Following on from this thread : http://www.sixcrazyminutes.com/index.php?threads/a-great-wall-hike-im-terrified.116935/
The title will be my in-progress blog post on the hike - the ghosts being the many thousands who died during construction, and are now buried in or under the Wall.
I spent 8 days getting to and on the Wall (2 traveling, 6 on The Wall) and although weather conditions were not the best (2 blue sky days, 1 sand storm from the Gobi Desert and 3 days of grey garbage - i.e. massively polluted skies thanks to Beijing and the factories in the North of China), it was still pretty damn awesome ... and totally terrifying in some sections !
I'd planned to hike/camp 7 sections but having to retrace steps for some impassable sections, and talking to a couple of other wall hikers, meant I cut that down to 4 sections since it seems 2 were rather too 'restored' for my liking and 1 was simply out of the question (17 deaths on one small section of that wall so now it's guarded to prevent nutters from even trying).
The 4 sections were : Jiankou (totally wild and terrifying), Gubeikou (wild but mostly easy), Jinshanling (mostly restored but with some 'wild' places), Mutianyu (totally restored but a good place to spend a night after evading guards). The wall has disappeared (or wasn't built since the mountains themselves did the job) between those sections so I needed to come off and get a ride/take buses between some of them before getting back on.
Getting on is not easy as in the wild sections access points are few and very far between and in the restored sections - you have to pay (a not inconsiderable sum, typically around £30 each time for the one way cable car and entrance fee) !
Anyway bar one section where I had to retrace my steps - I came to a 20m high 90 degree vertical that really required ropes and I wasn't going to try with 25kg backpack on. There was supposedly a detour so I'd already climbed an 80-85 degree 15m wall to get to that spot, the detour was around a 200m drop-off and required climbing up over rocks to find the path again until it came to an abrupt end. There were three options, 1) climb up over a 5 foot wall that had no hand or foot holds, so grab the top and pull yourself up (fall back though and you're off the cliff), 2) lean out over the 200m drop off and grab the lower, broken, section of the wall, only 3 feet high but .....leaning over that drop-off made my legs literally start trembling and turn to jelly, miss-time the jump to the wall (or have the weight of the backpack destabilise me) or if a brick were to come loose and .....
The third option was retrace my steps and go back down the 15m wall to find a way off the wall and detour around that section. I took the third option !
There were numerous other sections like that, though with 'only' 75-80 degree walls (a 'wall; here meaning a collapsed staircase which could be 5m high or a 100m high and either a scramble up or a climb).
The most nerve wracking being what I thought was a 50m wall climb of ca. 75 degrees, that when I reached the 'top' had another 30m climb of 80-85 degrees ! So close to the top and with less than an hour of light left I went for it because I simply couldn't face climbing down so jut one hand in front of the other and don't look down! It took me 2 hours of climbing to get to the top of that 80m climb ... that section is called The Beijing Knot.
Thereafter, since I'd detoured around an even worse climb that absolutely required ropes, it became easier and easier and bar that section (at Jiankou) the others weren't in the same league danger-wise. It should be obvious in the pics which is which, look for the collapsed staircases and verticals !
Sleeping on the Wall wasn't an issue and bar one night when it rained and I thought I saw lightning (the Wall is renowned for strikes so always best to get off or at least inside in a storm) I slept well.
Pics coming up below.
The title will be my in-progress blog post on the hike - the ghosts being the many thousands who died during construction, and are now buried in or under the Wall.
I spent 8 days getting to and on the Wall (2 traveling, 6 on The Wall) and although weather conditions were not the best (2 blue sky days, 1 sand storm from the Gobi Desert and 3 days of grey garbage - i.e. massively polluted skies thanks to Beijing and the factories in the North of China), it was still pretty damn awesome ... and totally terrifying in some sections !
I'd planned to hike/camp 7 sections but having to retrace steps for some impassable sections, and talking to a couple of other wall hikers, meant I cut that down to 4 sections since it seems 2 were rather too 'restored' for my liking and 1 was simply out of the question (17 deaths on one small section of that wall so now it's guarded to prevent nutters from even trying).
The 4 sections were : Jiankou (totally wild and terrifying), Gubeikou (wild but mostly easy), Jinshanling (mostly restored but with some 'wild' places), Mutianyu (totally restored but a good place to spend a night after evading guards). The wall has disappeared (or wasn't built since the mountains themselves did the job) between those sections so I needed to come off and get a ride/take buses between some of them before getting back on.
Getting on is not easy as in the wild sections access points are few and very far between and in the restored sections - you have to pay (a not inconsiderable sum, typically around £30 each time for the one way cable car and entrance fee) !
Anyway bar one section where I had to retrace my steps - I came to a 20m high 90 degree vertical that really required ropes and I wasn't going to try with 25kg backpack on. There was supposedly a detour so I'd already climbed an 80-85 degree 15m wall to get to that spot, the detour was around a 200m drop-off and required climbing up over rocks to find the path again until it came to an abrupt end. There were three options, 1) climb up over a 5 foot wall that had no hand or foot holds, so grab the top and pull yourself up (fall back though and you're off the cliff), 2) lean out over the 200m drop off and grab the lower, broken, section of the wall, only 3 feet high but .....leaning over that drop-off made my legs literally start trembling and turn to jelly, miss-time the jump to the wall (or have the weight of the backpack destabilise me) or if a brick were to come loose and .....
The third option was retrace my steps and go back down the 15m wall to find a way off the wall and detour around that section. I took the third option !
There were numerous other sections like that, though with 'only' 75-80 degree walls (a 'wall; here meaning a collapsed staircase which could be 5m high or a 100m high and either a scramble up or a climb).
The most nerve wracking being what I thought was a 50m wall climb of ca. 75 degrees, that when I reached the 'top' had another 30m climb of 80-85 degrees ! So close to the top and with less than an hour of light left I went for it because I simply couldn't face climbing down so jut one hand in front of the other and don't look down! It took me 2 hours of climbing to get to the top of that 80m climb ... that section is called The Beijing Knot.
Thereafter, since I'd detoured around an even worse climb that absolutely required ropes, it became easier and easier and bar that section (at Jiankou) the others weren't in the same league danger-wise. It should be obvious in the pics which is which, look for the collapsed staircases and verticals !
Sleeping on the Wall wasn't an issue and bar one night when it rained and I thought I saw lightning (the Wall is renowned for strikes so always best to get off or at least inside in a storm) I slept well.
Pics coming up below.
