The front peak of 玉山 (Yu shan), Taiwan's tallest mountain, is not a popular destination among hikers here. For one thing it's about 700 meters shorter than its big brother. For another it's very steep and with a somewhat limited view on the way up. Our main goal, however, was to get a bit of exercise in aspiration of more challenging peaks, so it would do just fine.

Just like for our last hike in the area to 郡大山 (Jun da shan) last October we stayed overnight in 望鄉 (Wang xiang), about 1.5h away by car. Because this was going to be a relatively short hike it was okay to leave a little later than usual in the morning. Still, if I were to hike this peak again I'd try to stay somewhere closer, just to reduce the risk of being beaten to the top by fog and getting caught in afternoon showers on the way down.

Apparently the two of us leading the way walked a little too fast and missed the turnoff towards the peak. It took about half an hour for us to get suspicious and actually checking the map. But after all we were there for the exercise, so why not get a bit extra!

Overview

The blue path is 台21線, the road we drove in the morning from 望鄉 (Wang xiang) to 塔塔加 (Ta ta jia). The purple path is the shuttle from 塔塔加 (Ta ta jia) to the 塔塔加鞍部登山口 (Ta ta jia sattle trail head) and the green path the hike itself.

(Click the image for a larger version.)

Elevation chart

塔塔加鞍部登山口 (Ta ta jia sattle trail head) to 玉山前峰 (Yu shan front peak) and back to 塔塔加 (Ta ta jia)

GPS track

Hiking log

(As always, the altitudes are approximate.)

0950: Departure from 塔塔加 (Ta ta jia) by shuttle
0957: Arrival at the 塔塔加鞍部登山口 (Ta ta jia sattle trail head)
1000: Departure from 塔塔加鞍部登山口 (Ta ta jia sattle trail head), 2620 m
1040: 孟祿亭 (Monroe Pavilion), 2800 m
1110: Passed 玉山前峰登山口 (Yu shan front peak trail head) without noticing, 2855 m
1145: Turned around at ca. 4.5 km, 2960 m
1210: Back at 玉山前峰登山口 (Yu shan front peak trail head), 2855 m
1255: 玉山前峰 (Yu shan front peak), 3239 m
1340: Descent
1420: 玉山前峰登山口 (Yu shan front peak trail head), 2855 m
1450: Back at 塔塔加鞍部登山口 (Ta ta jia sattle trail head), 2620 m
1525: Back at 塔塔加停車場 (Ta ta jia parking lot), 2570 m

Photos

谷爐巴民宿 (Kulupa homestay) where we spent the night before our hike.

It's a nice place with a good view but it's about 1-2 hours away from 塔塔加 (Ta ta jia), depending on how lucky you are with traffic and getting through construction sites.

The view from 塔塔加 (Ta ta jia) with 大塔山 (Da ta shan) in the center.

The parking lot at 塔塔加 (Ta ta jia) and the road up towards the trail head.

The 塔塔加鞍部登山口 (Ta ta jia sattle trail head) where most ascents to the various peaks of 玉山 (Yu shan) start. There's a convenient shuttle from the parking lot to here. It's around 35-40 minutes on foot but less than 10 minutes by shuttle. So to shave off some time (afternoon showers!) we decided to spend the 100 TWD per person.

The trail to 排雲山莊 (Pai yuan mountain lodge) is about 8.5 km long but the trail towards 玉山前峰 (Yu shan front peak) branches off at around 2.6 km.

The view back towards the 塔塔加鞍部 (Ta ta jia sattle).

Most of the path is quite easy to walk, which partly explains the scores of people you'll encounter here on a typical weekend day.

The view towards the valley leading to 那瑪夏 (Na ma xia) in the north east of 高雄 (Gao xiong).

Looking south-east we see 玉山南峰 (Yu shan south peak, 3844 m) near the center right below the cloud and 玉山小南峰 (Yu shan small south peak) in the right third.

Most of the trail looks something like this ...

... and every so often you'll encounter a few remarkable dead trees on the side of the trail.

The view of 玉山前峰 (Yu shan front peak), which we would climb later. You can clearly see the main trail along the mountain. The trail up to the peak cuts straight up through that little patch of forest.

We walked an extra hour just to snap this picture! (Okay, I made that up. We really just missed the turnoff.)

The beginning of the trail to 玉山前峰 (Yu shan front peak) that we had missed.

The path up is super steep but the view is not bad at all.

Another view down towards the valley, this time from higher up.

The fog beat us to the top, so the only thing to do was to take the obligatory peak bagging photo and have lunch.