The World's Most Dangerous Hiking Trail / 20 Most Dangerous

[Cy Kaicener]

This trail is in Huashan China where the hikers find themselves praying a lot

http://www.viralnova.com/dangerous-trail-huashan/

http://cys-hiking-adventures.blogspot.c ... trail.html -- Includes Around the world by bike

[zippetydude]

And all this time I thought it was a coffee house at top!

Thanks Cy. I saw a short version of this a long time ago. This was much better.

z

[cynthia23]

OMG Cy. Those rotten old boards attached to the side of the mountain by rusty old nails in a country with no federal safety regs or litigious lawyers? Thanks but I am so going to pass! And speaking of passing--what happens when two people are coming from oppositie directions??
But I loved seeing the pix. Thanks, very cool!

[eric1234]

Actually, the hike is not as dangerous as they make it out to be.

Hua Shan is one of China's most prominent tourist destinations. On an average day, its like Disneyland up there. If you were to apply the Yosemite Decimal System to its routes, the "boardwalk" would be rated no more than class 1. Its nothing more than walking on a sidewalk (but with 4,000 ft of exposure on one side). For those who are really uncomfortable, they have the option of clipping in to the chains above the boards. The boards are often tested for weakness, and there has not been any deaths attributed to them. The death ratio on Hua Shan is more or less the same as that of California's Half Dome.

Much like Half Dome and Whitney, the difficulty of Hua Shan is exaggerated and overhyped due to its easy access (in this case, by cable car) by the large amount of people who are not hikers. All it takes is a little creativeness with the camera angle to make it look very scary.

An average day on Hua Shan (yes, there are people you can pay to do this)
http://www.summitpost.org/stylin-on-hua ... 2/c-182049

[Cy Kaicener]

Thanks for the interesting comments. Eric - there is nothing like first hand knowledge of a trail. That is interesting to know. Great summitpost picture. I have a link called Personal Websites in their forum. (below)

http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/person ... -2490.html

[cynthia23]

No, I still wouldn't do it. You're in a country with NO safety oversight or federal regulations. I mean, in China, people put melamine in milk, build concrete high rises without rebar in earthquake zones, have factory disasters with loss of life nearly every week. Maybe they test the wood and the cables ... and maybe they don't. i

I'll just look at the pretty pictures.

[Cy Kaicener]

Outside magazine just came out with 20 of the world's most dangerous hikes

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-ad ... Hikes.html