HuaShan II: Perilous South Peak Cliffside Planks
Trip Start
Jun 04, 2008
1
19
79
Trip End
Feb 20, 2009
Xi'an,
China
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Taking a cable car through the clouds
. As he called we were - oddly enough - just returning back to Xi'an from climbing HuangShan (Yellow Mountain) in Anhui Province. Yellow Mountain has its own hidden cliffside walks, but nothing as perilous as those at HuaShan. It would be a bit much for us to tackle both in one week, but Ben was a good friend, and we were willing to give it a go.
We met up at the "bus station", or that is, the parking lot at the train depot. We hopped on the first bus to HuaShan and got comfortable - the ride is a good 2 hours. Upon arrival we didn't make the same mistakes we had made from our first visit, which was taking the two block taxi ride or buying any gloves. After some debate we decided to take the cable car to the top. It was the first time Jen and I had taken a cable car up a mountain in China, and a bit of a defeat for us. But, we figured we had already climbed HuaShan once before and would like to make this whole trip in one day if we could. On top of that, it had been raining most of the morning and we weren't sure how some of the climb would go. We headed for the backside of the mountain and took the cable car.
The ride up in the car was majestic
Eric sporting umbrella- notice camera on belt
. The cables ran up into an invisible layer of clouds which we eventually pierced to reveal the mountains above. We had hoped the rain would stop once we made it above the clouds, but the rainclouds must have been higher up because the rain continued. It was impressive how many people were up on top considering the cooler October rain, but I suppose, the ascent is quite easy with the cable car. Making best use of the daylight, we wasted no time and headed straight for the South Peak. Ben and Jen were garbed in solid outdoor raingear and made some jabs at me for bringing an umbrella onto a mountain climb. However, I fit right in with the other Chinese tourist who all had umbrellas. Maybe I have been in China too long.
We were making good time until I had to make a bathroom stop. Without any signs of bathrooms ahead for several minutes I eventually started to look for some place off the trail. But, with so many tourist clamoring alongside of us, and with only a few safe places to go from off the steep trails, even the more naturist toilets were difficult to find. Finally, after way too long, we came to a corner in the trail that was uninhabited. I hustled to the edge around the corner doing an awkward jig that I am sure would have looked silly if I had cared at all. I quickly glanced around to make sure a camera touting tourist group wasn't standing behind me and unbuckled my.....
Oh S#@#%$!#%!
The camera case that was on my belt slid off when undid my pants
This is where I dropped the camara
! Oh my God!I watched in horror as the camera case accelerated into a tumble down the side of the mountain. As it went it bounced and picked up speed. From where we were, I was able to watch it roll and bounce for a good 15 seconds. Ben and Jen came running over. I am not totally sure what their first thought would have been to hear a urinating man scream. We stared down the face of the mountain helplessly. A standard social reaction, I suppose, to people staring down a mountain - we inevitable had a group of 20 Chinese folks also looking down the mountain with us. They were not sure yet what we were looking for.
Traveling through China for the last 6 months, the camera was one of the most valuable items we had to our name. Plus, all of our HuangShan photos were still on it. Not wanting to give up, we foolishly devised a plan to search for the camera. It was suicide to go on a chase down the side of the mountain where the camera was dropped. Instead, I went back down the trail and try to get underneath as best I could from where I had dropped it. Surprisingly enough, the trail did curve around almost exactly to where the camera had rolled. We searched that spot on the trail for ½ and hour until we got the idea to drop a few rocks down from above to see where they ended up
Just before we go - still smiling ... so far
. Maybe the rocks would roll to a certain area and point to where the camera would have gone. Jen threw down 5 rocks just as the camera had gone while Ben (being a good sport) and I waited below ducking behind a tree for safety. I never heard or saw a single rock. That didn't help us find the camera, but it did help convince me while hiding behind a tree that we should give up on the camera. It was a big blow to lose the camera, but it would be far worse to fall down a cliff - or get knocked in the head with a rock trying to find it. We would be relying on Ben's camera for any good shots for the rest of the climb. .... Strangely enough, I never did use the bathroom and no longer needed to. After a full hour and a half of searching for the camera we continued on. We followed signs that simply pointed the way "cliffside planks". It is hard to believe how nonchalant this sign was considering the peril to which it pointed. We eventually made our way up to a small temple where we briefly rested and dropped off our bags. Hauling 20 lbs on our backs didn't make much sense were we were going. The lady of the temple offered us a safety harness for 30 RMB which seemed like a good investment. She kindly took a photo for us, which would be out last picture we could take before our smiles were scared away.
Immediately outside of the temple, the trail narrows to a rocky ledge and hits a wall
Jen climbing up the steel ladder
. For any sane person, this is the end of your journey. However, if you look down below you, there are steel rods driven into the rock face that form a crude ladder along a crevice. The steel rods, still wet from the rain earlier, are not altogether inviting because directly below that is nothing. That is, nothing for another one to two thousand feet. We are looking down a ladder on a cliff. The light rain a few gusts of wind made things a bit more interesting. We took each step with calculated care and grabbed every steel rung tight enough to make our knuckles pure white. The sea of clouds below gave a hint of help by masking the deep abyss below - making it seem we were only 50 stories off the ground instead of several hundred. Every so often the wind would push the clouds away and reveal the open landscape underneath. I am sure it would have been quite beautiful to see if we weren't so fixated on the hand and footholds in front of us. We cautiously took pictures of one another and occasionally passed the camera back and forth. We vividly remembered the sight of the other camera falling down the mountain. Due to my previous record with the last camera I had to pass a "you got it?" question before any successful handoff.
After finally reaching the bottom of the ladder and feeling successful, we realized we only just passed the easy part. The planks were next. These 'planks' were rotted 4X4's fixed together with giant steel staples and simply supported with two cantilever beams driven into the rock underneath. I wouldn't have used this wood to make a fence in my backyard, but we weren't in my backyard. We were in China, and we couldn't turn back now.
About halfway through the planks we came across a man coming towards us
starting on the boardwalk
. This was unfortunate. How were we going to cross past eachother? I saw a standoff developing. I thought back to a North and South going Zax from a Dr Suess book where neither would move for the other to pass. However, as I was busy looking at the ledge around me and trying to find a spot where two people could manage he had already made his way all the way up to me. I hugged up against the wall and he breezed right on by me like I wasn't even there. "Maybe he has done this before" or "maybe he doesn't realize there is nothing underneath the clouds below". Whatever it was, he made our slow progress look silly. After about half an hour we finally all made it to the end. We hi-fived eachother until our hands hurt. Looking back across the planks we realized it took us 30 minutes to crawl a total of only 30 feet - but we didn't care, we made it. We moved onward and saw a little shrine dug into the rock and a small flat area to rest. It was here I think we realized the only way out was back the way we came. "All that effort for this little shrine?". It was a hole in the wall. Literally. It didn't seem right, but I suppose the obstacle itself was our main goal.
Out from the resting area we saw a few trees which extended out beyond the cliff
Looking into the sea of clouds
. A few luck ribbons were tied on the branches from the tree. Some people had climbed out onto the tree to tie those ribbons! I needed to find some of these sure footed people to help my locate that camera.We made our way back across the planks and up the ladder. Slightly more emboldened from our first crossing, we took a few crazy pictures of us hanging onto the steel support ties and sitting down on the planks. In most cases the pictures looked great, but we had to keep reminding one another to smile and not look terrified.
On the way out we grabbed out bags, thanked the lady for the support harnesses - they worked - and headed back to the cable car. We took a bit of a detour on the way back to see the South and West peaks, but we were completely physically drained from, albeit a short, but stressful plank trail. The views back were good, but seemed lame after what we just went through. We took the cable car down and caught up with a student group that were bussing it back to Xi'an. We celebrated our victory with a nice sit down meal at a steak restaurant and bought ourselves backrubs that night. It was a good ending to an amazing day.
Comments
Hi bro and sis
Love the story about the old lady. Sorry I have not been able to talk to you guys lately. V just had his 1st birthday, but the poor thing was sick. He caught croup. He is doing alot better now. Love the blog
Tonya