#teapot mountain

[travelella]

Teapot Mountain, New Taipei City, Ruifang District, Taiwan

Timo Volz

[oldtimey-selfie]

[thejadeparade]

[hopephotographyy]

throwback to this view

[lilyhwang]

Additional pictures of me visitng JiuFen Mountain.  See also: http://www.lilyhwang.com/post/125152906887/hiking-to-teapot-mountain-in-jiufen-taiwan

[landynn]

Oct 22. Summit lake boat launch panoramic

[landynn]

Oct 22. Summit lake panoramic.

[theworldbefore24]

Hike through hell and back!

On a beautiful Sunday morning, three other teachers and myself embarked on a journey to Pingxi where Teapot Mountain awaited to be conquered. Reviews stated there were a fair bit of stairs and overall an average climb but a rewarding view when completed. Needless to say, we were expecting to complete Teapot Mountain and then make our way to the sister mountain. Where we would have ticked off another mountain climbed in Taiwan. But.. When we first arrived in Pingxi, we were dropped off in an old abandoned but revitalized Japanese mining camp. It was touristy but still eye catching. Almost as if it had looked like this for over a generation. The instructions guiding us towards the hike path were unclear and as usual we kind of saw where people were coming from and going and we decided to follow them. After 15-20 minutes of climbing stairs we come to a dead end. Kind of.. It looked like an additional man made path branching off. Being the adventurous bunch we were, we followed it. This path was definitely man made but not made by other hikers but rather it was made for pipes. We hiked along the mountain for about 45mins, through tall and short silver grass or tall and short plants with many thorns catching us on our legs, shoulders, face, and most of all; our hands. A machete could have came in handy here. After 15-20 gruesome more minutes we came to another dead end, or at least the pipes ended, and there was a refreshing waterfall to have a chance to wash off the blood, rehydrate, eat food and most of all figure out where we were. Going backwards was never an option. One of our friends scouts south west (let’s just say, because I had no sense of direction in that grass) and another guy treks south east. After a few minutes, we get word that there is no path at all and we may go backwards. The group decided to keep trekking to higher ground to see if we can scope out Teapot mountain. The idea sounded fail proof. Except after every little mountain we climbed there was another taller one behind it. This went on for about two hours. We climbed on all fours, grabbing tall silver grass and getting cut or grabbing thorny bushes to pull our self upwards. We get past another couple mountains and out of nowhere a thick cloud pulls in… Or we just got very high and that’s where the clouds hung out.. Either way, it did not help our cause of not only being lost, but also aggressively cut up by the mountain, the clouds narrowed our vision to maybe 2ft ahead, and with it constantly raining for two weeks, all the soil we were stepping on was fresh and gave way if awkwardly pressed on. I don’t know how much longer we were climbing until I heard voices, I kept looking around only to be blurred out by more clouds moving in. I eventually focused in to the sounds and I figured out I kept hearing voices because my phone somehow turned on and was playing my Alan Watts playlist. So I turned it off and continued dreadfully scaling the mountain. I started to hear voices again but this time it was Not Alan Watts. About 500-600 meters north east (I think) there was a group of hikers! I’ve never felt more relieved that we weren’t going to die on the mountain (maybe an over exaggeration, seeing how we had liquids and snacks to last several people for days, we would have been fine). We got a burst of energy and scurried towards them. At one point, the mountain was against us, the lead couldn’t get up a part of the mountain, keeping us there for a few minutes, there were no supports to place our hands or feet. Almost impossible but I don’t know how they got up but I dug my fingers into the soil and pulled myself up. I would rather have a huge cut on my hands instead of cuts just as bad as paper cuts and thorns wedged into my fists. It was painful but there was no sympathy on that mountain on this beautiful Sunday afternoon. Eventually we got to the top to find out the other hikers have been stuck on the ridge because of the clouds and been going around in circles. We didn’t feel to dumb after that. But the main reason we went there was not accomplished.. Where was Teapot mountain? Clouds that way.. Clouds this way… Hmm let’s just go in the general direction that we thought we came from had we followed the trail.