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Which route up Fuji

EspressoDan

Warming-Up
Jul 5, 2015
10
6
Hi,

I can't find a Google consensus - which route would TCC members recommend I take up Fuji? I can see three roads, Route 152 from the South, Route 150 from the East and 703 from the North.

152 looks like the most fun climbing, but I'd be interested if anybody could provide some good advice. Are there any which are best avoided on a bike?

Thanks

Dan
 
I've only done the Azami line (route 150). It's a bit of a beast but very fun. The descent is great too. Not sure about the other roads, but I'm sure others will be able to offer their advice.
 
Fuju?

None of the above. My recommended route up - I've ridden it twice this year - is the Takizawa-rindō. Followed by the Subaru Line down.

See my route


Advantage: the road is very quiet. Towards the top it becomes a closed road, so cars don't bother with it. There are a couple of gates, but you can just push your bike around the edge of them.

Disadvantage: 1.3 km of volcanic gravel to ride/walk-and-push between the paved sections.
 
I'm not sure about the other routes but the Subaru line is quite busy with tour buses. Constantly being passed on the way up with the boys giving it full welly when they pass you leaving you in a billow of black smoke. Before I went, my image of climbing Fuji was crystal clean air on the top of the world. Not the best way to get up there I think although the road is nice and has an average grade of 5% with some sections of up to about 9% I think. It flattens out near the top where you can bomb along if you have enough left and then goes up again to the finish. Nice up there though. Large station with things to eat and drink. Descent is probably a cold one to begin with and pretty fast except when the same buses get in your way on the way down.
 
A few years ago I did a coast-summit-coast Fuji ride (pre Strava/Garmin use so no map data unfortunately). I started at the beach in Numazu, then took the Fujinomiya route up road 180, then switched on to the 152. The road was hard going, but the gradient was relatively steady. The road was also a lot quieter than I had expected. After climbing Fuji the descent from the 5th station all the way back to the beach was a blast!
 
That pretty much sums up the entire Fuji experience. If it's not tour busses on the road, it's queues at the top of the mountain, and rubbish everywhere, university students crouched over their oxygen bottles like they are dying on the side of Everest.

Before I went, my image of climbing Fuji was crystal clean air on the top of the world.
 
That pretty much sums up the entire Fuji experience. If it's not tour busses on the road, it's queues at the top of the mountain, and rubbish everywhere, university students crouched over their oxygen bottles like they are dying on the side of Everest.
Got your wilting rose tinted glasses on again there Mr.Blob?

Fuji ain't that bad. I've never once queued to get to the summit. Each time I've ridden up to the fifth station, there were only a handful of buses and a couple of taxis (Azami line). There was hardly any rubbish up there either.
 
Ha ha ha! OK, fair enough!

Got your wilting rose tinted glasses on again there Mr.Blob?

Fuji ain't that bad. I've never once queued to get to the summit. Each time I've ridden up to the fifth station, there were only a handful of buses and a couple of taxis (Azami line). There was hardly any rubbish up there either.
 
Did the Fuji KOH (King of Hillclimb) race yesterday and this took Route 180 before then going up Route 152.

Nice forests, very long climb (26.5km just from the race start and you'd have to get there from Fujinomiya Station).

I don't know if there are any issues with Strava privacy etc but StravRRRR activity linked below:

KOH2015
 
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