Blue Spirit.On our first full day in Getu, we headed up to the CMDI Wall and the easiest multi-pitch line in the area: the 6-pitch Blue Spirit clocking in at French 6a. Despite some shrubbery on pitch 1, the limestone was clean and sharp and quite fun to climb on. While we were basking in the aura of a first climb in a new country, Ola was busy bushwhacking and scrambling up to the base of our next day’s objective…just so we could avoid wasting time the next morning. Man, going back to doing this sort of work ourselves is going to be exceedingly hard. The views from the route were quite nice and allowed us to scope out the scrambly bushwhack descent from the back side of Pussa Yan for the next day. The few kilometer hike back to the village was much enhanced by the sightings of water buffalo, rice paddies and being picked up by some random farm kids in a pickup truck – an example of Chinese generosity we’d come to rely on during the next few days in Getu. Our evening was spent playing with village puppies, trying to get the water in our hotel rooms turned up or on (this would be an ongoing project), and of course enjoying some local fare for dinner (simple but good cooking).
Photos
Breakfast in the village (Sept. 2016).Shirley and Ola hiking under the beautiful Pussa Yan formation on our way to CMDI Wall (visible behind and on the left; Sept. 2016).A villager with baskets full of corn (Sept. 2016).An itchy water buffalo. Photo by Ola (Sept. 2016).Getting closer to the base of CMDI Wall (Sept. 2016).Starting up Blue Spirit route. Photo by Ola (Sept. 2016).Shirley belaying me on pitch 1. Photo by Ola (Sept. 2016).Shirley on pitch 1. Photo by Ola (Sept. 2016).Leading pitch 2 of Blue Spirit. Photo by Ola (Sept. 2016).Wider angle view (I’m still leading pitch 2) with much of the CMDI Wall visible. Click photo for full resolution. Photo by Ola (Sept. 2016).Shirley following pitch 2. Photo by Ola (Sept. 2016).Shirley on pitch 2 of the Blue Spirit route on CMDI Wall (Sept. 2016).A closer look at pitch 2. Photo by Ola (Sept. 2016).Rice paddies as seen from the climb. As Ola mentioned, they really do make everything look better!Pitch 3ish (Sept. 2016).Leading the 4th pitch of Blue Spirit (Sept. 2016).Shirley on the same pitch. Don’t let the vegetation in the photo fool you – the climbing line is pretty clean of shrubbery (Sept. 2016).The views from high on CMDI Wall, including the backside of Pussa Yan formation (Sept. 2016).Pitch 5 (Sept. 2016).Leading the 6th (I think) and final pitch of Blue Spirit (Sept. 2016).Views from high on Blue Spirit (Sept. 2016).Well, hello!Hiking back to the main road and the village some 4-5km away (Sept. 2016).Fortunately some local folks picked us up cutting down the time to beer (Sept. 2016).Shirley in front of our hotel in Getu (Sept. 2016).Getu village (Sept. 2016).The proprietor of our hotel cooking dinner for us in her kitchen (Sept. 2016).Dinner time in Getu (Sept. 2016).A cute toddler living with her parents at the place we were staying. Photo by Ola (Sept. 2016).Getu He. Photo by Ola (Sept. 2016).
