I always feel happier hugging the cliff when riding Taroko. Feel it’s more likely a large rock hitting the road will have travelled out horizontally, at least a little.
I think there’s some truth to that. If there’s an overhang above you, it’ll serve as a roof and will cause the rock to bounce outward instead of falling straight down. So to answer newTaiwanese’s question, you should ride on the mountain side. But, of course, some sections just have a sheer cliff with no overhangs.
There are places where the entire rock cliff is hanging over the entire road so no problem if small rocks fall, but if the whole cliff falls, the whole road goes.
Yeah, I’ve gone on some hikes there and we were required to wear helmets, but when you see the size of the rocks that have already fallen on the road… I think the plastic helmet is window dressing. Here’s a vid I posted showing a huge landslide in Taroko, let me know what you think.
Thanks for any feedback. https://youtu.be/lZ-Gh3-FUzI
welcome, @here_we_go.
if you do this a lot, maybe you can start your own travel thread of videos.
to get more hits, you can make odd comments like “at the 3:45 mark, we couldn’t confirm if those college co-eds in the hot springs were unclothed or not” or other such enticements.
I agree, I did a 5 day trek through there and I was thinking the same. I some some pebbles rolls down in some places but thats it. But you can clearly see how some rocks can just kill you and not all of them are even that big.
God sakes we can’t close beautiful Taroko gorge tourist attraction to maybe at least bikes, scooters, motorcycles, or something even though people (regularly? occasionally? frequently?) get hurt or die unexpectedly through no fault of their own.
One injured after rockfall hits two motorcyclists on Central Cross-Island Highway
Near Cimu Bridge, Xiulin Township
That rock in the picture could have killed even someone in a car, 1 meter diameter.
NT$4.68 million ($152,000) in compensation to the family of a Japanese cyclist who was killed by falling rocks in Hualien County five years ago.
I’m guessing it’s the same Japanese cyclist or maybe it was another Japanese cyclist that was killed by Falling rocks.
Condolences to this unfortunate cyclist’s loved ones of course
But what does this mean for Taroko Gorge
There has been a few of such cases IIRC where rocks have fallen and killed people
Seems a few parts of the Gorge does have this problem
What will the highway bureau do now that it has to pay compensation?
Will it ban people from walking or riding through some sections? Will it require you to be in a vehicle (you could still get killed passing by in a car if the rock was big enough. Would they require motorcycle helmets ? Which will afford fairly good protection to the head better than a bike helmet
What is the fall out from this ?
I don’t think they’re on Forumosa.
They are not but I didn’t want to appear cold
Tough situation. It’s hard to know from outside how negligent they were …But with the state of mountain roads in Taiwan it will be impossible to prevent repetition sometimes in the future.
And it may mean even more closures for people outside a car.
Did this happen during or shortly after strong rain?
Guess the unlucky japanese was coming for Taiwan KOM?
KOM will be doomed
Maybe they are, and maybe they aren’t… he was sharing a thoughtful sentiment about someone whose life was senselessly snuffed out. Just like we do in the ‘Morgue’ thread all the time. No need to be a prick, eh.
Maybe you do. I don’t.
It seems from the article that the problem here was that the highways agency was aware of the issue with that stretch of road and didn’t do enough to make it as safe as possible…but still, I guess the danger of falling rocks etc. is something one needs to take into account when deciding to visit places like this.
I’ve definitely thought about it every time I’ve visited Taroko (I also have a strong preference for not being hit by falling rocks). There’s obviously an inherent risk involved, as well as some degree of responsibility on the part of authorities to do what they can to mitigate that risk, but it would be a shame if judgments like this led authorities to err on the side of nannying people and stopping them visiting these places (like they do in some places by not allowing people to even walk close to the sea).
Yeah, it’s not my cup of tea. The most hiking I’ll do is a stroll up monkey mountain in Kaohsiung. And even that mild climb I haven’t done in about 5 years. But it still sucks for the dude. Should they have indefinitely roped off certain areas or trails? I don’t know. I’ve had too many freedom vs safety arguments with myself the last few years to bugger about another one. It’s definitely tragic though.
They need to weigh the risk how many people are cycling or walk in the gorge vs how many are killed on an annual basis, but having to pay out fairly substantial compensation, may make the highway bureau decide that they don’t even wanna deal with it and just ban people from walking or cycling
Just like some beaches will temporarily ban people from swimming, if a shark is seen , but they don’t ban the beach entirely forever
The gorge should remain open but….will it ?
I think elsewhere they might do controlled blasting of the troublesome cliff faces, to remove the loose rocks, but given Taiwan’s seismic activity, I doubt this would solve the issue.