Paragliders in the Clouds, Mount Fuji, Japan, 2002

Paragliders float through the clouds that surround snowcapped Mount Fuji in Japan. At 12,388 feet (3,776 meters), Fuji is Japan's highest peak. But its relatively easy-to-scale flanks draw flocks of amateur climbers to its summit—some 400,000 every year.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Fuji: Japan's Sacred Summit (Except When It's Not)," August 2002, National Geographic magazine)

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