Stranded man airlifted from Mount Fuji — then rescued again days later after he returned to get his phone

A climber airlifted with altitude sickness from near the peak of Japan's Mount Fuji last week returned to the slope and was rescued for a second time just four days later, authorities said Monday.

The climber was identified only as a 27-year-old Chinese student living in Japan. He made an emergency call on April 22 and was airlifted after developing symptoms of altitude sickness, police said, adding that his climbing irons also were damaged.

On Saturday, he returned to the mountain's Fujinomiya trail nearly 10,000 feet above sea level to look for his cell phone and other belongings left behind, Shizuoka prefectural police said. Another climber found him there unable to move after he apparently got sick for a second time, police said.

"He was suspected of having altitude sickness and was taken to hospital," a police spokesman in the Shizuoka region told Agence France-Presse on Monday.

It was not known whether he was able to find his phone in the end, local media reported.

The mountain's hiking trails are officially open only from July to early September, but there is no penalty for hiking off-season. There also is no charge or penalty when a climber needs to be rescued, but the Chinese student's case prompted an uproar on social media and generated calls for him to be charged, at least for his second rescue.

Following the man's rescue, police in Shizuoka prefecture reiterated its advice against climbing the mountain during the off-season as the weather could suddenly change, making it hard for rescuers to respond, the BBC reported. Medical facilities along the trails are also closed.

Police urged all climbers to use caution, noting that the mountain has low temperatures and is covered in snow even in spring.

The 3,776-meter-high (12,388-foot-high) mountain was designated a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 2013. A symbol of Japan, the mountain called "Fujisan" used to be a place of pilgrimage and is increasingly popular among hikers today.

To control overcrowding and risks from rushed overnight climbing through rocky slopes to see the sunrise, local authorities last year introduced an entry fee and cap on the number of entrants on the most popular trail and will introduce similar rules on other main trails this year.

But exactly how many tourists visit Fuji — and how many is too many — is up for debate, Thomas Jones, a professor of sustainability and tourism at Japan's Ritsumeikan University, told CBS News in 2023.

"You would have to find consensus" for what constitutes carrying capacity, he said, "and at the moment there isn't really anything like that. So, there isn't really a kind of concerted effort to limit the number of visitors there."

In 2023, more than 220,000 people climbed Mount Fuji between July and September, according to the BBC.

That’s quite a feat! Boy, I bet that was a lot, but a beautiful thing up there.

When I was a kid we always called it mount Fujiama. I don’t know when calling it Mount Fuji started, maybe they did back then but it was always called Fujiama from what I remember back when I was a kid.

Yeah. Pretty stupid. He could’ve died, didn’t learn his lesson and cost the city a bundle. I wondered if they are going to charge him.

Fujiyama is still a thing! It is a more Japanese word than English.

I was in Tokyo 15-22 March and could not travel there this trip. It is a majestic place.

The area where the phone hunting idiot returned too, looks like moonscape. It is as if you are on Earth and you rou d the trail and ascent onto a desolate dark plateau of stones as big as bushes or one room cabins. It is as if the air becomes thin and difficult to breath. I distinctly remember seeing red oxygen bottles scattered about. When I later reached the top, again there was another ascent to a tori gate and two short rows of food shops. A helicopter was ferrying very old Japanese alo g with the red oxygen bottles, which I recall costs about $60 in 1993.

You can walk away hundred meters to see the opening of the volcano.

I was the 1SG for USARJ-IX Corps & 17th Area Support Group. I created a two week training calendar to camp and teach the kids, as I saw them, military skills, and I got many of them pumped up about the Army. For clerks and jerks, their enthusiasm rippled throughout the 1000 at Camp Zama. We did infantry skills, and night orientation. I taught them the constellations nightly. By the time the Fuji hike arrived, I had gone from two dozen to a 139 soldiers on the trip. I simply could not just hike to the top, but I had to both be in the lead bubble and visit the rear gaggle. Everyone made it but it was a couple of long days. At the top I divided the unit into groups, and we started down.

There was a lava ash flow from the top. We crossed it several times on switch backs. Probably poor leadership on my part (wink wink), but I took my two favorite NCOs and we Three started running down the flow. We could not stop unless we literally threw ourselves into the ash. We ran for 15 minutes and repeated this several times until we got to the highest station for bus pickup and shops. We were first down by about 3 hours.

Fuju was one of the most fun times I ever had.

In 1999, I had some guy hug me in the PX at Bragg. When I saw his face he said he stayed in Army because of me... I was a A+ Type and he had been a problem child initially but turned into a natural leader. In 2006 I ran into another soldier who told me I was the reason they made a career of the Army, and the time he spent at Fuji changed his life.

There is something magical there.

“In 1999, I had some guy hug me in the PX at Bragg. When I saw his face he said he stayed in Army because of me... I was a A+ Type and he had been a problem child initially but turned into a natural leader. In 2006 I ran into another soldier who told me I was the reason they made a career of the Army, and the time he spent at Fuji changed his life”.

That actually gave me chills. Beautiful story. You affected that mans life for the best. This actually gave me goosebumps when i read it.

Huh. Fujiyama still a thing. For some reason that makes me happy :)

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