Location: North 22.41000, East 114.12476 (GPS on the summit)
Difficulty: YDS class 1
Climbed November 13, 2019
Information:
How to get there:
There are many ways to climb this mountain. We started directly from
Tai Po Market. This is a station on the East MTR Line, also served by many
buses. From here, one may take the bus 23K to gain some elevation and get
out of town. However, we walked directly from the station, the road has a wide
side walk and it is quite easy as long as you understand that you should walk
up the valley directly above Tai Po Market. You will have Grassy peak up on the
left while the hills of Tai Mo Shan are up on your right.
Route description:
Your first goal is to hike up the valley to Lead Mine Pass. There are signs along
the way. You start out walking on a nice country road (after getting out of Tai Po),
then a trail with steps forks right, signposted for Lead Mine Pass. Follow this trail
until you arrive at the pass. You make a 90 degree turn right there and continue up
stairs, then along a trail. There are really no forks or places where you
can go wrong. You will arrive at a local hill called Sze Fong Shan, there is a characteristic
big rock on the summit,
not too hard to climb, but be careful if you attempt it.
This hill
has a map elevation of 785 meter. The route now descends to a saddle, elevation about
710 meter. A small (paved) road starts here. Follow this road (uphill) until you
arrive at the antennas. There is a big fence here and a sign that tells you to
stay away. Turn left and walk a short distance downhill. You will then see a small
trail that forks right and ascends the grassy slope towards the fence. Traverse a bit
parallel to the fence and arrive in a corner that seems to be the highest point
outside of the fence. A trigonometric pillar
can be seen inside the fence only a short
distance away.
Comments:
Serious demonstrations. Yesterday the police and students at the Chinese University
of Hong Kong had a big battle near a bridge called "Bridge number 2". It was likely
that all or most public transportation would be cancelled or seriously delayed.
Pål Jørgen and I decided that the best plan for the day would be to
take the private shuttle bus from MyFair by the Sea (where we live) to Tai Po, then
simply walk from there.
This plan worked well. We took the 0900 shuttle and started walking in Tai Po at 0915.
Reaching Lead Mine Pass, we continued after a short break
uphill towards the summit.
We were at the summit at 1130. Spending some time to explore a bit as well as locating
a highest point, we left at 1145. We decided that the safest way to get home without
problems would be to walk. We reversed our route to Lead Mine Pass, making a stop
at Sze Fong Shan to climb its highest rock. This climb is (YDS) class 4, very short,
but care is needed.
Descending back to Lead Mine Pass, then ascending slightly
to the place were the stone steps
ascends Grassy Hill, we then walked the same
way that I had explored when climbing Grassy Hill. This route worked well and we arrived
back home at MyFair by the Sea around 1450. Many thanks to Pål for a great hike.
My Garmin measured the hike to 23 kilometer.