Down the mountain

After our experience at the peak we knew that we could not keep to our original plan of decending the other side of the mountain. The trail on that side was all ice and we were informed by the rangers that a woman died only two weeks before on that trail, and that she had crampons! So rather than risk a fatal fall we decided to decend that very day all the way to the trail head. it was a push but also a beautiful day. There was little fog and we reached the trailhead just at sunset. Windy even got a ranger to drive our van to the trailhead to pick us up! saving us a 3 Km uphill hike in the dark. We then drove all the way down to 嘉義 ChaiYi to shower and stay at a hotel. What a long day! In the morning we were hiking up the mountain being pelted by hail and at night we were over 130 Km away taking hot showers! We hiked about 3 Km up from the 排雲山莊 PaiYun Lodge to the peak, and then down 12 Km to the trailhead and then drove about 120 Km to 嘉義 ChaiYi. We went to McDonalds and loaded up on the necessary empty calories, and then to the hotel. We were too tired to take pictures of anything after this sunset shot on the mountain. This trip also meant that we were at about 4000 M above sea level and then almost at sea level meaning we traveled from the top to the bottom of Taiwan in one day. Tough drive through fog and swich back roads too.