Location North 30.10080, East 118.86189 (GPS on the summit)
China
Difficulty: YDS class 1
Climbed November 22. 2019.
Information:
How to get there:
The city of Huangshan is a good point of reference. The city has
an airport connecting to many main hubs, there is also a modern,
high speed railway station located about 12 km north (slightly west) of the city
center. One may travel by bus from the central bus station in Huangshan to somewhere
near the beginning of the valley that meets the highway near location N30.133, E119.031.
There is a station for mini-buses here, they do serve the valley with reasonable
frequency. An alternative, (see comments) is to rent a car (with driver) starting
out from Huangshan.
Route description:
From near location N30.133, E119.031, travel up the valley on a good paved road passing
through several small villages. Towards the end, this road climbs, turn left (across the
river) at location N30.15226, E118.87.005. Drive slightly more than one kilometer to locate the trailhead on
your right hand side, you will see a building next to the road a short distance ahead.
This location is at N30.14562, E118.86290, elevation about 665 meter.
This is the trailhead for what I will call the west route to be described here.
There is a second trailhead (east route) that may also be considered, the trails are roughly of the same length, this
trailhead is located on the left hand side of the road before you get this far, the location is
N30.14858, E118.86430. One may consider a loop hike, going up one way and down the other route.
Start following a concrete path that heads into the small valley, do not stray left or right.
The concrete path soon ends and a normal path continues to the end of the small valley, then¨climbs
the steeper slope straight ahead to gain a ridge at about 830 meter of elevation.
Here, the trail turns left and climbs to near 900 meter before making a traverse right in order to
bypass some rather impressive cliffs named Bijiashan. Another trail comes up from your right as you
again ascend on a concrete path. When the concrete ends, turn left and follow the trail to a local
col (behind the cliffs) elevation about 1010 meter.
Turn right and climb another slope (on the broad ridge) to reach a new col, location
N30.13620, E118.85858, elevation 1160 meter. The initial climb from the valley floor has now
been concluded.
The trail now descends slightly as it traverses on the east side of the next hump on the
ridge, regains a col and climbs higher, first reaching 1500 meter,
then onwards to a local
hill-top with elevation near 1620 meter. This is the highest point on the route before the
final climb to the summit.
From here, the trail crosses several smaller humps and local cols before
reaching the base of the mountain at N30.10826, E118.85589, the elevation here is near 1530 meter.
The final ascent is
straightforward, you will arrive at a small grassy area, then a few more steps
to reach the summit. The
summit has a large concrete marker
as well as a smaller, but
possibly slightly higher Chinese marker.
From the summit, one will see that your trail
went by a rocky summit, almost of
equal height, just before entering the grass. One may access this from the side facing
the proper summit (YDS class 2+), traversing this short rocky ridge is YDS class 3.
The highest point, on top of a rock is likely about 2 meter lower than the summit.
Comments:
On November 21st., I had climbed Huangshan, the highest point called Lienhua Feng, which
means Lotus Peak. I had returned to the base of the mountain, a small town called Tangkou.
The big question was how to proceed. I knew there would be buses up to the valley, but I had
no idea about how easy it would be to get 15 kilometer up to the trailhead. I did not even know
where to look for the first bus, how much time this might take was highly unclear. A new plan
quickly formed. Check-in at a major hotel in Huangshan City, have the front desk find car with driver
for all of Friday, also have them book my train tickets back to Hong Kong.
I spotted an almost full bus nearby and asked where it was going. North station of Huangshan. Good, could
I jump on? For 20 yuan, quickly settled. At the station, I walked to the bus station from where I had
been directed to a bus earlier. It turned out to be the wrong station for buses to the city. I finally got
a hint that bus no. 21 would work. Walking across to the other side, I spotted a 21 bus. Jumping on
I followed its route on my GPS, it looked promising. I had one other urgent concern, I needed some
more cash as I was down to 200 yuan. This is actually a main issue when travelling in China these days.
The Chinese do all payments by mobile phone, becaiuse of this they have removed almost all ATMs since they
are of no use any more. However, people from abroad cannot easily use this payment system and do need
access to cash. There is a similar issue with public access to WIFI, in many train stations and on the high
speed trains there is free WIFI service, but you do need a Chinese mobile phone to be able to use it.
I noticed a Bank of China sign and decided to get off. This solved my first problem, they did have an ATM and
quickly I had 2000 yuans instead of 200. Next, I had made a note of a hotel with good reviews called
Huangshan Looking Inside Boutique Hotel. But how to find it?. I walked into the reception of a not so
attractive hotel and asked about their WIFI. While the lady tried showing me pictures of her rooms, I nailed
the location of my destination. Along the river, 1.3 kilometer, then across what looked like a pedestrian
bridge. Not too bad, I thanked her, but said no, then started walking.
My plan seemed to work. As I arrived, I was greeted by a friendly woman. I told her I would stay 2 nights provided
that she organized me a car with driver for a full day trip tomorrow, plus the booking of my train tickets to
Hong Kong on Saturday. She happily proceeded with this. I got a very fancy room for the first night as this
was all she had, then a nice, but smaller room (half price) for the second night. She adviced me about a
Chinese restaurant nearby that served local Anhui cuisine, good choice.
The next morning, I left in a brand new (4 weeks old) car with a nice English speaking driver. The Chinese
infrastructure is very impressive. A super 4 lane road with little traffic all the way to my valley fork.
We arrived at what looked like the trail, a concrete path climbing the hill. I told him to expect me in
5 to 7 hours from now (1500-1700). I had read a single report of a party doing this hike
in 10 hours, but based on distance and elevation gain it should be doable in much less.
I started walking at 1000 and looking at my GPS on top of the first ridge,
realized that I was off-route. A bit
more care, and I would have seen that this concrete path was NOT my trail. Fortunately, the mistake was
fairly easy to correct, as I followed smaller trails, then
perhaps 50 meter of bush-wack, brought me onto
the correct trail.
I kept a good pace and arrived at the summit in 2:45, having lost perhaps 10 minutes in the beginning.
The weather was nice and the view in all directions, pretty good.
About 10 minutes before making the summit
I had met 3 Chinese men coming downhill. This was surprising, my guess had been that I would see nobody.
They were perhaps even more surprised seeing me, we nodded friendly in passing.
The time was 1245, I rested until 1300, then decided to traverse
the competing summit on my way back.
My GPS showed it to be 2 meter lower, a result that seemed pretty likely. Downclimbing the far
end of these rocks had a short section of (YDS) class 3 climbing. I left this summit at 1310, heading
back the same way as I had come up. After about one hour on my return hike, I caught up with the 3 Chinese,
they moved considerably slower down the slightly steepish trail covered with layers of leaves.
I was back on the road a bit before 1510, a short hike going left and there was my car with the driver
exactly as I had left him. First, returning back down the
valley road passing several small villages.
Next, a nice afternoon drive west, with the low sun hitting us
in the face, we parked near my hotel at 1700, exactly as the sun set.
I was quite happy with this peak and how I had organized climbing it. Everything had worked
as planned and this was my Ultra prominent peak number 4 in 4 days. A nice dinner with a cold
beer, then my high speed train back to Hong Kong (more than 1000 kilometer) tomorrow.
