Complete records of Mount Siguniang

cuberel7
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IPFS
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From January 4 to January 7, 2023, I went to Sichuan to climb Mount Siguniang. This was a trip that had been planned for a long time. On the day I reached the summit, I became the second person to successfully reach the summit among the more than 200 people who reached the summit that day, and I was also the first woman to reach the summit. That afternoon, I continued my attempt to reach the second peak, but failed. I wrote some words to record my experiences in the past few days. It may still be a bit mk, but this is a record of the most authentic thoughts at the moment as a commemoration.

After arriving at the base camp and chatting with other companions, I realized that there were some strange promotions about Mount Siguniang on Douyin and Xiaohongshu. I have not used these two software, I came here for the mountain itself. The motivation was that every time I ran a half-marathon/cross-country race before, I felt like "I can still run more, but the end is here." So I wanted to test where my physical limit was, and chose the sophomore climb that few people choose.

Too long not to read the version: The big peak was successful, the second peak was failed, and there was no horse riding in the whole process.

The following is a detailed review.

4/1 Day 1

Chengdu City-Siguniangshan Town (3,300 meters above sea level)

Free activities in the afternoon and a meeting in the evening. I talked about the general itinerary and emphasized not to wash my hair tonight. I only carried necessary things up the mountain (thermos cup + water, clothes, meals for the day), and other materials were packed and handed over to the horses for the camels to go up the mountain. . Sign the life and death certificate. My friends and I walked around town in the afternoon and evening to acclimate ourselves to the high altitude, and I didn’t experience any altitude sickness that day.

5/1 Day 2

Siguniang Mountain Town-Dafeng Base Camp (elevation 4,400 meters)

The hike is about 15 kilometers.

Gather at 9 a.m., get up at 8:20, and eat. At the breakfast bar downstairs of the hotel, they poured out the water on the plate and put some siomai buns on my plate. I took the plate to the room and put it down. A layer of ice instantly formed on my gloves.

Walk a few hundred meters to the entrance of the scenic spot, hand out trekking poles, take a group photo, buy tickets, and go up the mountain.

11:00 Arrive at Guozhuangping (elevation 3554 meters)

I tried to grab Eason Chan's ticket for Xiamen Second Opening, but failed, so I continued walking without any distractions.

13:00 Arrive at Dajianbao (3750 meters above sea level)

Dajianbao has free hot water and wifi, and also sells food. It is considered the biggest checkpoint. After passing Dajianbao, there was no signal. Finally, I told my family that I was safe, had a bowl of instant noodles, and continued walking.

The road behind is much steeper, so walking on a flat road is okay, but I get a headache when it gets higher, probably caused by altitude sickness.

16:39 Arrive at Dafeng Base Camp (elevation 4,400 meters)

The guide said that you must put on more clothes immediately when you arrive at the base camp. My guess is that one is because the weather has gotten colder, and the other is because I have stopped exercising. There was a tent with a charcoal fire that could be used to keep warm, but there was a lack of oxygen. The guide still suggested that we walk around, which I did. Dinner was hot pot (very delicious). After dinner, the guide gave us headlamps, snow boots, and crampons and taught us how to use them. I packed up my things one last time and got ready for bed. The base camp provides down sleeping bags + blankets, and the conditions are much better than I expected (or is it more commercial than I imagined?)

19:15 Go to bed

I slept very poorly and almost didn't sleep all night, mainly because of my headache. I felt cold when I put my head outside, and felt hypoxic when I was covered with a quilt. No matter what, I couldn't relieve my headache. Based on subsequent experience, I judged that it was not because of the cold, but because of high reflexes.

6/1 Day 3

Dafeng Base Camp - Climb Dafeng - Return to Dafeng Base Camp - Second Peak Base Camp - Climb the Second Peak (failed) - Retreat to Second Peak Base Camp

The summit of the big peak is about 4-5 kilometers, and the second peak is about 6-7 kilometers.

Get up at 2:00

Breakfast is noodles + vegetables, which is delicious, but I don’t dare to eat more.

Depart for the summit at about 3:30

Before departure, my headache somehow disappeared.

The trick when climbing a mountain is to walk at the pace you are most comfortable with. You can go slowly but don’t stop, and never rush. Once the pace is higher than the comfort zone, your physical energy will be exhausted quickly. I walked at my own pace and quickly found a teammate whose physical fitness matched mine, and who happened to be paired with a guide. The three of us walked simultaneously, passing many people along the way. Halfway through, the news came over the intercom that my friend who was traveling with me was about to descend.

There is a small slope of despair, where I have rested many times. After this slope is the pass. The wind is very strong all the way after the pass, but other than that there is no difficulty.

06:32 Climb to the top (5025 meters above sea level)

When we reached the summit, we found that my teammates and I were the second and third to reach the summit among the more than 200 people who had reached the summit that day, and I was the first among the girls. The guide hung a medal on me and said, "Congratulations on reaching the summit, Tashi Delek!". We descended immediately before sunrise, because it was still more than an hour before sunrise, and it was too cold at the top of the mountain. If we didn’t exercise, we would become hypothermic if we waited.

08:54 Return to Dafeng Base Camp

Grilled charcoal to keep warm and have lunch. At this time, I discussed with the guide and made a very important decision. The original plan was to take a rest in the afternoon, go to the Second Peak Base Camp, and go up the mountain in the early morning of the next day with the people who summited the Second Peak that day, but the guide said that he could take me there this afternoon and I climbed the mountain. If I am not strong enough, I can climb more slowly. Anyway, during the day If they were climbing, they would have the sun to bask in while resting, so they would not be afraid of losing temperature. They had to climb early in the morning because they had to go down the mountain that day. If I finish climbing that afternoon, I can sleep well at night and descend with them the next day. After hearing this, I thought this plan was very good and decided to do it immediately.

10:44 Depart for Erfeng Base Camp

It took an hour to walk three kilometers without any rest.

11:40 Arrive at Erfeng Base Camp (elevation 4,300 meters)

I simply packed up my things and set off soon.

Depart at 12:00

After setting off, I obviously felt that my physical strength was not as good as in the morning. The comfortable speed of climbing was much slower. The guide felt that I was too slow and pulled me forward, but his speed was not comfortable for me. I would stop after a few steps. Come down and rest. When I arrived at the Great Despair Slope, I felt that I couldn't control my breathing and heartbeat. I would soon gasp for breath, and it would take a long time to return to normal breathing when I stopped. My heartbeat would beat very fast and powerfully no matter how I rested. My legs didn't have the strength to climb any further.

These are not big problems. I have expected that I may be exhausted. If these are the only problems, I can continue to move forward by taking more rest. But other problems arose: dizziness, ringing in the ears, confusion.

I need to expend (or is it more accurate to say, overdraw?) my energy and focus to make myself understand: I am climbing the second peak, I am on the mountain, and the person in front of me is my guide. Otherwise I wouldn’t even know where I was and what I was doing and what everything in front of me meant. At the same time, I have to use up some energy to keep myself standing and sitting firmly, so that I can't faint immediately after stopping.

I feel that my condition is no longer suitable for climbing up. Although I have climbed about 60 to 70%, the remaining 30 to 40% is not easy to walk. I still need to leave enough energy to descend. , I know that I can rely on survival instinct when going down, and overdraft is fine, but I can't use the overdraft limit for the top. After sitting on the mountainside and crying for more than ten minutes, I decided to descend.

14:40 Start descending

There is a flat road after Despair Slope. The wind is very strong during the day, and the footprints you walk will be immediately covered by the blowing snow. I didn't have the strength or courage to face the wind and snow head-on. I could only hold on to my hat tightly, turn my back, and wait for the wind to ease before walking. It was a very hard walk.

16:08 Retreat to Erfeng Base Camp

Warm up by the fire, wait for the summit climbers to go up the mountain the next day, chat, have dinner, pack up and go to bed.

I started going to bed at about six o'clock, and I slept very well. Except for people packing things and waking me up a few times, I didn't wake up at all during the trip. I still slept in the wind, and my head ached no more. Maybe my body had adapted to the high altitude.

7/1 Day 4

Erfeng Base Camp-Siguniangshan Town-Chengdu City

The hike is about 18 kilometers.

I slept for 15 hours and didn’t get up until 9 o’clock to have lunch. Three of the six people who tried to summit the second peak that day succeeded. All six of us chose to ride down the mountain, so the two guides took me down the mountain on foot.

10:21 Depart from Erfeng Base Camp and go down the mountain

My physical strength improved a lot the next day. Although my legs were still a little sore, I could still walk the 18 kilometers down the mountain. The guide said, I walk very fast.

10:54 Arrive at the junction of Dafeng Erfeng Camp

11:57 Arrive at Dajianbao

Finally, there was a signal again, and I sent messages to my family and friends to report that I was safe.

14:09 Return to the visitor center

After taking a small route to evade fares, I finally understood why the entrance fee for scenic spots is charged separately from the package package - people who know how to evade fares do not need to pay this fee.

Next time, for sure.

Some other "out of place" words:

During the pre-departure meeting, the guide took one look at my friends and me and said, "You look very young. When the time comes, do your best. If it doesn't work, forget it." He asked whether we should climb the Big Peak or the Second Peak first. I asked him what method he suggested to climb. He thought about it and said that we should climb the Big Peak first. Later, I heard from the guide on the mountain that the difficult climb should be done first. My own guess is that the guide thought that we were too young (several guides said that I looked only fifteen or sixteen years old) and felt that we couldn't even climb the big peak, so he let us climb the big peak first.

The guide who took me to Erfeng had to rush to take me back to Dafeng camp, so he walked in a hurry all the way. So why not let a guide who is not in a hurry take me? After all, I paid the money (although the money cannot be given directly to the guide). The guide told me on the way that we would descend when we couldn’t reach the pass. I said that I brought a headlamp and could climb until night, so the guide started to ask me, “Aren’t you afraid of walking at night? Aren’t you afraid of something?” (I can’t hear or remember clearly), I said firstly, I’m not afraid, and secondly, the problems that may be encountered at night will also be encountered by people who climb mountains in the early morning. Since they don’t encounter these problems, what do I need? What are you worried about? So the guide immediately changed his mind and said, Hey, I was just kidding you. Never pushed me again.

It was the guide from Erfeng who felt that I was walking slowly and asked me to walk for a while. After walking for a while, he said, "I will help you walk like this, can you give me a tip of 200 yuan?" This can probably answer the question of why I am not allowed to be taken by a guide who has plenty of time: the money I paid is not given directly to the guide, but most of it is taken away by the platform club. The guide can only earn a basic salary and wants more money. I can only rely on everyone’s tips.

During the descent, he was in a hurry and walked about 50 meters ahead of me. I relied on my exhausted strength and survival instinct to walk in his direction. On the last slope, he said, our camp is here, you can walk along the way. Just go down there and I'll put your luggage back. Then I'll go back first and you can walk back by yourself, okay? I have to say that his rush for time made me work a lot harder.

Chatting with everyone at the Erfeng Camp, some people said that Douyin Xiaohongshu’s promotion of Siguniang Mountain has become a commercialized mountain for Internet celebrities, and climbing the mountain is “just as long as you have legs.” I even actually met a person in the camp who had never exercised, climbed mountains or been to the plateau. He came here after seeing such publicity (of course, this person did not successfully reach the summit in the end). As the second person to climb the mountain that day, I think I have the right to say that the person who posted the post "As long as you have legs" must not have had an easier climb than me. But I cannot in good conscience say "As long as I have legs". I really hate Internet celebrities, or overly low-level publicity. In order to pretend to be more powerful, everyone who comes here is cheapened, but in fact this is not the case.

Other guides at the camp and those who had summited the second peak all said that if I were allowed to rest that afternoon and then rush to the summit with everyone the next day, I could go up. Some teammates even invited me to rush to the summit with them again in the early morning, but I refused. . I came here just to let myself know where the limits of my physical strength are, not to conquer a certain mountain. In addition, I didn’t want to ride a horse, so I finally managed to walk down the mountain, which was a confession to myself.

It is also wisdom to be willing to give up when encountering difficulties.

The only regret is that there is wine from the mountains in the camp. They said they didn’t dare to give it to us for fear that we would rebel. They promised to give me a sip before going down the mountain, but I forgot about it before going down the mountain and didn’t get the sip of wine. , what a pity.

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