Climbing in Sichuan conjures images of sharp snow-covered granite peaks, remote areas, and a definite element of risk. Most people certainly don’t think about traveling days overland to wrestle what would be considered by alpinists to be chunks of non-epic stone littering the Tibetan plateau. But when Zhoulei, Huaci, Andy Dixon, Denise Tang and Mike Dobie were on a road trip through Sichuan in 2010, they stumbled upon the boulder fields outside Daocheng and realized the potential to develop something that China was missing: a good bouldering destination.
This summer, a group of 11 revisited the area, seven of us traveled overland from Yangshuo (Mike Dobie, Chris Miller, Raul Sauco, Kris Mckay, Ansure, DaWei, and myself. An overnight train from Guilin (213 meters) to Kunming (1886m) then another from Kunming to Lijiang (2400m) gave us time to begin the acclimation process as we ultimately planned to climb and camp at 4400 meters above sea level. The slow journey also ensured that we confused as many people as possible since we were clearly not traveling light. We had six bouldering pads with us and when we met Zhoulei, SanWenYu, XiaoMo, and Mr Tao in Lijiang. We added two more crash pads plus gear for a mountaineering expedition post bouldering trip. From Lijiang we took the bus to Zhongdian (3200 m) where we spent the night and the following day had another bus ride over two mountain passes to Daocheng(3700 meters). In our attempts to avoid AMS (acute mountain sickness), everyone was aware of the need to drink lots of water. This resulted in plenty of requests to stop during the 10 hour bus ride. Half the passengers were in our group, the other half, weren’t as hydrated nor as thrilled with our level of hyrdration. At least the stops provided photo opportunities as we went across two beautiful mountain passes and through remote villages. The loading and unloading of the gear was another amusing process. Amusing for everyone except the bus drivers, who looked on with horror as we approached with far more than the average Chinese tourist (which is already a lot). At least when traveling with bouldering pads, you always have a couch.