Not sure how OT this is, but today someone sent me this:
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Just found out about PTS Plus, not many views on the channel but seemingly some good videos that I put on my to watch list.
I’ve been to PinTian mountain (品田山） and ChiYou （池有山） before. Some great views and seeing DaBaJian mountain (大壩尖山) and Snow mountain in the distance was amazing.
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A couple of pictures from the hike I mentioned. Absolutely breathtaking in person… Especially on a single day hike compared to the usual 2 day hike most people do. Makes all the effort worth it…then you get back to the city and get all depressed because of how much more dangerous crossing the street is compared to hiking Taiwan’s high mountains but still proceed to get people who criticize me for hiking…
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Someone should put that sick bastard who dropped a bunch of low altitude loving Sika deer up on the the mountain at least 3000m above sea-level just for a photo with the peak of Daba in jail.
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Does that make the hiking more insane? 
Not yet! I’ll save that for when I actually go to DaBaJian.
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1 Taiwanese dead and 1 American missing on Nenggao Andongjun (能高安東軍) route. 6 person group. 1 tour guide (dead), 2 guide helpers, 3 Americans (1 missing). Group early on ended up splitting into two groups.
Lead group: 2 helpers, 2 Americans.
Trailing group: 1 guide (dead), 1 American (missing).
Seems like the tour guide did not relay his position to the front group for some reason even though he was able to get in to contact with them. The guide’s helpers in leading group knew that the now dead guide and missing hiker didn’t have tents, only sleeping bags.
While searching for the missing hiker rescuers found clothes, not sure if they belong to the missing hiker or not. Not looking good.
EDIT: Some more info. from Taiwan News article in English
Wed. evening when the guide contacted his helpers/assistants he also contacted emergency services. On Friday morning rescuers found him dead. Front group’s tents damaged by heavy rain.
The other 2 Americans made it down the mountain.
Anyone here hike this route before?
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More unfortunate news. Hiker on Snow Mountain dies from altitude sickness. I was just up there a few weeks ago, after all the snow had melted. Absolutely beautiful mountain. Sad to hear that this guy passed away.
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Tragedy on the Nenggao Trail, with a guide confirmed dead and an American prof in her 50s reportedly missing. It doesn’t look good.
Guy
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I really don’t understand why they decided to set-off last Tuesday seeing as it was very clear that we were about to have some nasty weather.
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It’s the lack of communication between the separated groups that is baffling. The results are awful.
Guy
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My friend told me that the guide wanted to postpone but the hikers didn’t want to.
As they climbed, the guide made a Facebook video saying they would definitely turn back the next day because one hiker had altitude sickness and couldn’t keep up.
It seems like the two other hikers and two helpers went ahead to set up camp while the guide stayed with the slow hiker.
I am sure the aim was to catch up before dark but they got a call from the lead group saying the weather was too bad and they should stay where they were. The problem was they only had sleeping bags. The lead group had the tents.
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I guess I’m mostly confused about how the lead group didn’t know where the trailing group was despite them being able to contact each other. The FocusTaiwan article says the lead group went back to the TianChi cabin, but did not come across the trailing group. Surely they had already passed TianChi cabin and starting going towards NengGao mountain…but it seems like the guide should’ve made the decision sooner to turn back. If the missing American was already having a hard time keeping up, by the time she started getting altitude sickness it was too late to keep going.
This would be easier for me to understand if the news just showed some points on a map where everyone was.
Also seems like S&R team is running out of supplies so they are waiting at TianChi cabin to be resupplied. Another team of S&R was planned to be flown in via helicopter but bad weather conditions forced them to call it off and the helicopter had to go back.
The deceased guide will have his body flown out once weather permits.
EDIT: Seems like the leading group made it past NengGao mountain and were setting up camp at Dalu pool/pond (大陸池).
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Nenggao is one of the easiest and busiest of the Baiyue. Myst have been really bad weather
Based on some of the videos that have been on the news…the weather looks pretty bad. Also last week Wednesday there was a massive downpour in Taichung city and I remember looking at the radar that day, it went across the mountains too so I’m sure it was pretty nasty up there.
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The missing American has sadly been found dead, on a slope 150m below where the team leader/guide died.
Apparently both died not too far from the place they originally intended to camp at? Anyways, tragic news. Hopefully at the very least this can be used to educate other hikers, not admonish/berate them (which is common in Taiwan). What to do if you end up in such a situation, how to increase your chances of survival, etc, etc…
Not sure if it’s a thing already but free safety/training sessions/seminars around Taiwan would be great to have, even some in English for foeirgners would be nice too.
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I hope emergency services will embrace this tech when a smartphone can send emergency messages via satellites even when out of cellular coverage. A rescue with exact GPS location and communication can save lives.
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The Garmin inReach Mini 2 is also popular. It took a while to come to Taiwan, but I believe it was made available here last year. I’ve seen some people who are more serious hikers carry it with them and by serious I mean often do 5+ day hikes in areas with very limited to no signal.
Anyways from what I recall Taiwan govt. does try to continuously improve signal on mountains at the very least to a level where an emergency message can be sent or relay GPS coordinates.
In this particular case I’m not sure a satellite communicator would have made a difference since they were already able to contact emergency services and their teammates so sharing their coordinates/location should have been no problem. At the very least the guide should have been able to check his coordinates/location on his phone via app or smartwatch and relay that to rescuers or his other team members.
Also due to poor weather conditions it took some time for rescuers to make their way up.
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Really tragic. Hiking is really dangerous.