From Chengdu, you can easily acess to some famous peaks in Sichuan, which makes Chengdu a most popular place in China if you want to climb some mountains. In the downtown of Chengdu city, there is a whole street of shops selling the outdoor gears, you can get some supply from this place and there are some little pubs nearby for the climbers, it is a best place to go if you want some latest information about your target mountain.
There are the most famous peaks in Sichuan:
The highest peak: Minya Konka (7556M)
Minya Konka peak is located on the southwest of Kangding County, it is the major peak of Grand Snow Mountain. There are 45 peaks around with more than 6000M. The vertical drop on the east side of the Minya Konka to the Dadu river is 6000M. The snow line is 4600M-4700M. It has large area covered by glacier, the biggest one is Hailuogou Glacier on the east slope, which is 14.2 km and lowest part of the glacier is 2850M in the forest. That makes the hardest climbing of the whole climb. The earliest climb is on 1932, a team from U.S had sucessfully make to the top, the Chinese team had hit the top on 1957.
The entry level peak: 1st peak of Mt. Siguniang (5355M)
The local calls this peak “elder sister”, but it is the lowest peak of the 4 peaks of Mt. Siguniang. The attitude of the peak is 5355M. And there is no plant between 4000M to summit, and it is alpine grassland under 4000M. A lot of yaks and sheeps are living on the grassland. The snow season is from October to April next year, and the snow can be 1 meter thick during autumn or spring. This peak is also the easiest peak to climb in Siguniang Mountain. You will need to trek/ride a horse to base camp in Hailuogou in D1, and march to the peak on D2. Then back to Rilong town on D2 or D3.
The peak right in the heart of Tibetan highland: Queer Mountain (6168M)
Queer Mountain is on the north side of Hengduan Mountain Ridge, the highest peak of Queer Mountain located on the south part of the mountain, near the Dege County.
There are more than 10 peaks more than 5000M in this area, and they are on the major road connecting Sichuan and Tibet - 317 national highway. The major peak is very hard to climb, there are two ridges to the peak, but the two ridgs are surrounded by glaciers, climbers needs to use gears to go cross the glacier before getting up the ridges.
To climb the Queer Mountain, you will need to go through Daofu and Ganzi County, and set your first camp on Yulong Disctrict, this place is 868km from Chengdu. Your camp will be on the south side of Xinlu Lake, which is very beautiful, and you can see lots wild animals in the dawn when they come to drink the water.
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