Mt. Qingcheng: The Ascent

The tale of my Sichuan travels is written as a continuous story and starts on the entry "In Chengdu" on Nov. 5th, 2008. For context and continuity, feel free to start back at that point and read on forward first if you have not already done so.

3:45pm
After we unnecessarily purchased bags and bags of tea, we debated our next move.

"We should probably head back to Chengdu - it's getting a bit late," Larry said.
"But what about Mt. QingCheng? We came all this way and it would be a shame to skip it when it's only about 10 km away," Baba countered.
"It's actually not that late," I intejected. "If we get there fast, spend an hour looking around, we’ll have plenty of time to get back down before dark."
"Alright," Larry agreed. With great conviction, he proclaimed, “Let’s do it! Let's go to Mt Qingcheng!"

5:15pm
After packing up our stuff, we had headed to the nearby bus station to take the bus to Mt. QingCheng, which was the last stop. The bus fare was 2 RMB each, but because it was the first stop, we had to wait around for a little bit before it would get moving. It ended up taking about an hour and a half to get there, including all of the waiting. We all got off, ready to head up the mountain through the main entrance, but Larry had a better idea.

"Let's not go up the route here - that's for tourists and visitors. I know of a back route that is free of charge."
"Oh? How will we get there?"
"Let's try to get a ride."


5:45pm
We had found a private car that was willing to take us to the back for 50 RMB. Howver, the driver Mr. Yang first went up a road that was stuck – there were parked cars on one of the sides, but traffic from both directions was attempting to pass through on what essentially was a one lane road. A traffic offical had to come by and direct traffic. By the time we finally got to the spot and disembarked with our large packs, it was half an hour later.

We past a house near the foot of the mountain, but the dogs there had spotted us long before and barked fiercely at us. Their owner came out to restrain them.
"Let me go confirm directions with the man," Larry said.
"I thought you knew where you were going!"
"I do, but it's been awhile since I was last here."
We approached the local to ascertain our route. "Good sir! We are trying to get to the top of the mountain. I know there is a path to the top from here. Can you give me directions?"
"Go on up the trail, continue past the big house." The man instructed. "There will be a section where there is a ladder that you will need to climb, and then you will be up at the top. From there, we can spot a path which will go down the mountain."

So we finally started out climb up. It took just several minutes before we reached the house. Baba and I waited there for a bit, until Larry made it up there (around 6pm) as well. We continued upwards. The steps, which were made of irregularly placed rocks, were getting rather steep – some of them were up to my knee. The climb was difficult, especially with my 20+ kg bag.


6:09pm
Baba and I looked back, and there was no sign of Larry. We had gone up too fast. I dropped my pack down and went back down to find him. He was a few stretches down below, laboring upwards, but still in good spirits. "Why don't you guys go on ahead, but wait for me at the ladder," he suggested. So I ran back up and continued forward with Baba, who was in excellent shape from all the hiking he did in Taiwan.


6:20pm
The steps were getting quite large. At some points, I almost had to jump to get up the steps – a misstep would mean a long tumble down. We decided to rest for a bit and wait for Larry, who managed his way up a few minutes behind us.
"You look beat. Let's trade bags," Baba suggested.
"No, I can lug my own pack," Larry pushed back.
"Come on, I've done a lot more hiking recently than you. Give me your loaded bag of rocks." Larry was fatigued, and so they traded bags. Larry's "bag of rocks" was about 30kg, while Baba had a light sling bag that was no more than 5kg.


6:25pm
It was almost dark by the time I got to a slight plateau in the climb, and I waited for Baba. Ahead was the ladder that leads to the top. It was standing vertically, and since it was almost dark, I was not sure whether the ladder was secured to climb upward, especially since I was carrying such a heavy bag. Baba offered to go up first, and he found the ladder to be sturdy. It must have been somehow anchored to the mud wall. I went up as well, and then we waited a few minutes for Larry to arrive and get up as well.


6:30pm
We had walked a few more minutes of uphill, before finally making it to the summit. We got a good view from the top of Mt. QingCheng:



"Looks like we made it just in time," I noted.
"Yeah, the sky just went completely black," Larry said.
"We actually made pretty good time too - 45 minutes," Baba observed.
"Yeah, not bad eh?" I agreed.
"Though if we hadn't stopped and waited around here and there, it would have been about half an hour."
"Hey you guys weren't carrying my pack most of the way up," Larry countered.
"Serves you right for packing a bag of rocks!"
"Alright, anyhow... let's try to figure out how to get down."
"We can't go the way we came - it's way too steep, especially in the dark with these heavy packs."
"Besides, there's no one there will be around to give us a ride."
"So let's just do what the old man suggested and take the tourist route down to the main entrance."

So we followed the directions according to the villager we talked to before climbing up, and started the path down. Larry had a headlight on his helmet, which he took off, while Baba had a small, solar-powered light that shined faintly. I didn’t have any lights except for my phone, which is way too dim to illuminate anything. And so we started down, with Baba in front, holding his small, dim flashlight. I followed behind, trying the group together, while Larry held the end with his headlight. It was difficult to keep up, as Baba walked a little fast, and sometimes he would not shine the light all the way back so I could see where I was going. Larry kept calling for him to slow down.

6:39pm
We had only been hiking downwards a few minutes when we spotted lights in the distance.
“It’s not all that far, I see lights! We'll be there in about 5 minutes!” Larry exclaimed.
“More like 15 minutes, probably,” I guessed. They were definitely not 5 minutes away.

We were in high spirits as we walked down, humming and singing mountain songs, even though we were, I suppose, essentially trespassing on the UNESCO World Heritage site, wandering half-blind on a mountain dirt trail in the black night. We start heading down the trail faster, as Baba was spearheading our descent with confidence. However, Larry was less than comfortable. He cautioned Baba again, “Don't go to fast, you'll --"

Larry's words were interrupted by the sudden sound of breaking tree branches and sliding stones. He shined his flashlight ahead, catching a glimpse of Baba and then no more. Baba had fallen off the side of the mountain.