Following others along the trail, we reached a vertical ladder descending down between two huge boulders with nothing more than a chain link railing to hold onto and no safety harness. At the bottom was a small flat boulder we each stopped at before walked across a narrow wooden plank that was attached to the side of a boulder with steel rods. Another chain link fence along the boulder was all there was to hold onto. You had to shuffle your feet sideways and move your hands in an arm over arm movement to cross this area. For some reason I looked over my shoulder straight down and had the simple thought, "I could die". If I were to stumble on one of the nails on the board or lean back too far and loose my grip, I could easily fall backwards to my death. I wondered if this had ever happened.
When we reached the other side, I saw the dead end. When one of the guys I was tagging along with pointed back to the way we came, I knew he understood my English moan of, "Oh no, you’ve got to be kidding?" In essence the short, but adrenaline pumping trek was optional, not at all part of the standard trail.
From here it seem liked a quick and easy hour walk back to the cable car…back to reality.
There are three ways to get up to the top of Mt Huashan, a 4 mile walk along the old road with the last ¼ steep steps, a 10 minute cable car ride and steep steps straight up that follow directly under the cable car. Considering the time constraints and not knowing how long it would take to the top, I opted for the cable car. Good choice on my part since I utilized 3 ¼ hours of the allotted 4 hours until the mini bus pick up.
The entry is Y70, round trip cable Y100 and Y60 round trip mini bus. There are very basic accommodations near the cable car on the top of the mountain. If you stay here it is advisable to bring your own food as it is very expensive. Knowing what I know now, I would definitely stay an evening to be able to have a full day for sightseeing. With this kind of terrain you have to stop to see the sights. You can’t watch your step and look around at the same time.