The China Story Part 2

After the roc trip, me and JP took the bus to Guiyang, and from Guiyang a sleeper bus to Guilin. This was again a whole new experience. We had to take of our shoes and put them in plastic bags. I was too big for the XXS beds, but sleeping is not really something you do on such a bus, especially if there is a bad Gongfu movie playing, and when the bus goes off road for more than an hour in the middle of the night, simply because the road was not finished yet. Add the lack of a toilet on the bus and the forced self-dehydration, and you've got the ingredients for a nice comfortable night. And in the morning just before you arrive, you fall asleep and have to get up 5 minutes later.

Ben climbing Over The Moon 7b+

No hands and feet rest

We are part of the tourist attraction, so we don't have to pay the park entrance fee

JP discovers his love for gardening

The top of Moon Hill

From Guilin we could immediately hop on a bus to Yangshuo, the most western place I ever saw in China. Meaning billions of Chinese shopowners annoying you to buy souvenirs, empty bars and disco's and all kinds of western food restaurants. We stayed at Rock Abond's Inn, a nice hotel located in a calm and quiet street, were some other climbers stayed. Abond is the best climber of China and recently opened his own hotel. He shortly left after we arrived, to Europe for a climbing trip.

You can't get fresher than this

Preparing shibing, dried persimmons

No, I don't want lowers in my hair

Old school tractor, just undestroyable

White Mountain

 

Yangshuo looks totally different than Getu. Here the landscape consists of thousands of Karst towers, while the space between them is just as flat as a coin. Temperatures were way different too. Getu was like Belgium. Not so in Yangshuo. Don't need a windstopper or raincoat when temperatures rise to 25-30 degrees. So we had to climb on north walls all the time, like Moonhill and White Mountain. Our only concern the first day was about the quality of the rock. We took a bike to Riverside and to Leipi Shan (Thunderstruck Mountain), and discovered everything was polished as hell, vettig als de pest² m.a.w. I was thinking of going back to Getu. Next day kept me back from this idea, when we hit the crack at Moonhill. This is an incredible nice arch - although not so impressive after one saw the Chuanshang Cave in Getu first - and the polishedness wasn't too bad. We climbed some easy stuff and I flashed the ultra-classical 7b+ Over The Moon. Ben, an Australian guy, took a nice whipper when he skipped the last bolts and got too pumped to hold the jugs at the end. Next day he sent it as first route of the day. Meanwhile I was working on the easy 8b (rather 8a+) extension of Red Dragon 7b+ on the left part of the arch. It was a pure endurance route, getting pumped on big positive holds, with a crux on two two-finger pockets just before the anchor. I just fell at this point, but didn' feel the need to give it another go. I was happy I pulled the whole route up till there, especially because my stamina for roof climbing was zero. I also met an old friend at the crag, a man one can trust when it comes to delivering high-quality services, mister Diarrhea. It's like a religion, it gives people a safe feeling, they know what to expect, when and where. I don't pretend here to follow a superior belief, but using a diarrhea-constipation cycle is I think as good as any other duotheist way of looking to life. 

As aprèsclimb we went to a massage center. This as not your ordinary massage, as I was done by blind people. And for only 3 euro, we got an hour of full body massage. Afterwards you feel like really light and flying, and next day it's like somebody hit you in the back and neck with a baseball bat. Next day was restday. We planned to do a 17km bike trip, which in the end were 40 horrible km. On the way back we just got lost in the fields, and we missed the trail we had to take. Worse was the lack of a place to eat, running out of water and the scorching sun in our necks. Not your average restday. 

I wanted to buy one of this posters, but I just couldn't do it in the end

All the towers in Yangshuo are lit in the evening

The black characters say: "You don't know it, if you don't try it - You'll never forget this, once you tried it

Extraterrestial courgettes

Next days were finally overcasted, which allowed us to go to White Mountain, a south facing wall containing the hardest routes in China. As expected it was crowded, but we didn't had to queue. We saw some guys back from Getu, like Gerome Pouvreau and Florence Pinet, the Swedish climber Saïd Belhaj, and the French climbers Edouard and Gaëlle. White Mountain offered a new type of climbing on the main wall: slopers a volonté, polished moreover, and so sustained as hell. In the end I became quite good in climbing this style, onsighting 7b and 7c, flashing a hard 7c+, which was rather 8a to some guys, and almost onsighting 8a+, which felt  slightly easier than the 7c+. It was a pitty that the weather turned hot again the following days. There is still a lot of climbing to do there. 

Preparations for some kind of Chinese pastry

Restday

Edouard close to sending the 8b+

 

After another restday, we went back up to Moonhill. What I didn't know was that I would finish the day and my trip with a big epic. There was nobody when we arrived at the crag. But 5 min later a group of French, Germans, Russians and Hong Kong climbers arrived, and all routes were toproped all day long. Some quickdraws were stlen too from JP's project. We found the guy and the draws were right there on his harness, little bastard, and saying he didn't climb the route. When we asked if the draws were his', he said: "Oh no, they are not mine". Edouard wanted to try Sea of Tranquility 8b+, a real pumpfest route which goes straight into the arch and comes out in the front. I joined him and climbed onsight the whol part till the route starts traversing to the right. I worked the moves and came down with a feeling I could send this. Once you pulled the crux, you had a big stalagtite to sit on, before you continued to the last 10m. Edouard sent it easily and it was my turn. A bit nervous I started climbing and everything went smooth untill I arrived at a point where I didn't see the holds anymore. I onsighted this whole part and it just happened I forgot the sequence. So I went up a little higher, going for a crimper, while my feet where pretty high on a tufa. I prepared to take slack, while all of a sudden the crimp came off and I was catapulted in the air, taking a nasty massive backflip head down first whipper pendulum. I then got smashed with my back against a tufa on the wall. The impact was so big I couldn't breath and didn't feel my right leg anymore. JP lowered me and I was lying there helpless. With the assistance of some other climbers, I was put on flat ground, an only after 45min I was able to sit. No big send and end of trip, I guessed. Luckily my head wasn't hit, and secondly it was the end of the trip, with on more day to go, which could now serve as restday before starting the journey back home. Another guy, Steve got a tufa in his face a couple of weeks before in the same route, so I was not the first one with an accident here. 

Bijschrift toevoegen

A Chinese wise saying

 

The journey back home was zombifying: 3h bus + 3h waiting + 8h train + 1h plain + 6h waiting + 11h plain + 2h waiting + 1h plain + 30min drive home. I'm now recovering, and it's going better every day, but it will take some time before I can pull on holds again. So generally put, this trip was excellent, 5 star climbing, cool people and tasty food, like the spicy rice noodles for breakfest, the stuffed buns (mantou's and baozi's) for lunch and the rice claypot for dinner I'm already missing. There is just so much potential in this country, that when I go back next time, I take a an extra tool with me: a drill.

Hails