Hong Kong man first hiker to die on Japan’s Mount Fuji in ongoing climbing season

Lawrence Wong, 58, fell unconscious as he reached eighth station on Yamanashi trail

A man from Hong Kong has died attempting to scale Mount Fuji in Japan, marking the first recorded fatality of this climbing season.

Lawrence Wong, 58, began his climb on Monday with his wife from the fifth station on the popular Yoshida trail and reached a mountain lodge located at an altitude of 3,100m around 8.30pm, reported the Hong Kong Free Press.

A staff member of the Trade and Industry Department in Hong Kong, Wong fell unconscious as he reached the eighth station of the Yamanashi prefecture, reported The Standard.

Fellow climbers informed the staff at the station who quickly took him to the nearest medical centre, where a doctor pronounced him dead.

While the cause of his death is yet to be made public, Japanese police told NHK there were no external injuries on the man. The immigration department confirmed receiving a request for assistance and is following through with China’s embassy in Japan.

The department is also providing assistance and advice to the civil servant’s family, it said.

Wong’s is the first death since the summer climbing season began on 1 July.

Fuji, Japan’s tallest mountain, is closed for most of the year. It opens for climbers for two and a half months from July to mid-September.

That does not stop hikers from attempting to scale the peak during off season. In late June, four climbers died after climbing the mountain while the trails were still closed.

Explaining the challenges in climbing Mount Fuji, Takekawa Shunji, a mountain guide told NHK: "Mount Fuji in winter is classified as one of the toughest mountains for winter climbing in Japan. Conditions are so severe that people with just some experience with ordinary mountains in winter can’t deal with it. It still has some snow in June, so a climber must know that conditions won’t be different to those of winter.”