Taiwan Adventure! – Summit Pintian Mountain, Abseil the Cliffs, Sleep under the Stars

Departing from Xinda hut at 7am, we hit the trail with some beautiful weather. Dabajianshan and Xiaoba stood to our right, the sheer mountain faces jutting straight up. To the left the snow covered face of Xueshan loomed and straight ahead lies Pintian Mountain.

Pintian Mountain itself is not noted for being a hard climb. At 3,524 meters, the way up is not technical, but a safe descent of the 60-meter dropoff would make for an interesting day. We indulged at the summit, taking in the 360 degree panorama.

Abseiling the Pintian Cliffs

In the end, we used a combination of everything. Sometimes wearing our backpacks, sometimes lowering them, sometimes having them locked into our descenders as dead weight to the rope, we descended via four multi pitch abseils with rope pull downs. Setting up, lowering packs, abseiling, pulling down the rope, walking 5 meters, setting up and repeating the process was exhilarating, time-consuming, and humbling.

With the Pintian cliffs behind us and on the ridge between Pintian and Sumida Hut, we felt good, though tired and a little concerned about time. . We summited Buxiulan Mountain and moved towards Sumida Mountain and Sumida Cliffs ? which turned into a bigger challenge than the Pintian cliffs. The weight of our packs pressed ever harder as the hours ticked by.

With the fast approaching sunset at 6:30pm, we took an opportune stop at a soft tree-filled plateau and pulled out the map for a quick huddle. To press on in the dark with unknown obstacles ahead or to risk a night in the open in hopes that the weather forecast (clear) holds up. Tapping on the experience of previous Shei-Pa hikes, a quick run-through of gear, fuel, and water source, the decision was made to camp on the ridge.

With a nice flat bed of moss and pine needles, a huge pile of mountain snow that would be our water, we had found our oasis, our spot for the night. What we thought was going to be an uncomfortable night turned out to be one of the highlights of? the trip. With a clear night out, falling asleep under the stars and waking up from time to time and finding myself under the brightest dome city lights can never equal was a humbling experience.

Sharing it with my team members was rewarding beyond compare. The combination of a new moon, and beautiful weather made for the best night one could ask for. At over 3500 meters, there was no humidity to get our equipment and sleeping bags wet. This night was probably the best night?s sleep I got on the entire trip. It proved to be much needed as day 3 would challenge us in many different ways.