Day 8 – Walk The Plank

By Nicole Lobo
Apart from the Grouse Grind in Vancouver, I am not much of a hiker, so the climb up Mt. Hua was quite the adventure. The original plan was to climb to only the West Peak which has the most beautiful view but I also ended up making it to the South Peak; which is the highest out of the five peaks. The highlight turned out to be the famous plank walk. Before going on the trip I had seen photos of the plank walk and in my mind had strongly decided against it.

However once there, I knew a chance like this was not one to pass up on. So I harnessed up and took a brave step following our President, Brandon Ma, with a fellow Rover Crew member, Eric Chiu following closely behind. Few instructions were given about how to navigate, but fortunately Brandon lead the way giving useful tips from footwork and to how to properly move the two carabineers along the fixed line. We first carefully made our way down the intimidating staircase. Too afraid to look down, I stayed focused on carefully not miss my footing. When the time came to walk across the wooden planks, I thought to myself, “I can’t believe I’m actually doing this.” Walking along the first plank, about 500 metres high and 40 cm wide, I found myself clinging onto the edge of the mountain. The view was so surreal as I took a moment to soak it all in. Climbing Mt. Hua itself was a great accomplishment in and of itself but I can safely speak for the other 10 Rover Crew members who also walked the plank walk, when I say that it was definitely a rewarding experience.

There’s another challenge team that went to other parts of Mount Hua as well.  Click here to read Advisor John Wong’s report on that trip!