Mount Fuji receives mountaineers again after Covid-19 closure

Tokyo, Jul 1 (EFE).- The iconic Mount Fuji in Japan, declared a World Heritage Site, reopened Thursday to climbers after having closed all its routes since last summer as a preventive measure against the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 3,776-meter-high mountain reopened one of its four main ascent routes and will allow mountaineers to climb until Sept. 10, Yamanashi Prefecture announced, urging potential visitors to take the alteration into account of transportation services due to the pandemic.

The highest peak in the country and a sacred symbol of the Japanese is an active volcano that extends between the Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures and whose rise is only allowed during the summer season, mainly the months of July and August.

A second route, the one that runs through the Shizuoka territory, is scheduled to open on Jul. 10.

Due to the suspension of the climbing season last year, the mount had been without visitors for almost two years.

The operators of the shelters in the area have conditioned their facilities as a preventive measure of infections, transforming their double rooms into single rooms, reducing the capacity by half and offering disinfectants and masks to visitors.

At station No. 8, a total of 21 people stayed at the establishment Wednesday night to start the march. The rainy weather Thursday forced them, however, to an early decline, according to information published by Japanese newspaper Asahi.

Mount Fuji, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, attracted some 236,000 climbers during its last open season in 2019, according to data from Japan’s Environment Ministry.

In 2020 it was the first time since 1960 that the four routes to the top of this Japanese volcano remained closed throughout the season as a preventive measure against the pandemic. EFE

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