2160 metres in two hours. That’s a hell of a lot of steps. And I did the descent in less than one.
About time I wrote up about my climb up Mount Huashan in Shaanxi, China. It was only almost a month ago…..
I wanted to get the first bus out there so I set my alarm for 6:30. The Chinese girl in the dorm bed across from me had her alarm go off at 5:30. She didn’t wake up. After a good solid minute of continuous ringing, I got out of bed and shook her awake. Everyone else in the dorm is awake by this point and more than a little pissed off. Naturally she hadn’t packed her bag the night before, so she started doing all her packing then. Plastic bags are rustling, her light goes on, the contents of her suitcase is dumped on her bed then repacked while we all sit there in an early morning haze wondering at the huge difference in Chinese and Western culture. Eventually when I decided that there was no way I was going back to sleep, I got up, grabbed my fully packed bag, gave her a solid look to say “Look honey, this is how it’s done.”, and walked down to reception.
The kitchen was closed. Never mind, I’ll just get a good solid breakfast at the McDonald’s by the train station. Nothing like a good helping of McD’s to help you climb a mountain. There’s one register open, and the queue is nearly to the door, but I get my food in time (two sausage & egg McMuffin combos) and head off to find the bus. The only thing that was worrying me was the fact that I’d bought brand new shoes the day before. It took me forever to find shoes in my size in China, and if there’s one thing you do not want to do, it’s buy new shoes right before you do a hike. Especially if that hike is up 2 kilometres of mountain. And especially if you’re staying overnight and the hike takes two days. But it was either that or do it in jandals, so new shoes it was!
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| There’s a lot of steps… |
When we got to Huashan the entire mountain was shrouded in fog. I couldn’t see even close to the tops of any of the peaks. I was taking the Soldier’s Path up, which follows under where the cablecar goes. It started off with steps. Lots and Lots of steps. There’s another easier trail up that winds lazily upwards over 6km. This way was essentially 2km straight up. There were a couple of sections which were just vertical ladders of rock with chains to pull yourself up with. There were a lot of people on them, but only taking photos on the bottom few steps and then climbing up the newer, easier staircase next to them. I was the only person I saw going up the ladder. But I didn’t come halfway round the world to take the easy way out on this!!
After slightly less than two hours (I felt pretty stoked with this, didn’t feel like I was particularly fit!) I made it to the North Peak. There were people selling the engraved locks, so I bought two of them – one to leave on the Plank Path and one to leave at the East Peak.
In my head I had the idea that once I was at the top, walking between the different peaks would be fairly easy. Not at all. Between each one you have to descend a fair way and then climb up to the new one. By the time I’d walked from the North to the East, I’d had enough hiking in my new shoes for one day. I checked into the dorms at the East Peak and had a wander around.
From the East Peak you can take a path out to the Chess Playing Pavilion. To get there, there was a moderately exciting vertical descent down some metal posts stuck into the rock. I had to hire a harness for Y30, and they wouldn’t let me do it without it. I met a nice girl named Kari at the dorms – apparently the only other Westerner around, and she asked if she could come with.
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| Kari meditating near the Pavilion |
We hired the harnesses and went down. I practically bounded down and she took a more conservative approach. At the Pavilion, I had brought my headphones and listened to a song I wrote for this trip, specifically to play on top of this mountain. This photo was taken without me even knowing about it. I was sitting on the edge of a cliff with my eyes were closed, and when I started the song it was just complete gray fog. Those mountains came out while I was listening and Kari took a photo of it. When I opened my eyes at the end of the song, the full mountain range was in view. It was the most beautiful thing, and the most special photo I have.
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| Just Let Go |
In the morning I got up early to see the sunrise but there was nothing but fog. So I grabbed my pack and headed for the plank path to get there before the crowds arrived. It was incredible. They had a harness you had to hire for Y30. I didn’t use it. No way I’d come this far to take all the fear out of it by clipping on a safety harness.
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| Look ma, no harness! |
It starts with a nice gentle descent down iron bars wedged between two cliff faces.
It was completely foggy when I was there which actually made the whole thing even more awesome. The photos aren’t as good, but you couldn’t see where you were going and everything was wet. Ultimate danger 😛
I had my lock with me and put it on the chain at the end of the trail. It’s the one with the big red ribbon coming off it:
The Chinese characters are wishing my whole family a peaceful and happy life.
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| “Buy the ticket, take the ride” |
Of course with that level of danger, I maintained a high degree of safety at all times…..
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| The harness was required for this photo 🙂 |
Going to Huashan was a dream of mine since 2010. It was an amazing experience both physically and emotionally. It took me over 60 hours on buses to get there but it was worth every second.
After I’d visited all the other peaks it started to rain so I started the long walk back down the mountain. I’d meant to take the slower scenic view (the one I didn’t take on the way up) but accidentally got back on the Soldier’s Trail again. (The signs are in Chinese, ok!) Just after I started the descent, these two Chinese guys ran past me. Not one to turn down a challenge I started running after them. One of the guys dropped off about halfway down, but the other guy and I kept pushing each other on and didn’t stop once on the whole descent. My legs were killing me and took about a week to recover, but it was worth it just for the looks on everybody’s faces as we passed them, going down one of the steepest mountain paths in the world, at a full run, in the pouring rain.
