Taipei 101

In the last few days, some ICLPers have adopted a new theme song. That’s right- Mulan. Surprisingly, the “I’ll make a man out of you” lyrics are not necessarily relating to the brutal relentlessness of ICLP classes, but more to the brutal relentlessness of our recent Thanksgiving vacation. WE CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN. Not just any mountain, but the second tallest in Taiwan.

Snow Mountain in Xueba National Park: 21 students, 2 teachers, a trail guide, and a cook –3 days, 21 kilometers, 0 degrees Celsius, summit of 3,886 meters, and a whole lot of muscle pain.

It was BEAUTIFUL.

On day one we hiked about 3 km from a basecamp and then had the whole evening to goof off in the wilderness. The facilities were rustic, to say the least:
-wooden military style barracks with sleepingbags (but no pillows) provided
-no heat
-no hot water
-no lights in the bathrooms
-bathroom doors lock on the OUTSIDE, so you better have a good friend you trust
-nothing but woods for miles
-bring your own toilet paper, snacks, dishware, and flashlights (no indoor lighting at night)

What else is there for 20 some college students to do? We ate, ate, ate some more, then played sardines (a version of hide-and-go-seek) in the forest with flashlights after nightfall, and finally watched the stars come out. Bedtime was approximately 8pm.

After a terribly uncomfortable night of little sleep, we were rudely awakened at 3am by the slave-driving hike leader, a nice, but stern middle-aged Taiwanese man in a flannel shirt and Russian hat. We were nearly forced to eat our breakfast of Chinese porridge and then hurried out the door. We hiked in darkness up steep and haphazard steps for about 2 hours, hoping our flashlight batteries were in good condition. Morale was already waning as we all felt pretty terrible from sleeping on wood in the cold, so that is when the singing of Mulan and other assorted Disney songs made an appearance (hiking under the stars was also suitable to ‘A Whole New World’).

We reached a clearing in the trees as the sun crept up from behind the mountains surrounded by an ocean of mist in the valley. It was truly breathtaking (and we were already out of breath).

We pressed on and got to the lookout point just in time for sunrise where the light, unhindered by trees or clouds, finally illuminated the mist and the hills that had been lurking around us in the dark.





After a short break, it was time to push ourselves up the ‘Crying Slope’ to our next resting place several kilometers away. At about 3,000 meters in altitude, this is where breathing started to become a real challenge.

As we reached the next crest of the mountain the sun shone so brightly it was hard to see, and the hills turned gold all around us.



By around 9am we had reached the ‘almost-half-way’ point, but were still another kilometer away from our cabin for night two… and we still had the hardest 5.9km to climb up to the summit.

Xueshan hike of a lifetime Part II, to be continued…