Early to rise
Nothing strikes dread into my heart like the sound of Mat’s alarm. We woke up at 6am, got dressed, and had a small breakfast comprised of snacks we bought last night. Jane met us outside our room, and we made our way to Hua Shan. The entrance was only 10 minutes away or so and was made up of what I suspect is a Buddhist temple. Quite humble and authentic. We made our way to the ticket office but we were quite surprised at the ¥180 cost to get in. I guess because most of China has been dead cheap, this seems like a lot of money.
We marched on and began our ascent of Hua Shan. I thought this would be just like any other mountain I’d climbed. Boy was I wrong. The beginning was an inclined slope, nothing too much. Got the blood pumping. It was very overcast, and further in to the mountain, it got very misty. Not even half an hour in, and Jane had begun to complain she was tired, and was holding on to me. When she went to take a look at a monument or building, Mat gave me a good talking to. I agreed that I shouldn’t let her hold on to me, so I told her afterwards, and I could walk freely once more.
For more info on Hua Shan check it out here.
A true battle
Every 10 minutes or so, Jane stopped for a rest, or to go off the path and look at buildings. My patience was wearing a little thin. If my patience has worn thin, you can bet Mat’s patience went a while ago. We slowly trudged on expecting to see her again. But when we waited for several minutes and saw no one, we made the decision to carry on. Otherwise this climb would have extended longer than it should have. After an hour or so, the slope turned into steps. This is how it would be for the rest of the climb.
After another hour or so of nonstop steps, we came to a halt. We were faced with a 300 metre section of steps, like no other. This particular staircase was named the “1000 feet gorge”. Sounds pretty menacing. It looked menacing, and it sure as hell felt menacing too. The staircase was also enclosed on both sides with rock faces. There were chains on both sides that went all the way to the top. We had no option but to hold on to these for the entirety of the staircase. Most of the steps were half the depth of my foot. Many were less than that. Our climb up these steps required total concentration. Due to the mist, the steps were damp, which meant they were slippery.
High hopes
We eventually made it up and past the 1000 feet gorge, and continued on our ascent up Hua Shan. It was still misty, despite our now great altitude. The key to our progression was consistency. We weren’t powering up the steps, but we went at a constant pace, keeping momentum. After some time, we were faced with another extremely steep stretch of shallow steps. This was probably worse than the previous gorge. There were no walls here, just chains barely raised off of the floor.
Just before we prepared for these steps, we turned around for a breather. But what we saw, took our breath away. We were finally above the mist and the clouds. We saw mountain faces all around. They were truly a magnificent sight to behold. After soaking up our first views of the mountains, we knew we were nearing the top. With renewed hope, we soldiered on with rekindled spirits. It was an uphill battle to climb the staircase, very concentration heavy. However, a short time after reaching the top of the stairs, we reached the peak of Hua Shan.
The battle continues
Or so we thought. We had in fact only reached the North Peak of Hua Shan, the lowest peak of all. There was also (surprisingly) an East, South, and West peak too. We looked around at this peak for a bit as there were various viewpoints. After half an hour or so of resting and having some food, a familiar face appeared in my view. Jane had made it up, though she wasn’t best pleased. I couldn’t entirely blame her, but it would have taken us so long. She had in fact climbed with a couple of middle aged guys who looked pretty athletic.
After our greetings, we decided to soldier on to the other peaks. Again, it was pretty much all steps and stair cases. From the North Peak onwards, it was a lot busier than the climb to the North. This was probably due to the fact that at the North Peak, there was a cable car to the base. A large amount of people get the cable car up, go to the other peaks, then go back down to the base. We were not going to be thrown in with that lot! Mat and I were made of sterner stuff…plus we didn’t want to spend the money on it…but mostly sterner stuff!
A forked path
After an hour of climbing the god damned stairs, we came to a fork in the path. One path led to the South Peak, the other to the East Peak. We decided to go to the East Peak, whereas Jane and the dudes went to the South Peak. So again, we parted ways, but on more equal terms this time. Mat and I first went to the Middle Peak, from here you could see the South and West Peaks, as well as all the void in between. The view was truly breath taking.
We went back on ourselves and ventured towards the East Peak. On the way there was a very ominous wall which had foot holds in it and chains to hold on to, to scale the wall. This wasn’t a staircase this was wall climbing. It was made more difficult because the wall was convex, curving outwards. On top of that, there was a small stream of water dribbling down the wall! There were no safety measures, so I had to hold on for dear life. It felt pretty ominous, especially looking down, but persistence is key.
Conquerors
Only a short time after that wall climb, we arrived at the East Peak. The weather was exceptional today. We could see for miles all around. The views were truly magnificent. I’d say we more than earned these views, and they’re the best reward I could ask for. We stayed for a while, just soaking the glory up and having a bite to eat. After we had our fill of the views (as if we ever could), we decided to move out and back down.
It took a couple of hours to go back and reach the North Peak once again. We decided to bust out our pots of noodles. I honestly thought I bought the least spicy one, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Tears streamed down my face the entire time, plus we were running out of water. We did have an encounter with a very sweet 5-year-old girl who had exceptional English speaking. In addition to a small conversation which was flawless, she offered us some bread. It was a god send to have to help with the flaming noodles I had.
We decided against using the cable car to go back down. The less experienced adventurer (or less foolish perhaps) would have caved in and taken the cable car down. But the pair of us, being made of tougher stuff (or just being bonkers), decided to walk it back down.
Tip!
After having ascended and descended Hua Shan in a day, with no regrets, it is worth considering the cable car up or down, and then walk whichever one you don’t do. We wanted to do it all ourselves (and save money), but the injury Mat incurred is still bothering him to this day (and to a lesser extent I am too), and he’s a young, fit lad of 22. So don’t worry about people thinking less of you.
North Peak Cable Cat information:
(One-way) Ticket: 80RMB（Peak, Shoulder Seasons: March ~ November); 45RMB (Winter: January, February, December)
(Round-way) Ticket: 150RMB（Peak, Shoulder Seasons: March ~ November); 80RMB (Winter: January, February, December)
Length & Duration: about 1525m, 10 mins
The struggle was real
The way up was of course, very difficult as it took a lot of, if not all of, your strength. But at least if you fell forward, you’d fall on to a step. Going down, if you fell forward, would result in a long ass fall down a stair case. On both of the sections of steep steps with little to no step depth, we had to either go down one step at a time on our bums, or one step at a time holding on to the chains for dear life. About 3 hours after descending from the East Peak, we started having problems of our own.
First to go was Mat. His leg, most noticeably his knee, started off with some slight pain when descending steps. It then evolved into his knee locking up frequently, and being unable to bend it for a bit. Quite concerning stuff. About an hour later, and some small nagging pains of my own, my ankle was killing. Every step was a renewed wave of ache and pain, though I knew I was better off than Mat. The damn mountain path just never came to an end. I couldn’t believe how long the path up Hua Shan really was. We practically saw no one on the way down. I suppose everyone did the sensible option of going down by cable car.
We could have cried
After an extremely long journey consisting of 6 hours of climbing, followed by 6 hours of descending, we finally made it to the entrance/exit. No amount of breaks helped with our old man aches and pains. We quickly stopped off at a store to get some crisps and sweet treats. The pair of us then hobbled through the streets like a pair of zombies, fitting as it was pitch black by now. At long last, we arrived at our hostel and to our room, as fast our crooked legs would carry us.
We immediately slumped on to our own beds. The relief of not having to carry our own weight was overwhelming. I think we could have cried in that moment, from both relief, pain, and joy. Soon after, dinner was in front of us in the shape of a huge portion of Sweet ‘n’ Sour Chicken each. We hastily scoffed it down, whilst enjoying every chopstick full. A fitting end for one hell of a day, never to be forgotten. After we polished our dinner off, we wasted no time going to sleep, which didn’t take long at all for us to succumb to.
