Chapter 5: The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

We were looking at a twelve hour hike ahead of us. Our Naxi guide told us that if we hiked with minimal breaks we would have time for a traditional Yunan hot pot dinner of sheep stomach before we had to catch our night train back to Kunming. Personally I did not see this as the most enticing or motivating factor, but I hiked tirelessly anyway. We took a quick picture together before we started our summit climb. As you can see he does not look like much but this little old guy could hike with the best of them. In fact he was smoking half of the time. He told us he hikes the mountain every other day and has been doing it since he was a boy. A true Naxi.

Gazing up at the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain I finally put everything into perspective (see picture). I was 3,500 and 4,500 m above the ground in Shanghai, but today I would be 5,000 m above the earth at the top of a natural structure. The air was crisp and the wind was powerful, but we kicked off anyway. The goal was to make it to the summit.

Along the hike we stopped at a lake to refuel with some food we brought along with us (see picture). I was overheated with the gear I was wearing, but with each step I could feel the air getting thinner and the wind getting cooler, we were approaching the true peaks of the mountain. The trail up the mountain was lined with beautiful edelweiss flowers (see picture). Edelweiss was the symbol of a true warrior in WWII Germany. Those soldiers who wore edelweiss flowers on their lapels pinned the mark of a true soldier because they had hiked the Alpines and shown physical superiority. I learned this in Band of Brothers, but now that I think about it this little tid-bit is not too helpful considering the ethnic minority in Yunan is called Naxi and I am talking about Naxis, but different Naxis…OK, too confusing, just forget it, either way this edelweiss flower grows on mountain sides and is really pretty…enough said, too much digression.

As we continued to climb the air became so thin and the wind so cold that we needed to rest. We built a small stone house out of rocks and yak dung to block the wind so we could eat and rest (see picture). Seven hours into the hike we reached what we thought was the summit, but in fact we had a few more meters to go. The wind was blowing so hard that I could barely stand, so I crawled up to the highest peak and Rob snapped a quick picture as proof that we conquered the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain! Now the hike back down would be hard on the quads, but after a victory like this one even sheep’s stomach was going to taste good so the pain did not bother us.

Dinner was surprisingly delicious, probably because we were both famished. We ate fermented tofu, sheep’s stomach, super hot peppers, and vinegar dipped mushrooms and then headed to the train station to end our great vacation.

We said bye to our Naxi friend and thanked him for showing us around the mountain. It was finally the end to our vacation and the next day I would be flying back to Beijing to start my new semester at Capital Normal University studying Chinese politics, modernizations, and language as well as teaching English at a local school as part of my community service project. I hope it was as much fun for you as it was for me to recall this vacation. I am itching to hike the trail again, so, in the future, if I have any takers maybe we could make the trip!

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Jordan J. Foley


傅力波