Guy Lost His Phone; Had To Be Airlifted Off Mt. Fuji Twice

PublishedApril 29, 2025 5:11 PM EDT•UpdatedApril 29, 2025 5:12 PM EDT

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Mt. Fuji is one of the most iconic mountains in the world, which is why people flock to it.

Heck, it’s on my bucket list. I’d love to see it and the apples which bear its name, and then spend the rest of the day unwinding in hot springs with snow monkeys.

Although I will concede that could be one of those ideas that sounds better in my head, and once I got there, I’d probably be like, “Wait… did I just fly halfway around the world to sit in hot monkey water?!”

But Mt. Fuji is not to be trifled with, which is what one visitor from China learned not once, but twice, in a single week.

According to Nippon TV (via NBC News), a 27-year-old university student from China who lives in Tokyo ran into some issues when he lost his crampons. That sounds like a personal issue, but that’s a standard piece of rock climbing equipment which left him stranded at the peak of the mountain.

That’s a problem. Should’ve just skipped the mountain climbing and gone for a soak with monkeys.

The man was airlifted off the top of the mountain, and while that should’ve been a somewhat embarrassing footnote to his mountaineering career, it wasn’t.

If you leave your phone behind while getting rescued from the summit of Mt. Fuji, your best option is to leave it where it is. (Getty Images)

Just days later, the man returned to the top of Mt. Fuji because when he was being rescued he left his phone behind and wanted to retrieve it.

Now, I see this two ways. The first is that there must have been something pretty wild on that phone that letting it waste away on top of a mountain wasn’t going to suffice. He needed that phone and he needed it now.

Or, he may have just wanted to skip the trip to whatever Japan’s version of a T-Mobile store is, and I can’t say that I blame him. Any time I’ve gotten a new phone, it’s been nothing short of a nightmare.

But whatever the reason, he returned to Mt. Fuji, and on Sunday, the same man needed to be stretchered off the 10,170-foot-tall mountain after suffering from what was believed to be altitude sickness.

No word on whether he got the phone or if he’ll be making a third trip to the summit of Mt. Fuji this week.