🚶 Hiking | 100 Peaks Taiwan Baiyue 臺灣百岳

Travel Taiwan Travel
61

I also don’t understand what happened. From the above news article:

According to the fire department, members of the lead group knew Chen and Yeh were only carrying sleeping bags rather than tents and had only limited supplies, but there was nothing they could do because they did not know Chen and Yeh’s location.

At around noon Thursday, Chen contacted the helpers and told them he suspected he was suffering from hypothermia and that Yeh was hit by altitude sickness, the fire department said.

So the lead guide was in contact with the other group on Thursday, but he didn’t share his location on Wednesday night.

Is it possible he felt like he didn’t need to? Maybe he found shelter from the rain, and therefore (incorrectly) assumed they could camp overnight without tents.

1 Like
62

Things to take away from this.

  1. Prepare adequately for the trek you plan to do.
  2. Don’t underestimate the possibility of hypothermia, especially during warmer weather at low altitude. Proper gear and clothes (no cotton), dry clothes to change into when getting wet, etc.
  3. Don’t underestimate high-altitude sickness when going into the high mountains. Better to acclimatize by staying a night close to the trailhead. I think many people believe that is not a problem in Taiwan, but it apparently can be.
  4. Don’t hike in bad weather. What’s the point anyway to get up there during rain or fog and you can’t see anything? Turn around, go home, come another day!
4 Likes
63

With the current reporting I’m still confused too. Hopefully the situation becomes clearer in the next few days or get some info from the assistants. Especially since the bodies were found not too far away from the campsite which means they went over NengGao mountain.

Feel terrible for the niece though.

As for altitude sickness most hikers in Taiwan, at least those that climb higher mountains, should be well aware of it.

1 Like
64

Well, that seemed to have been a problem, though.

At around noon Thursday, Chen contacted the helpers and told them he suspected he was suffering from hypothermia and that Yeh was hit by altitude sickness, the fire department said on Saturday.

65

Something like that is what I read on the news the other day.

Actually these days I’ve read like 3 or even 4 different cases. Quite unsettling.

1 Like
66
67

This is the guide, not sure if this is the video you’re talking about but it might be:

1 Like
68

There are several glaring problems IMHO in Taiwan:

  1. The stupid reservation system - while I can understand the ambition - it doesn’t make any sense because it forces people to walk in bad weather because otherwise for popular places they may need to wait another year for the next chance.

Solution: Change it to make it possible to apply anytime. Also same day fill up vacant beds.
Introduce a small fee for cancelations closer than 4 weeks except in case of clearly bad weather. Get rid of the remaining police permits (most don’t exist anymore)

  1. Many people here are super slow. I don’t know if they cannot walk faster or just prefer walking so slow - but it creates danger if you try to get to Location XY and schedule 12 hours for it.

  2. The stupid winter rules - make it clear that winter equipment is only needed when it’s needed and not blanco. Actually it’s only enforced if there is more snow - but it causes the weather wise much safer winter months to be used less. Make people understand crampons work in hard snow - if it snows in April the snow is soft and melts quickly - this April snow never needs crampons.

But well, I did enjoy those stupid non enforced rules. And yeah the people hiking this year of course didn’t carry ice axe or crampons. Everyone who hikes more often knows that no one asks you for useless equipment (useless as this year never had snow that stayed on the trails - last year was different with much more snow at Xueshan).

As for Baiyue - I think I did about 20 this year. Didn’t really count.
I did 1 day out and return (oh yeah needs 2 day permit usually because in winter no 1 day permits) for at least 10 Baiyue - including Hehuanshan Xifeng/Zhufeng.
Kinda did a 1 day return because needed to run down in the morning 500m altitude to get water at Baigudashan (so effectively same time/distance needed as 1 day return as our car didn’t make it fully up the road either and had to descend another 150m altitude from the entrance.

Took 2 days but did all Yushan peaks plus some side peaks in those 2 days (on first day did South peak and 3 peaks around then descended to the cabin, on second day main, east, main, north and west then down to car just making if before the 18:00 road closure).

Never got up before sunrise. Usually started around 6:30 to 8:00. My girlfriend also doesn’t like to hike in freezing cold and darkness. Before 8:00 was if we had booked breakfast and the last time to consume that is usually 5:30 or 6:30.

We did the holy ridge this year and besides Yushan and side summits it was the highlight so far. We did the Y version. Day 1 late departure at Taichung then Taoshan, Cryoushan and sleep at Xindashanwu (ordered dinner and breakfast there - we got lucky that a big group stayed there too so they had food service during the week). My girlfriend had eaten some bad food at midday and got to puke and diahrrea so I had to carry both backpacks. Uggghhh. 37kg…

On day two at midday at Banan Shanwu discovered that we forgot a lighter for the gas stove - after we met no one around Dabajian I decided that the only chance not to walk out the day after is to run to 99 hut to get a lighter there. Luckily finally met some people around the intersection to Jialishan so I didn’t need to run up and down the last 500m altitude to 99. Ran back and we still made it to summit of Dabajian and Xiaobajian (must have missed some sign before dabajian summit in the rush, everywhere says not allowed). Needless to say we carried way too much water from Xindashanwu to Banan because we didn’t know for sure there is water (there was enough and there is a spring too within 20 minutes or so).

Day 3 we took it easier and sidetripped to Pintianshan, then via Sumidashan (not really difficult - Pintian is harder on the west side but both not really hard) to Xuebeishan and Xuebeishanwu. We left too late and I was tired from the day before so we didn’t take the sidetrip to Mutelabu (which isn’t a Baiyue - but should be one). Bashalayunshan would definitely deserve to be a Baiyue too. Views were the best with Pintian and Xiaobajian for this trip.

Then day 4 super easy to Xueshan and down to 369. We carried water for 2 days as we knew 369 had run out of water (and actually Xuebeishanwu was on the brink of running out. and it doesn’t have a spring! Sumidashanwu and Bananshanwu likely never run out of water.

Could have continued all the way down but we had booked dinner and paid already so slept another night there. Really regretted sleeping in 369. Too many rats and loud. Basically didn’t sleep. Oh and it was useless to carry all that water all the way - as 30 minutes above 369 the spring had water trickling. Though the amount was soo little I doubt it would have worked on a Saturday/Sunday with 150 people+ trying to fill up water there. It was a Friday with about 60 people summiting and the bix water cyclinder was quite empty when we got there and refill super drop by drop only. I guess enough for 100 people a day. But that was in March after months of no rain at all, right when water was running out everywhere.

Day 5 was then just 3 hours easy downhill. My girlfriend isn’t on Strava but would have gotten quite a few KOMs or worst top 5 segments for hiking. For trailrunning Strava is a bit tougher but she can usually make it top 5 to top 10 on any segment in Taiwan too if I push her.
Actually there are quite a few people who do a 1 day holy ridge O version. That is really damn tough - especially if you don’t short it by skipping Xueshan.

The main annoyance is that for 5 days you end up carrying a lot of food so heavy backpacks - especially if in March and no water you start the day with 7l water per person to have 2 day water supply.
We alway carry about 4000 calories per person per day and eat most of it. It’s a bit hard to get light calory rich food in Taiwan however. Things I like are nuts, dry meat, and just plain pasta with pesto. Then take multivitamins as you don’t get any veggies/fruits for longer trips.

Still plan to do death ridge and death ridge extension to Nanhua in the next 2.5 weeks, but it doesn’t really look good weather wise and Nanhua is all booked out.

Oh yeah we are fast - but much slower than Petr Novotny. I could maybe take 5 hours on uphill when he takes 4. But my girlfriend would need 6-7. And downhill we are only half his speed (my knee is too broken) - he pops up on Strava often enough. That makes us however still much more than twice as fast as most hikers in Taiwan. We often do 2-3 day trip distances per day.

Edit: another huge problem is that taiwanese are too stupid to understand that any phone with gps which is like all phones can output a lat/long place. Now there have been so many cases of people being lost and they use phone triangulation? People have been calling 102 before! Now the blame goes even more to 102. I reported an mountain accident with request for picking up a person with broken leg. And the operators were incapable of writing down the gos location. Now it was easy there to tell them where the person was located, but they really didn’t know what wgs84 lat/long means and didn’t want to record it!

If they are too stupid for that in Taiwan than build a Mountain rescue SOS app that sends the location via text message if no internet! Many countries do that.

3 Likes
69

Actually I have been thinking/discussing with others a bit about both accidents.
It’s pretty clear altitude sickness is NOT the reason. Both accidents happened on the 19 last week. That day it poured down like crazy. Some roads around Taichung collapsed in the mountains. Some places received well over 200mm of rain within 12 hours.

And all weather forecasts had forecasted this day as very strong rain (50-60mm forecast for plain land, which means minimum double in the mountains)!

– Case 1 - the single hiker who seemingly was part of firefighters. I don’t understand it at all. He seemed to have complained about mountain sickness - but why does he end up at Cuichi?

I can only guess he had the peak booked for that day (not allowed to go up next day , and anyhow strong rain still in the early morning) so he decided to leave on the 19. for the summing from 369 and got surprised by the strong rain. I don’t doubt he had some altitude sickness - that comes much easier with exhaustion - and then took the fatal decision to keep on going up to the peak instead of returning. It must have started raining while he was on the peak or starting to walk down - and then he decided Cuichi is much closer than 369 so he goes there - but all his equipment except day pack is at 369. It’s absolutely stupid to go to Cuichi without warm equipment for the night / food / sleeping bag (and that dry!). The rain hit suddenly and strong (just as forecasted) and when he arrives 30-40minutes lateer he is soaked. No dry clothes and alone at 3500m. The strong rain cools down the air to close to freezing level. Maybe 4-5 deegrees. Taiwan mountain huts have zero insulation (every tent is warmer!) and he froze to death due to his wet clothes.
Sometimes I have seen sleeping bags in the cabins - but usually there is NOTHING except a gamow bag. Now actually you could take of your clothes and get naked into that bag - then maybe try piece by piece adding clothes so they dry on your body? I’m not sure you can survive - you can give it a try but yeah if your exhausted already body doesn’t produce much heat. Likely no food/not much food only water (for which at worst you have to run out into the crazy rain to get to the water reservoir) - it’s a disaster. Those gamow bags are stored in about 1.20m high plastic cyclinders. Could also try to somehow seal most of your body into that to get warm. But it’s pretty dire. I’m pretty sure there is a gamow bag in that plastic cyclinder because it was present at all cabins along the holy ridge (though Cuichi is like the smallest). Maybe even the roof at Cuichi leaked water? I doubt so - I think the cabins you can book are all pretty well sheltered.

I can understand the thinking - thunderstorm is arriving - first route to the next shelter. But it’s damn stupid if you cannot make it there dry. Exhaustion and some altitude sickness means he doesn’t want to go up 300m altitude, or maybe cannot even as visibility is very poor. By the time you are at Cuichi you would also reach the black forest. From there in the forest could have easily continued to 369 no matter the weather.

As to the second group - it’s more questions but for me only one actual course. The guide with the slow client splits from the group and they agree to meet up at campsite XY later. This makes sense as they can put up the tents maybe before the storm hits badly - or on arrival directly get into the tent.
However then the storm is so bad / exhaustion (and again wet clothes/cold) hitting very hard. They cannot find/make it to the campsite. 3000m - no tent - only sleeping bag - maybe with a rescue blanket around your body inside the wet sleeping bag you can survive? I’m not sure. In that case the only chance is to keep walking down for warmer grounds. They should have never parted without a tent - but if client already dead slow, guide likely takes clients baggage - and offloads some stuff to the rest of the group.
The other possibility is that the storm / falling branches/trees destroys their tent and they would have to join the others like 3 people per 2 person tent. The said the tent got damaged by the rain (now rain doesn’t destroy a tent - but a storm with plenty of stuff flying through the air, branches getting broken - can well do so. Just a bad wording then).

Some lessons here - if there is any chance of rain - take a survival blanket for EACH participant. Those blankets do work! If there is strong rain announced - you need to put all your stuff into a thick rubbish bag inside your backpack. Raincover doesn’t work for long.

Strong raing or snowfall is fatal and waiting it out is the only wise decision - or always knowing you can make it to below the treeline and then continue down. NEVER stop while wet. If you don’t have a sleeping bag don’t dig a snowcave - but keep on walking very slowly in square 3x3m until you can continue (no joke - that saved already some friends of mine. a quare is better than a circle- they kept on walking for 25 hours without EVER sitting down until it cleared up for a helicopter rescue - they had snowboarded into a dead end unable to walk back up nor continue down and by evening a snowstorm hit which lasted 20 hours or so). In rain that would not be possible but you always need to be strong enough to walk down to warm temperature or a safe place. A cabin without warm/dry clothes and a rescue blanket at least or a dry sleeping bag is not a safe place.
It’s stupid enough to stark a hike around the 19. this year. The strong rain was very clear at least 3 days before (and likely in the forecast 4-5 days before).

6 Likes
70

It would be great if someone transcribes what he says. Apparently he was pretty pissed off about the two female clients leaving him behind.

cc @Icon

1 Like
71

He was more pissed - and justifiably so- with the now deceased woman. The Taiwanese-American let her friends go ahead against his orders, because she was afraid they would be upset.

The guide complaints in the video that he is putting his life and that of his collaborators on the line and in return he is being treated as garbage. That he also has family, waiting for him I guess.

Poor guy. He is struggling to breathe. How could they just separate from the group? He states that he insisted they had to go in and come out as a group. I think that should be basic knowledge, leaving aside the fact that you should listen to your guide.

Ps
This is from another video. The one @mad_masala linked up here seems previous, they are just waiting for rescue. The one I saw is more desperate.

5 Likes
72

It isn’t possible to upload videos yet, right? because the second video is… the file itself, not a link :frowning:

@tempogain you have super powers, can you help me to upload the video?

73

Can’t be done. Posting it on Youtube first is a workaround

74

So the other 2 Americans just went off ahead of the 2 assistants? I haven’t seen this other video yet so this is all new to me.

75

I don’t know where @mad_masala got the videos but the second one is really poignant.

@mad_masala also sent this article:

So from the video the guy did not approve separating the group. From the article, there is a message that well, is almost incriminating.

2 Likes
76

Ah, seems like the original plan was to meet up at the Taiwan pool campsite, but they missed it and ended up going towards the further Dalu pool if I’m reading this right. That and the messages clears things up a bit.

77

Good that message in that article is heartbreaking. Its like he had told them so many times how dangerous it is to go alone and they told them that they want to do ‘American style’ and go at own pace.

78

Here’s a news video with some video from the assistants. Really poor visibility.

2 Likes
79

Booooooh

80

Could be much worse. I don’t like that wind at all though. I wonder what temperatures these guys were exposed to.