Jade Mountain - Yu Shan (玉山)
Hey there, fellow travelers, hikers, and Hivers! Where was your most recent adventure? While mine isn't too recent, it happened in May 2023 when I joined my friends on an impromptu hike to the highest mountain in Taiwan. In this blog, I will share with you my awesome experience climbing Yu Shan.
Weekend dragon boat training turned to hiking
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My original plan was to participate in our weekend dragon boat training in Tainan. For your information, Tainan is in the south, while I live in the north, in Taipei. A day before the training, I had already packed my things for a two-day stay at my friend's place in Tainan. However, the night before I was set to leave Taipei, my friend, Adolfo, informed me that I couldn't stay at his place because he would be climbing Yu Shan. |
With that decision made, I had to switch the contents of my bag from boating gear to hiking gear! It only took me 30 minutes, though. And a minute to make a decision and say Yes!
Highest Peak of TaiwanYu Shan is located somewhere at the center of Taiwan in Nantou County. It is the highest mountain in Taiwan at 3,952m above sea level, making it the 4th highest maximum elevation of any island in the world. The trail going to the peak is approximately 12km one-way,. |
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On the way to trailhead
So here I am, having just sent a message to our dragon boat captain, "Hey Ben! Sorry, I can't be there today, something came up." I then smiled by the trailhead marker and took a selfie, all without knowing what lies ahead of me on that day.
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The trailhead is a kilometer away from the main road, so we had to walk an extra km to get the day started. Here is the view somewhere near the trailhead. What you see is the Yu Shan Mountain range, and at this point, the view starts to be promising and challenging.
Midtrail
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In terms of hiking, I am not as strong as my friends because I am more into cycling than hiking. During the mid-trail, I am often behind my group, following Adolfo. I have to admit that I am relatively less fit for hiking compared to my friends, especially the Western guys. It looks like nothing to them, haha!
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Aside from resting, it is another excuse for me to take photos of the amazing scenery along the trail. It's something I don't see every day. That makes me think, that if you are somebody who has only heard of Taiwan from the news, you might not be aware that Taiwan possesses such hidden gems. Well, that includes me before I started living in this beautiful country. But now, I can tell you how much Taiwan has to offer. So much.
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Midtrail Video Clips
Now I wanna share with you the video clips I captured with my insta360 camera attached to my bag. Play the YT shorts and you'll see what it looks like to hike along the trail going to the Yu Shan Main Peak. I would also appreciate it if you like my videos and subscribe to my channel 😁
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The trail is mostly cliffside, featuring gravel paths and 1-meter-spanning footbridges. It was cloudy during our hike, making the surroundings appear gloomy. Despite that, I still did not get bored with the scenery along the way. However, I had to be extra careful while walking and sightseeing because it is very dangerous. One stupid mistake, and I could fall off the cliff beside me.
You will also notice that I am walking alone in these videos. It is a fact that I am very slow compared to my group. However, I am still trying to keep my pace by walking faster when the gradient is not too steep so that I can maintain a small distance from them and catch up with them immediately.
Along the way, I came across a few groups of local hikers. If you play the video below on the left-hand side, you'll see that I encountered two local policemen descending the mountain. The first man spoke to me in Chinese, and I was initially confused and did not understand him immediately. My Chinese is not that good, so I tried to understand the context and quickly guessed a response to him. After watching this video, I realized that he was asking me, "Is it a 360-degree camera?" (三百六十度) and my response was correct!
It would have been better if I could speak fluently in Chinese. During this hike, the locals that I came across were very friendly. They will always cheer you up saying "加油! (Jia You)". P.S. I think the policeman's accent is very Taiwanese and I know that they are policemen because of their hats.
500 Meters before the Summit
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And now, the real deadly challenge begins! We are now at the last leg of the climb, facing approximately 500 meters of a very steep rocky trail. During the winter season, this part of the mountain has snow, making it resemble a mountain range in the Alps. I came here during the summer, so I did not witness a single snow, but it is still as cold as 3°C.
Along this last leg, you can only hold onto the chains attached to the rock wall, and sometimes there's nothing to hold onto at all. As you can see in the picture above, I am either holding onto the chains combined with the hiking pole I borrowed from Adolfo or just the hiking pole alone. But still managing to hold my camera to take pictures. How cool is that? just kidding, don't do it unless you have a good balance.
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That's Adolfo, taking a few seconds of a break after making a few steps. The same as me. If you're wondering why, at this altitude of 3500 meters above sea level, you will start to feel nauseous, with your heart pounding with every step you take. So you have to make sure that you are breathing and pacing yourself properly, without exhausting yourself. |
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And here is the video of me making my way along the steepest part of the trail. I still cannot believe that I passed through this path. I even stopped and glanced at the view on my left. I used to be acrophobic, and I am very afraid to fall when seeing a view like this. Now, I guess I just conquered my fears and at that moment, I only feel the adrenaline and appreciate the amazing view in front of me.
The Peak of Taiwan
Finally! Look at us, smiling on top of the highest peak of Taiwan. What an achievement! But of course, we still have to go down.
Arriving at the summit, it was very cloudy, and only a few portions of the mountain below us could be seen. It was already past 12 PM when we arrived, and we were actually running late to finish the hike. But all of us were already exhausted from the ascent that took us almost 7 hours, so we gave ourselves around 30 minutes to have a break, eat, take pictures, and enjoy being on the top of Taiwan.
Here is a 三百六十度 (360°) view that you can get while standing at the peak of Taiwan.
And here I am, taking the challenge of chugging a bottle of Taiwan Beer while standing at the summit of Yu Shan. 😎 To be honest, the beer made my muscles relax and helped my body generate more heat to fight the freezing cold. Plus we are running out of water, so beer is a good alternative 🤡
Quick Descend
I want to show you what it looks like and how I felt during the descent. In the video above, you can see that it is very cloudy around me, and you can hear the sound of the heavily blowing air. At this rate, we know that the rain in front of us is coming, so we have to rush and escape this mountain as early as possible. Not only because we want to finish it in a day, but also because we did not register for the mountain lodging, nor did we bring any camping materials. We only have lights in case we get caught by the dark. That leaves us no choice but to finish it on time, safe and sound.
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We were almost running during the descent, covering 200m every 5 minutes. In the middle of the trail, I started to feel mountain sickness. I started to feel a severe headache and I vomited twice. It could also be because of the beer 😅
We are surrounded by the fog, it is very cold, and we are sweating so hard. At some part of the trail, I can only see 1 meter in front of me. I also feel like I am hallucinating that when I look at the trees, they are moving so weirdly and their size is getting small and suddenly bigger. What an experience!
Taiwan's Highest Peak Unlocked
After all, we made it through at 5 PM before the dark. Here I am and Adolfo in the photo above, took a picture in front of the trail head mark right after arriving back. We look so tired!
On that day, we covered 24km of hike, go and back in 10 hours. I couldn't believe that we made it. It is such an achievement for me. I remember a Taiwanese friend of mine telling me "There are 3 main challenges in Taiwan: Climb Jade Mountain, Cycling around Taiwan, and Swimming across the Sun Moon Lake". And I just unlocked this first one.
Thanks for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed reading through it!
By the way, I recently went on another adventure in Vietnam and I am currently writing a new blog series about it. If you are interested in my adventures, check the highlights of my travel in Vietnam on the link below. Thank you!
-krios
Other blogs
My gears:
- Canon D200 II
- Insta360 One x2
- DJI Mini 4 Pro
- Xiaomi 11 Lite
All photos are mine unless otherwise stated and/or referenced