September 25 (Friday) – Huang Shan

Up at 5:00 am and off to the sunrise site before breakfast. Sunrise was a bust. After breakfast we headed to Bright Top, about 4 KM away. We had a few views along the way and chatted with a couple of guys from Melbourne Australia. Unfortunately, it was pretty socked in at Bright Top Summit (Elev. 1867m) so we headed down the hill to lunch.

After lunch Paul and Sarah, our guide, headed to the Fairy Walking Bridge and I headed back to the summit. When I got there the sun was out and the mists and clouds were dancing around the various peaks. It was quite magical. Sometimes everything was covered with clouds and then it would open up and I could see clearly to the next ridge.

  
Video in new window, Clouds Hiding Mountain
 




 



















We saw a lot of porters today with some pretty incredible loads including one person carrying two pretty large propane type gas tanks. The porters were hauling things from the cable cars to the hotels and restaurants and hauling trash and laundry away. You could also hire them to carry luggage and some had sedan chairs and were carrying people around the mountain.

Paul and I hand washed clothes a couple days ago (most of it the traveler clothes guaranteed to dry overnight). None of the washed clothes were dry two days after washing and some of the unwashed clean clothes and the bed linens even felt damp. Guess when you are sitting in the clouds the humidity must be fairly high.

For us, distance on the mountain is not measured by meters or time, but by the number of stairs to climb.
Total Stairs today:
Mary – 4624
Paul – 7338