should be around 20°C,” but that reflects a misunderstanding that underestimates high-altitude weather conditions. Also, most people who get into trouble on the mountain aren’t seriously ill enough to need a rescue transport — the majority simply recover at the 8th station mountain hut, and helicopter evacuation is reserved for only the more severe cases. It’s also worth keeping in mind that climbs organized among friends who met through a smartphone game — a different kind of motivation and relationship than traditional mountaineering enthusiasts — are becoming more common, and this trend is part of the backdrop that makes it easier for basic gear like rain protection to get overlooked.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “Forgot the pants to his rain gear and got cold… Man in his 20s climbs Mt. Fuji via a smartphone game app meetup, becomes unable to move near the 8th station while descending, possible hypothermia.”
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