Wushan Canyon
This trip was not a standard outing. What is usually a demanding two-day canyoning route was compressed into a single push — close to 24 hours of hiking, rappelling, and navigating rough terrain without sleep.
We started late on Saturday night. After a nine-hour approach, the team parked at 22:00, changed into gear, and set off under headlamps at 22:30. Six hours of steady climbing brought us to the drop-in point at 4:00 a.m. From there, another three hours of bushwhacking led to the streambed. At sunrise, we began the descent.
The canyon demanded full attention from the start. For eight hours we moved downstream through a sequence of waterfalls, narrow passages, and big drops — including a rappel of over 100 meters. Each waterfall required careful setup, and the pace was relentless.
By 16:00, we had completed the final rappel. The exit, however, was still ahead: five hours of climbing out through thick vegetation and back to the road. At 21:30 we reached the cars again, almost exactly a day after we had set off.
The cold wave that coincided with the trip added to the challenge, but the team held together. Leadership played a major role — balancing efficiency with patience, switching between strict focus and lighthearted encouragement. Our German teammate, an experienced canyoning guide, rated the route at least V6 on the French scale and described it as “a museum of waterfalls.” Even in low-water season, with many anchors destroyed and rebuilt during the descent, the canyon offered one of the most intense experiences any of us had faced.
Looking back, the numbers — the hours, the drops, the distance — only tell part of the story. What stays with us is the memory of moving as a team from night into morning and back into night again, following the line of water through stone until the canyon finally let us go.
It felt like two expeditions crammed into one day — exhausting, terrifying, and unforgettable.
發佈留言