This is a story about climbing mountains, sort of. Actually more about adventures in the mountains and hills around Lijiang…

It all started with a whimsical idea, to climb the big lump of rock at the end of the garden; the ‘famous’ Jade Dragon Snow Mountain which featured in all the tourist posters and brochures of Lijiang. But this whim soon grew into an obsession.

A short queue

Now the easiest thing to have done, would have been to simply buy a park entrance ticket, catch the bus and then the cable car which would provide a ride to the viewing station at 4600m, along with about 10,000+ other people on any given day. Eventually I did just that, but not before two attempts at doing it the Hard Way from the south side.

Crowds at the top

I had heard stories about the ‘Korean hiking trails’ as they are sometimes known, which started from the foot of the mountain at the back of Yu Hu village. The trails eventually led to sheer cliffs with amazing views. These were found in places that few people ever visited and you could even get higher than 4600m apparently. That was it. I had to see for myself. The problem was finding someone or some people to go with.

The first attempt. 

Enter Kitty Qi. Kitty is a friend of my ex PA from Foshan, who had lived in the area for a few years. We had made social contact a couple of months before and one fine day I told her about my crazy idea. She was also the adventurous type and we agreed to do it together. There was just one small problem. We didn’t have a clue where to start.

Half way up, with our ‘Old’ guide

Contacts of contacts were called upon and eventually we got a plan together to start from Yu Hu village on the back of trail pony’s which would take us up windy mountain paths to the highest point they would go and then a short hike would get us to the top. Well that all sounded very civilised.

The Korean Hut

One somewhat gloomy day we paid our money and set off on pony-back with a couple of trail leaders and an old guide, who didn’t look a day under 75. Across the meadow, up the tracks and through rhododendron forests, until 3 & 1/2 hours later we arrived at a hut in a closed valley with no views. “We’re here…” the old guide proudly announced.  Huh? A sign proclaimed 4600m. Something was not right. A quick check of the altitude app and no, we were standing at 3750m, with no mountain in sight. Severely ripped off. Hmmm.

Fake markers

Problem. We didn’t quite know where to go next and the guide certainly didn’t want to come with us. In fact he didn’t want to let us go anywhere. But we insisted and followed the only obvious trail there was that seemed to lead up the mountain. It got tougher and steeper and as we progressed, we saw that someone had spray-painted more nonsensical ‘fake heights’ on big rocks at intervals along the trail.

Ropes to make it easier

Eventually Kitty ran out of puff . It wasn’t easy, but having come this far I wasn’t about to turn back either so Kitty decided to sit and wait for me to return. I could see what I thought was the top. There was a rope pull, then a scree slope, then eventually a col. But when I got to the col I realised I was still far from the top.

Defeated.

Time had got away from us. I conceded defeat, turned around and trudged back down, collecting Kitty on the way. We decided to give it another go at some time in the future and retreated to a little restaurant in Yuhu which was run by my now good friend Lushan He.

I sat there thinking what might have been and already began plotting my next ascent. At least after the first fail I had an idea of what was really involved.

Coming next; the big plan, the larger team, and more untruths.