An Italian mountaineer famed for scaling peaks in his bare feet on Friday climbed to the top of Japan's highest and holiest mountain, Mt. Fuji.
Antonio Peretti, 47, a forest guard and adventurer from the mountainous northern Italian Veneto region, carried ash from Mt Etna to the top of the Japanese mountain in a symbolic twinning of the two famous volcanic peaks.
Peretti also set on top of Mt Fuji a plaque commemorating the exploits of Italy's late 'Human Condor' Angelo D'Arrigo, who died in a plane crash last year.
Peretti, who pits himself against nature under the adopted name of 'Tom Perry', completed the 3,776-metre ascent despite strong winds, sources from his entourage said.
The mountaineer is set to visit Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima over the next few days to spread a message of peace and respect for the environment, they added.
On each of his climbs Perry has raised money for environmental causes and peace groups worldwide.
The Mt. Fuji ascent was filmed by Sky TV.
Journalists who have recorded Peretti's other exploits will put together an 'instant book' on the initiative.
An amateur parachutist, hiker and biker, Perry says on his website that he "discovered his true calling" when he flung off his boots and started running headlong down a local mountain one summer's day in 2002.
Over the next five years, Hobbit-like, he clambered over most of his native Dolomites and ventured farther afield to Mt. Blanc, Kilimanjaro, the Himalayan heights of Makalu and volcanos in Ecuador and Bolivia - as well as Etna while it was erupting.
On his website, www.tomperry.it, Peretti says he feels "the Earth transfers its energy to me while barefoot".
"I am spiritually reborn, I become a conduit for positive and genuine values".
