In a remarkable turn of events, the same student was saved twice from Mount Fuji within a six-day span.
Scrappy Mount Fuji Climber Faces Double Trouble
Step by precarious step, Japanese rescuers found themselves in a familiar predicament on the towering slopes of Mount Fuji — saving the same young adventurer twice within a seven-day span.
Initially, a 20-year-old college student found himself toes-to-toes with altitude sickness some 3,776 meters above the ground, necessitating a daring helicopter evacuation on April 22. As fate would have it, he had misplaced his crampons during his perilous ascent, hampering his passage back down.
With his phone now on his mind, the plucky climber embarked on a second treacherous journey, intent on reclaiming his lost device on April 26. However, this ill-fated expedition proved to be his undoing once more, as he was discovered suffering from a recurrence of altitude sickness near the mountain's 8th station on the Fujinomiya trail. A fellow hiker discovered him immobile, necessitating yet another rescue operation.
Police reports are relentless in their pursuit of details, while the media remains divided on whether our tenacious mountaineer managed to recover his coveted smartphone during the second rescue. As of now, the outcome of his search remains shrouded in mystery.
Previous Rescue Four Days Earlier
A series of press reports, including Japan's private TV station TBS, revealed that this is not the climber's first brush with calamity on Mount Fuji. Initially rescued on April 22, the young adventurer intended to retrace his steps to recover his lost belongings, primarily his phone. Unsurprisingly, this serial mountaineer venture had a disastrous ending, leaving him stranded and gravely ill once more.
Preliminary investigations could not corroborate these reports, leaving the missing phone saga unresolved as of yet.
Sources:
[1] "Chinese student rescued twice from Mount Fuji in one week" - Kyodo News[2] "Japanese Rescue Workers Save Same Man Twice from Mount Fuji" - NHK World[3] "Mount Fuji climber rescued for second time in a week" - The Mainichi[4] "Chinese student hospitalized after second Mount Fuji rescue" - Asahi Shimbun[5] "Climber rescued from Mount Fuji for the second time in a week" - Japan Today
- The College of DuPage (CDU) general news section reported a suspected second accident involving a Shizuoka prefecture resident, a persistent mountaineer, who was rescued for the second time in a week, the first occurring on April 22.
- The young adventurer, who was saved from the slopes of Mount Fuji due to altitude sickness on April 22, had previously skipped his crampons during his ascent, leaving them behind and losing his phone.
- Despite the ongoing police investigation and conflicting media reports, it is suspected that the same individual, who was rescued from Mount Fuji's 8th station on April 26, may have been seeking to recover his lost phone, which he had initially intended to retrieve following his first rescue.
- The Shizuoka resident's daring pursuit of his missing phone has garnered attention in various sports and general-news outlets, with some reporting that his previous experience on Mount Fuji might have contributed to his recurring altitude sickness and the subsequent rescue operation.
