Yushan

David and I, along with our two South African friends, and 16 Taiwanese hiking enthusiasts set out to conquer Northeast Asia's tallest peak, Yushan (Jade Mountain). The trip was not really what I expected when I got the call from Sarah a few months ago asking if I was keen to go to Jade mountain with her. I say that I like hiking, but this was nothing like the Pocket Wilderness Area in Southeast Tennessee. This was serious hiking.















After work on Wednesday night, a bus from Taipei already full of the hikers picked us up in Taichung. There were some introductions, and a whole lot of Chinese commentary from our guide, Mr. Lu.
















The first day, we hiked 8.5 kilometers to the Paiyun lodge. This was by far the longer of the 2 hikes, but its seeming intensity paled in comparison to the next day's ascent. We spent the night at the Paiyun lodge, sort of. Really, we huddled in sleeping bags on floormats in a room with about 40 other people at about 9PM waiting on our guide to wake us for ascent at about 3AM. We all (those of us speaking English) agreed that it was the most miserable night's sleep we had ever attempted.















Awoken at 3AM, we packed our bags, donned our headlamps, and headed off into the dark. This hike was more difficult because not only was there still a dense wet fog, but it was also dark. The effect of the headlamp was really just to put a distractingly visible beam of light in your line of site, sort of like driving in the fog with your high beams. This was only a 2.9 kilometer hike, but the last .5 km stretch was surreal and probably more dangerous than I anticipated. The reward was an inhospitable, freezing and windy peak. There were really no views, except for a few minutes when the fog lifted, but it was still well worth the effort.

We made the 11.4 km hike back to the base that same morning. Somewhere along the way back to Taichung, we stopped for dinner which included chicken testicles and sea cucumber (both of which are not as bad as one would think). We filled out a questionnaire which we couldn't read, and said goodbye to the people we'd gotten to know through smiles, and simple phrases in unfamiliar languages.