What could be better than climbing one of China's sacred Buddhist mountains? Climbing TWO of them. After some down time in Pingyao we headed to another of China's famous Buddhist sites: Hua Shan. This mountain is absolutely spectacular - it literally seems to thrust vertically straight out of the expansive flatlands below. Totally different from Wutai Shan, Hua Shan is a giant granite monolith with sheer imposing cliffs on all sides - imagine a very large version of the Chief in Squamish, BC sprinkled with few Buddhist temples on top. Best of all you get to walk the plank...
As soon as I saw this place, I couldn't help but think that the rock climbing here would be amazing with gigantic cracks snaking accross these immense granite faces. I didn't actually look into whether or not people had ever climbed there independently, but I am guessing that since it is a protected site there would probably be restrictions on that sort of thing.
Being China, the first thing to do with a sacred mountain is to build a really expensive cable car to the top. In fact, this site must be extra special since it actually has TWO cable cars. With the gondolas acting as a large conveyor belt for Chinese tour groups, the summit had a bit of the feel of an amusement park with restaurants and souvenir shops scattered everywhere. It was a bit more touristy than I expected, but the scenery was still well worth fighting the crowds on the summit. The good thing was that once we got on the trail it was easy to find some space for ourselves. The mountain itself is made of five separate granite peaks with trails that run between - note that these trails are definitely not for those who don't like heights. They don't call this "China's most dangerous mountain" for nothing.
In order to try and beat the crowds we decided to hike to the summit from town first thing in the morning leaving on the "Pilgrims trail" around 6am. The trail is very well maintained, and climbs to the summit after passing through a Taoist temple near the base of the mountain. The hike up was a great morning workout climbing about 1000m, along a very well maintained trail to the North summit. From there we walked the "Dragons Back", a narrow granite arete, to reach the east, south and west summits. Luckily for us, in recent years China has made some safety improvements adding stairs, chains, and handrails on some of the more dangerous parts (I am not sure if they can keep claiming the "most dangerous mountain" title).
Some of the "sky ladders" were so steep that they were actually overhanging steps! But there were chains.... which sort of made it a little safer? Here I am negotiating a solid 5.10a move over a bulge.... this staircase is actually vertical.
Hiking over to the east peak we got some amazing views of the surrounding mountains and the other peaks of Hua Shan:
Although we couldn't rock climb at Hua Shan, there was still the opportunity to come pretty darn close - Hua Shan is the home of China's famous plank walk: the self-proclaimed "Most dangerous hike on earth!". This hike is absolutely terrifying. In order to reach a small Buddhist shrine perched in the middle of the South face of the mountain, you need to walk along a plank walkway that is cantilevered off of a sheer rock face about 1000m above the valley floor! You do get a harness, which you clip onto steel cables bolted into the wall but it is nonetheless scary as hell. Here is my list of sketchy things about this walk which makes it so terrifying: 1. they only give you a CHEST harness (all the rock climbers reading this are probably saying WTF right now...), 2. this is a one way hike, which you then have to backtrack running into people coming the opposite direction with a cluster-f**k of carabiners, 3. you are completely responsible for clipping in and out of the safety cable on your own (at least Marie and I have enough rock climbing experience to know not to unclip BOTH tethers at the same time - unlike some others on the walk).
Highly recommended if you like pooping your pants.
After our climb of Hua Shan, we needed something a little more laid back the next day so we checked out the Xiyue temple in Huayin (the name of the town at the foot of Hua Shan) which gave a pretty good view of the whole city from the main tower.
Best post yet!
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