Photos!

This is Adam, bringing you some photos. If you have any interest in the larger files that will make good hard-copy photographs, let me know and I'll e-mail them to you.

Here's Steve during the first morning. He's enjoying the Japanese buffet at the hotel restaurant.

Here's Bob and me in the Japanese style bedroom at the hostel in Kawaguchiko, at the base of the mountain. At night we bring out the futons and sleep here. Yes, this is the room that smells of dead fish.

This is Station 5, on the mountain. Notice the rain...

Bob and I preparing to go up. Here we're both still enthusiastic about the coming climb.

This is looking down at the switchbacks, somewhere between Stations 6 and 7. At this point, we're about 2 hours into the climb, at an altitude of above 8000 feet.

Hammer Time! Steve decides to try the (vanilla flavored) Hammer Gel we bought at the REI in Portland. He thought it was okay. I thought it was foul. Regardless, we both recommend that you don't look at it before trying it. This is at Station 7, which was as far as we got. About 8800 feet. My hands felt like they were asleep (which is a sign of altitude sickness), and Bob was just plain feeling weak, so we turned back.