單攻玉山 (Mt. Jade one-day trip) (12 items)

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A one-day trip to 玉山主峰 (Yu shan main peak) consists of about 10-12 hours of hiking and, in our case, a lot of fog, wind, and rain.

  • The 塔塔加登山口 (Ta ta jia trail head), the most commonly chosen trail for climbers of 玉山 (Yu shan).
  • View southwest from the 玉山群峰步道 (Yu shan many peak trail). There are no particularly well-known mountains visible, but since I went to the trouble to look them up: The tallest one of the four round peaks about a third from the left is 南面山 (Nan mian shan). The one in the middle in the far back is 新望嶺 (Xin wang ling). And, peaking into the view on the right side, is 棚機山 (Peng ji shan).
  • One of the few short sections of the 玉山群峰步道 (Yu shan many peak trail) where you need to watch your step.
  • Most of the trail is in the forest and leads over solid ground ...
  • ... or simply over rocks.
  • This probably would have looked better against a blue sky background, but the barren trees with their interesting shapes make for good views.
  • Dramatic clouds over 嘉義 (Jia yi) and 台南 (Tai nan). Not surprisingly we did get a little taste of their load later on.
  • The trail is constantly subject to landslides and other dangers.
  • Because there was fog further up this section was really all the mountain view we saw that day. Nice, but not exactly why you go hiking the tallest mountain of the island!
  • The famous 大峭壁 (Big cliff). It is very impressive when you look up but fortunately the hiking trail runs safely at the bottom of it.
  • The 排雲山莊 (Pai yun mountain lodge), which is currently being renovated and expanded and should be finished around July 2011. Until then the only options are camping somewhere in the area or doing a one-day trip like we did. At least this way the amount of people at the top stays reasonable. In normal times you don't want to be there when a few dozen people are fighting for the best place to see and photograph the sunrise.
  • The other way of being virtually alone is going up when the wind is strong, the fog thick, and the view zero. Apparently I'll have to come back another day to take the photos I was hoping for.