All four routes on one of Japan’s most loved mountains will be closed this summer for the first time in 60 years. Mount Fuji’s Yoshida trail, the most popular hiking path, was closed first followed by the decision to close all routes to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The mountain will be closed from 10 June to 10 September 2020, its usual climbing season, according to The Jakarta Post. Around 300,000 climbers summit the UNESCO World Heritage Site annually.
Mt. Fuji is an active volcano 100km southwest of Tokyo and is the country’s tallest peak at 3,776 metres high. The mountain is extremely popular owing to its relative ‘easy’ degree of difficulty, with gentle slopes on especially the Yoshida trail, resulting in congestion in previous years.
According to GPS surveys done between 2015 and 2017, an average of over 2,000 climbers per day were recorded, reports Japan Today.
Japan has reported 16,367 cases of the virus and 768 deaths so far.
Image credit: Instagram/trips.pix
