Mt Qilai Main & North Peak (奇莱主北峰）

A view of Qilai North Peak with Main Peak to the right.

Mt Qilai, located in the Central Mountain Range has a few peaks to its name. Qilai Main Peak (奇莱主峰) at 3560m, Qilai North Peak (奇莱北峰, 3607m), and Qilai South Peak (奇萊南峰 3358m). The South Peak is separated from the Main Peak by the Taluoro Cliff (卡樓羅山斷崖) and normally bundles with Mt Nanhua (南华山) as climbing package. There are many stories about Qilai from its infamous Black Qilai (黑色奇莱), many attributed to the disasters that have happened to hikers back in the early 70s and subsequent in the early 80s. At the summits of the North Peak and Main Peak, there are remembrance markers (纪念碑) to remember those that have fallen off the cliffs near the summit and there were dated some time back in 80s and 90s. I did not do the year conversion so did not really remember which year was that. Stories can be found from the internet on those missing that could not be found and how their photos were pasted on the walls of the mountain cabins sending chills to hikers resting in those cabins. Those cabins were built also to remember those who lost their lives while climbing this infamous mountain.

But the real reason why it is call black is because of the rock type. From the cliff side of Qilai you can see the black rock wall even under bright sunlight. When you are at the summit of the North Peak, on one side is the black rock cliff as mentioned while the other side is the lush greenery of the majestic ridgeline that links the North Peak to the Main Peak.

On the brighter side, it was this disaster that triggered the Taiwan government to come up with a mountain rescue system back in the 70s which subsequently matured into the current rescue system.  The climbing route to Qilai can be deceiving at times, nice downhill path to begin with, but the way to the ridgeline is steep and unstable, and to add on the last part of the ascend to the summit involves much hand and legs coordination working with the ropes and chain to get yourself safely to the top. Out of all my current climbs in Taiwan, this is the most dangerous path of all and definitely bad weather at the top would not be a wise decision to continue the ascent to the summit. But with proper clothing gear and a reliable guide, and watch every step you take without rushing through, it will be a rewarding climb to the top. You need to have some determination and definitely not fear of heights to do this climb. At times you will have opportunities to admire the majestic mountain views, with your hands holding tightly to the rope, back leaning close to the rock wall and legs muscles all tense up while balancing on the foothold you have. For me, it was the best weather (and hot too) to climb as the wind was light and the sun was way up high.  Below is a write of my climb to the Qilai North & Main Peak.

Outside the Taipei Railway Station building on a hot summer afternoon.

The climb was a 3 day 2 night (31-May ~ 2-Jun 2013) package but meeting up a day earlier and so I took a Thursday morning flight out of Singapore and landed in TaoYuan Airport around 12 noon under a warm outside temperature of 31'C. It has been 4 years since my last visit to Taiwan for my 2nd Yushan hike back in 2008. The entire Terminal Airport has changed with new retro fitting to the interior décor and the arrival hall is now a level above the ground with the city buses a floor below. I bought a 10 day unlimited internet plan for my smart phone for NT500 from Chunghwa Telecoms being in this smart phone socially connected to the internet. A single way bus trip from the airport to Taipei now cost NT125. Was there an increase due to inflation or decrease due to competition that I do not know. The journey to Taipei city gave a sense of déjàvu, everything seemed so familiar yet new. The familiar sight of the grayish dull exterior wall of the Main Railway Station building was always something that I can remember. 

Certain shops at the Underground shopping mall always seem to remain the same. Of course there are new restaurants that serve better quality food this time round than the previous tenants. I did a bit of shopping and bought my supply of mineral water and food for the next 3 days of hike into the mountains. I met up with the climbing company guide at 7pm and with just 3 more members from the railway station meet up point, we boarded a 15 seater mini bus on our way to the hot spring town of Lushan within the Nantou county where spent the first night. The bus went on its way to Xinzhu (新竹)to pick up another 4 members and also down south near Taichung to pick up a few more. With a final group strength of 11 we reached the hot spring lodge at Lushan with a cool temperature of 18degree Celsius. 

Our mini bus making a petrol stop, while some climbers went on to stock up on beer.

The elevation of Lushan is about 1200m which has a cooling temperature compared to the hot weather back at Taipei. It was close to 11pm when we reached the lodge and it was a goodnight to everyone and off to their allocated rooms for the night. For me, I still had to catch my night’s bath since my last one was back in Singapore about 24 hrs ago, and after which I still had to do some unpacking to prepare for the next day climb. My eyes could finally close around 2am for bed.

My food supplies for the climb (mainly lunch)

Hotspring house near Lushan. Basic but sufficient.

  

The next morning breakfast was 8:30am and I got myself prepared at 8am thinking it was still early to walk around the hot spring house. But reaching the dining area I already saw the rest of the group having their breakfast. Either everyone else was too eager to start the climb or they could not get proper sleep. Breakfast was expected to be of local taste, porridge and the condiments like salted peanuts and stir fried cabbage. I was more or less accustom to the food of Taiwan after so many rounds of mountain climbing and just had my stomach fill with the food knowing that it will be “hiking food” for the next 2 days.

At the viewing platform near HeHuanShan cabin (合欢山莊）

At 8:30am, the mini bus started its journey up the winding road via the touristy CingJing (清境)and all the way up to the highest road in entire Taiwan of 3200m near the HeHuanShan cabin (合欢山莊). It was a great day for climbing as the sun was high up and clouds are missing. Well, lot of UV was also part of the package of great weather. We went for a quick toilet break near the view platform and back onto the bus for a short drive of few hundred meters to SongXueLou (淞雪楼)home stay/hotel which is the trailhead for the Mt Qilai hike.

Stone tablet at the Qilai trailhead

 

Distance markers to keep climbers on the rigth path.

The trailhead was slightly different from the rest. There is a big long engrave granite slab with the word Qilai Trailhead (奇莱山登山口) just like those kungfu movie show where the disciples need to go to some mysterious mountain to seek the learning of some ultimate martial art power. Yushan also have a stone slab similar but not like this huge piece of more than 2 meter high. One very special interest on this climb is that there are distance markers at every 100m to guide climbers and on these markets you will find a yellow tag showing Chunghwa Telecom reception availability. This was the reason why I bought my mobile phone plan from ChungHwa at the airport so that I could check-in on my facebook along the trail and text WHATAPPS back home to my wife while clinging on to the ropes while scaling to the summit of Qilai North Peak. Somehow I felt the connectivity back home and to the social media world even up in the mountains with the elements battling on me. Some may say you need to disconnect to enjoy the nature around me. I did, but just that during those breaks of enjoyment I would text my wife back home and check some updates from friends. I have learnt a new Taiwanese verb called 打卡, which in the first can’t figure out why the use of this, then I got it all worked out. 打卡 is like punch card when you work in a company that needs to clock in time back in those old days on a box with a clock. Clock in is like check-in and so it relates to the facebook feature of check-in. Okay, enough on culture language class 101.

Getting prepared for the climb. No one seems to be stretching.

 

Group photo before the climb. Everyone is in except the bus driver.

It was 9:30am at the trailhead and all of us were all strapping up our bags and ready for the hike. But most of us were busying taking picture until the guide candidly told us to gather for a group photo before setting off. The initial part of the trail is a gentle downhill and gave lots of opportunities to take pictures of the Qilai mountain range. The Qilai North Peak is always there in sight along this downhill path. Vegetation is mainly those short prickly grass plants which I have no idea the name for it. Being at altitude above 3000m, such vegetation is common. The trail led to a forested area and suddenly we were shaded from the hot sun and this began the first uphill climb for the day. The steps started to bring back memories of the same trail that I climbed for Mt Kinabalu in Sabah, but here the steps are much more rugged as can be seen the effects of nature on them. The uphill climb continued until we broke through the forested area to a high point which many day trip hikers would make their stop point. This is the part where you get to see the black Mt Qilai North Peak rock face. And to the right side of the ridgeline is the Main Peak. Every one of us was there snapping pictures and posing for shots. It was really a great place to take a breather from the warm up climb.

On the easy trail downhill with Qilai North Peak as the backdrop.

 

Putting one foot forward at a time to the summit.

From here, it was a downhill all the way to the next checkpoint called the Black Pond Cabin (黑水塘山屋), which is like the valley point between the 2 sides of the mountain. The cabin is more like a wooden shack to me, the interior is just elevated wooden boards to sleep maybe 6 people comfortably. But being a location without clean water supply, many climbers would not choose to stay here since the trailhead is just 2hrs away and to the next cabin ChengGongBao Lodge(成功保山莊) of just 1hr which has a clean supply of stream water. The distance between the trailhead and the ChengGongBao Lodge is just 5.1km, but it is the sheer steep gradient that tired climbers out if come unprepared. Read some posts on the internet about accidents happened due to sudden change in weather in the mountain area and climbers underestimated the risks that weather bring and got themselves into trouble. The famous incident was the one back in the 70s when a group of university students perished along the trail leading back to SongXueLou as each of them died of exhaustion and cold due to an unexpected blizzard while trying to get back.

At the Black Pond Hut (黑水堂山屋）

 

Taking a break at the Black Pond Hut.

 

Getting closer to the Qilai North Peak

 

From this Black Pond cabin (that I translated), it was an uphill all the way to the ChengGongBao Lodge (about 2600m) which is located midway along the path that leads up to the ridgeline of the Qilai mountain peaks. It was mere just 1km but there were lot of steps to climb and many times, the use of hands were much preferred than hiking poles. It was about 12:30pm that we reached the lodge and being almost the first group to arrive, we settled down in the lodge laying our sleeping bags out and got ourselves comfy. There is an ever flowing stream just by the lodge which is the main source of clean water supply. For those who want to carry less up to the lodge, I would suggest just carry 1 litre of water and refill it at this clean stream. Either you can boil or like me, just put in a water purification tablet just to be extra safe. The locals are not really aware of such tablet and seemed that it was not a retail item in Taiwan. I shared with some climbing members and they seemed skeptical. But on the return to trailhead, I shared this with the guide and she was super keen to buy those tablets from me for her future climbs which may goes into area where they are no clean water supply and have to gather them from the stagnant ponds that can be found in the mountain area.

Uphill climb into the forested area before our day's end accommodation.

 

Small but clean on the inside and able to fit 30 climbers.

Spacious sleeping area for the night ( before the other groups came in)

 

Permanent supply of fresh clean stream water just beside the lodge.

It was a rest and wait mode that all of us were in, waiting for the dinner to be cooked and served. Outside of the lodge, there is not much of a view of the nearby mountains, all just trees and rocks by the stream. The gap between the 2 sides of the vegetation is not very wide, just the lodge and the stream to the right side, like a narrow valley that was created by the water that cut through its path. The toilet is about 100m away and guesses that was deliberately done to keep the lodge odor free. For the men, there is an open air “toilet” constructed using some canvas to block the view and wooden fence like a N-shape that you can walk in to do your business. This is many times better that the traditional closed door toilet which you get to experience what others left for you. Of course there is still 2 cubicle toilet nearby for the men and ladies to use. Unisex, just pick one that you prefer. Inside the lodge, surprising it was clean and the sleeping area was covered with a laminated rubberized cushion. Great for me who did not have a sleep mat for the climb, just my sleeping bag. 

Laze around mode, shaking leg and waiting for dinner.

Preparing dinner, ready to start cooking

 

A mix of porridge with taiwan saussages, brocoli and salted peanuts

 

Dinner was served around 5pm where there was still daylight and a quick meal and off to the sleeping bags in preparation for the next morning 3am ascent to the summits of North Peak and subsequent continue on to Main Peak. For me sleeping has never been easy in these high altitude mountain lodge, and it was just resting and not really sleeping. Being a light sleeper, snoring from the others always keeps me awake and unfortunately I had a Gatling gun snorer besides me. The orchestra got even better into the night and only occasionally interrupted by someone’s hand phone of incoming message. The signal at the lodge is not that good and only an area outside of the lodge can you make a phone call and sometimes get to do some texting using the limited broadband. Doing some network bandwidth like WHATSAPP is fine, load up a facebook and it hangs there.

 

Finally, 2am and couldn’t wait to get up and start preparing for the climb. Did a bit of stretching and off and ready for the climb. The porter cum cook had already started cooking some hot porridges and dishes. Yes it was porridge again as it has the water content, plus the carbo needed for the climb. There were also some buns stuffed with corn as well. About 3am, all of us were outside the lodge with our headlights on. Taking the advice from the guide, this ascent I brought along just one hiking pole and prepared to be using my hands to climb my way up. Following the stream, we made our way up the steep mountain with destination in mind the ridgeline which would leave most of the climbing behind ( which I thought at that point). Ridgeline is something I enjoy hiking on, the unobstructed view, the wind, and the sun if the weather was great. As we started the climb, the use of hands to grab on to rope came in. Many times, I would use the tree’s roots to compliment the ropes and chains. About an hour after leaving the ChengGongBao lodge, we came across the path to the ChengGongBao Number 1 cabin (成工堡一号). This is the cabin that was rumored to have paranormal activities that had happened in the past. I asked the guide if that cabin was still in use and she said yes, but many would try not to stay in this cabin and rather camp out if the weather is good. Reading too much from the web before the climb also did elevate the spookiness of the surrounding. But with a big group of 11 and others climbing group, you will not feel uncomfortable while climbing through the forest grounds. 

A quick rest just as we cleared the treeline and entered into the exposed rock path.

Just 1.5km to the summit, but last few hundreds are steep climbs.

 

Around 4:30am, we cleared the forest and more onto the rocky surface of the mountain. With an unobstructed view, we could see the SongXueLou and even hikers just making their way near the trailhead with their headlights creating a line of lights moving down the hill. From here, the grounds were mainly loose rocks and stone plates. Ropes were seen more along this path that leads all the way straight to the ridgeline. We could see the sky brightening up and chances that we would miss the sunrise, not even at the summit but just on the ridgeline. It seemed that we are near but everyone time we clear a stretch of the rock wall, there was more behind. Rather than to beat time to race to the top, many of us stop to start taking pictures of the golden yellow mountains that was painted by the morning sun. Even a huge shadow from the mountain we were scaling was cast onto the opposite HeHuanShan range. It was quite an attractive option to just stay there and admire the view, but objective was still the summit and the earlier we reached, the more time we could take for the Main Peak.

Waiting for my turn on the ropes to get pass this path.

Why so many ropes instead of one?

 

Morning sun casting its first light on the trailhead near SongXueLuo （菘雪搂）

Admiring the view with our backs to the rock wall.

View of the central mountain range in the morning dawn.

Finally at around 5:30am, we reached the ridgeline and it was a beautiful and relax place to be after clearing the steep climb up to the ridgeline. I thought the climb to the ridgeline was kind of already challenging and not for the weak heart, but when comes the North peak summit then I know the best is always at the end. While waiting for the rest of the members to reach the flat and welcoming ridgeline, those of us who arrived started snacking away and to quench our thirst. It was cold here with the mild wind blowing. I took out my snicker bar forgetting how cold it was and bit into it only to get a painful response from my tooth. Way too hard to enjoy so ended up scraping against it. The morning golden sunrays always fascinate me, reminded me the time when I was climbing JiaMing Lake many year back, same feel on the ridgeline.

At the ridgeline in light gear ( A stick, a small backpack and camera pouch)

What? We only cover 1.1km from our lodge and it took us 2hours. Another 1.2km to the summit.

That is NOT the North Peak, need to walk another 1km to see it.

Making our way to the foothill of the North Peak. Follow the light

Finally the North Peak in sight. Now the Mt Qilai is really black.

Some of the friends made during this climbing trip

Approaching the foothil for the real climb to the summit

A narrow ridgeline just halfway to the peak. Lotsa effort to get to the top

Taking the left path on the ridgeline would lead to the North Peak. It was an easy walk almost on flat ground as we cruised to the foothill of the sharply pointed black face Qilai North Peak. The trail led to the way up the impossible looking North peak rock and as we got closely, there started the long route of climbing on all fours to get to the top. It was quite scary at certain turns where you were like climbing to make a 90degree turn at rock wall. 

Looking down at my fellow climbers making their way up. I am on a path.

Some of my fellow climbers at the front.

One hand on the rope while the other taking a shot of the steep rocks to climb.

More ropes, you are spoilt for choices.

Apine flowers growing from the cracks in the rocks.

 

Looking down you could see way down and if let the imagination run wild, a fall from there would leave you definitely in a very bad shape or instant goner to meet your ancestors. But then again, every difficult path along the route would already have been “engineered” by the national park folks to make maneuvering around that obstacle safe. As I was climbing up, I could not imagine climbing that on a very bad weather and worst in a high wind winter season where the rocks may have been covered by snow. But with the right gear and training, nothing is impossible. But after seeing the paths and how we had to move around it, I understood why Qilai is labeled as the mountain with the highest rate of accidents. It is due to the rocky terrain plus the additional dangers bring forth by the unpredictable weather up in these mountainous region. At height of about close to 3500m, getting stuck in a blizzard halfway up the rock wall is not a pleasant experience.

The path that we came from. Use the ropes just in case.

Wouldn't want to miss a foothold here. Not a long way but enough to break alot of bones.

 

A big boulder in the middle of the path. Must have fallen due to typhoon.

Seemed like never ending and forver on the rock wall.

Quick check on altitude after securing a good handhold.

An outcrop of rocks pointing to the Qilai Main Peak

 

More and more ropes and steep rocks to climb.

At about 7am, I reached the summit together with a few of the climbers while the rest were still making their way up the steep rock wall. The North Peak being of a more little outcrop at the summit gave a sense of it majestic nature. And as to most of the major summits, a signage of the summit name and it elevation is on display and again the yellow tag of the ChungHwa Telecoms. 

At the summit ( climbers coming up)

Time for a summit shot ( backdrop is the Qilai Main Peak)

 

Me and the summit marker at 3605m

Looking around the summit.

At the lower left was a memorial marker for a climber who lost his/her life.

Up here the mobile phone signal is great. Broadband is good enough to get a possible check-in on facebook. The summit also has another path down along the ridgeline leading to some other mountain range that the guide told us could take 7 days to complete. Ridgelines up in Taiwan I guess are all well connected and once you reached the ridgeline you can hop from summits to summits. To exit there are “shortcuts” like what we painfully climbed up to exit the mountain range and back to civilization. As mentioned below, there was a memorial stone placed at one corner of the summit ground to remember the fallen climber. Wasn’t sure if the stone marker shows the place where the climber has fallen off. The mountains are always a place where one can find beauty of nature at its best, but sometimes lurks dangers that climbers have to be careful with. 

 

Climbers of the Qilai North Peak on 1st Jun 2013

 

With a group photo taken at the Qilai North Peak, we started the descent back to the ridgeline down below. Climbing down is always more dangerous than going up and that is where most accidents happened. The experience changed completely from that of climbing up and you look down from the way you came up, and suddenly you realized that it was quite a daring climb and looking down below sometimes you are amazed at what our small steps can take us. Going down definitely need to make full use of the ropes, even though less strenuous, the effort of finding a right foothold before moving off is always draining. At times I need to get my face so close to the rock wall that I could see the little nice alpine flowers that was flowering within the rock cracks. Slowly all of us make our way safely to the ridgeline again and taking a meal break right at the spot where we just came onto the ridgeline.

Our fellow climbers reaching the ridgeline after coming down from the North Peak

Walking on the wide grassland on the way to the Qilai Main Peak

Seeing the Qilai Main Peak in the distance.

 

Wide angle view of the Qilai Main Peak and the grassland ridgeline

We have walked 1.2km away from the North Peak

My small backpack taking a break ago.

After resting for about 30mins, we continued in the opposite direction towards the Qilai Main Peak. There were some gentle climbs and drops and also going into some forested area that seemed to be always located at some bend of the mountain ridge.  At some point the trail gotten so narrow that I would question if I am on the right path. After clearing the short but thick forested area, we could see the Main Peak in front of us. 

Getting closer but still a long way

Another 3km on the ridgeline to the Qilai Main Peak. Distance is long but gradient is small.

 

Still a few km to the Main Peak trailhead. So why not take a photo first.

Getting onto the exposed ridgeline. Getting closer and could see the Main Peak from here.

Wide walking trail along the ridgeline to the summit. Cool wind from the right.

Blue skies, green grassland and another hill to clear.

Finally the summit is just infront of us.

Resting or sun bathing before the final climb to the summit?

 

The distance seemed to be quite far as we started the uphill climb along the ridgeline to the right. Even it was an uphill climb, the gradient was easy and in no time we reached the Main Peak trailhead. Well why I called it the trailhead because the ridgeline has a path to go to the Qilai South Peak via the Tororo Cliff from what I read. This trailhead became the rest area for all of us to rest our legs. The route from here to the summit is again a very steep climb but lesser use of the hands as the path sort of like went in a zig zag manner, but still quite demanding on the leg power to scale this part. We reached this Main Peak trailhead at around 11:50am. The distance was from the north peak to the main peak span a few kilometers but terrain was easy to cover and it took us 3.5hrs including rest stops of total 40mins along the way. Time was on our side so no hurry to rush the climb through.

Not as tough as the North Peak but still demanding on leg power.  Everyone has slowed down after the previous summit.

Summit in sight finally!\!

At the Qilai Main Peak Summit

 

Me and my jumps at Qilai Main Peak

 

Group photo at the Main Peak (Minus a climber, hit by altitude sickness)

We continued on the last ascent up the steep trail to the Qilai Main Peak which took us about 35mins, a climb many times more easy than the North Peak which took us 70mins to reach from the ridgeline just below the summit. Some of the climbers feel that after climbing North Peak, they felt that the Main Peak does not have the thrills or summit feeling, maybe due to the ease as compared to the North Peak. Maybe the scenery is not as grand as that of North Peak. We spent about 30mins up at the summit platform taking pictures and making check-in on facebook as he mobile phone signal up there was good. The summit is very wide, open, and lots of space to find yourself a comfy corner and just dream away with the mountain range views. A group photo was taken when all members reached the summit and 30mins alter we started the descent as the clouds were coming in from the other side of the mountain near the town of CingJing (清镜). Descend was easier for Main Peak as the trail was a series of zig zags. 

Making our descent from the Main Peak

The clouds are coming. Sudden change in weather. Still great without the rain.

Walking into the clouds.

At about 2pm, we were still walking on the exposed ridgeline with the clouds coming in. A change in scenery from the clear blue skies with full UV to the clouds sheltering us from the hot sun but fortunately did not bring along rain. Clouds that climbed up from the left just dissipated by the sun’s rays as they rolled downhill on the right. It was quite a long walk even though we are descending and it could very well took us an hour before we reached the Qilai Cabin which is near the intersection that split North Peak and the path that leads us back to the ChengGongBao lodge.  This is a new route that we were taking to get back. For those that choose to climb the Main Peak first before the North Peak will be taking this trail that we used for the descend. Not an easy route downhill and at times, I felt that this was a dangerous to descend. Maybe the ascent on this route didn’t seem that bad while in the dark. We did quite a number of rope work to scale down the rock wall and distance covered was little as most of the work is spent on climbing down the ropes. There was also quite a fair bit of the trail being battered by the elements as can be seen that the safety ropes tend to be out of place at certain crossings. Great care has to be taken while negotiating this path. I had a slide on the loose rocks and landed on my sides sliding downwards a meter or 2. It reminded me of the sand-sliding descend path at Mt Fuji but this is rock plates and you can really slide forward like some surf board. 

More rocks to climb even for a descend.

Our fellow climber just cleared the rock slide path and climbing up the sides.

 

At 4pm, we were still climbing up and down just to return to our mountain lodge; and only around 4:30pm did I start to descend below the tree line which had better walking path although there were still some moderate drops that you need to go on 4s to climb down, but on average the trail is now more forest ground than loose rocky plates.  At this stage of the descend, everyone was taking their own pace and I was well also all alone in the forest walk back to the lodge. It was really quite and sometimes when I stopped and not move, I can actually hear the sound of the forest. The mild wind and birds chirping away in some distance away. Just hope no black bear but this part of the mountain should not be seeing one. In Taiwan , some says if you spotted a black bear, you may get rewarded for it. Don’t know how true is this. The forest trail also seemed forever running as I hike slowly back, and only when I came across the rocky stream path that I knew the lodge was near.  

Reaching back the stream just beside our lodge. Few hundred meter more.

Just before I crossed the last stream to reach the lodge, I refill my bottle with the clean stream water, popped a water purification tablet for added insurance just in case stomach upset due to some microorganism. The climbers in my group was not aware of such tablet that checks with the guide also reflect the fact that the outdoor shops in Taiwan does not have this one sale. The usual method of boiling water is used instead which being a Chinese, I am also comfortable to the idea of boiling water, but sometimes you don’t have the luxury to boil and some a water purification tablet is something I trust as this dated back to my national service days where we hike for days in Brunei jungle only to refill our water supply from the river water.  It was about 5:30pm when I stepped into the lodge and that wrapped up my second day hike in Qilai. Dinner was served slightly later as we had to wait till everyone returned to the lodge. Dinner was porridge with some fishcakes, kimchi vegetables, salted peanuts and some white meat that I recalled what it was. Maybe it wasn’t something I took so did not store that in my head.

  

Again it was back to laying down and just waiting for time to pass and it really was slow, maybe due to the anxiousness in me to descend back to civilization with all the great food and beverages that the forever convenience stores that offer. I am always fascinated and attracted by these convenient stores because of their range and variety of cold beverages and tasty instance noodles. Most of my climb in Taiwan was that after the summits or objectives were achieved, it was an immediate straight descent and sometimes even ending up reaching Taipei in the middle of the night. This is the first time that I still had to spend an extra night before the descend. Really couldn’t wait to wake up for the climb down. Morning call was 4:30am, but I was counting the hours from 10pm to 3am on an hourly interval. Well, being a light sleeper, mountain lodge was never a good place for me to catch some sleep unless I was totally drained. Breakfast was served  around 4:45am and some of us especially me, was already backpack ready and waiting outside the lodge for the descend. We started the long or happy descend around 5:15am and hopefully to reach the trailhead at the SongXueLuo before lunch. Time arranged with the bus driver was 10:30am and seemed we have more than enough time and so the pace was set slow and for me, it was my last chance to snap some more pictures and so I stayed at the back with the guide and chatted along the way.

Morning hike back to civilization.

Hiking throught the forest path to the Black Pond Hut

  

We were back at the 黑水堂山屋 about 8am, and from there, the way back to the trailhead is a uphill hike. Altitude of the 黑水堂山屋 is like at the valley between 2 mountains with an altitude of less than 2600m. Could not recall the readings on my watch but from there the climb back to the trailhead was an ascend of a few hundred meters as the SongXueLuo was at an altitude of 3150m. Under the hot and sunny weather I reached the trailhead at about 10:30am, just nice and the bus was already there. Another member of group was also there near the trailhead taking pictures and offered to take some pictures for me before we load up the bus to end the climb. 

Left about 2km from the trail head.

A shot of a lone hiker on the trail where the grassland meets the skies.

Our lady guide admiring the flowers and snapping away on her iPAD

 

Making a last look at Qilai

Warnings and Warnings not to venture without valid permit for safety reasons

Back at the same spot where we started.

A solo shot at the trailhead before bidding goodbye.

 

Buses of weekend travellers running away from the warm cities

The central mountain road that cuts across the island in the direction of Hualien.

It was a Sunday morning and HeHuanShan (合欢山) being a weekend getaways for the locals was jammed with cars and scooters coming up along the narrow road. Our bus was heading to the town of Puli for our celebratory lunch via the highway 14A bypassing CingJing (清境). The road was busy with traffic all the way down to the down of Puli(埔里) which is where the freeway that links to Taichung and the north 1 freeway to Taipei. We started having our lunch around 11am plus and left about 12:30am. Lunch was sumptuous with fishes, prawns, herbal chicken and many more, making this the most lavish celebratory post climb meal I ever had.  After this we were on the expressway heading back to Taichung to drop some climbers along the way and lastly back to Taipei. Halfway through the journey then we got news that a major earthquake of 6.2 had just struck near the town of Puli, creating massive landslide on one of the mountain side creating clouds of dusts and reports also came in on one climber fatality due to impact by falling rocks some near Alishan. We would not know if we would be safe if we were still making our descent from Qilai when the earthquake struck. But we were lucky. Maybe there could be other death escaping stories from other climbers that could be just coming down from the Qilai ridgeline and such an earthquake definitely will make the descent path even more dangerous.