Fansipan (Y2013 Summer XP1)
BASIC INFORMATION
Trek: Y2013 Summer XP1
Date: 26 April - 3 May 2013
Location: Fansipan, Sapa Town, Northern Vietnam
Elevation: 3,143m
Duration: 4D3N
BRIEF ITINERARY
Day 0
Flight from SG to Vietnam
Day 1
Train from Hanoi to Lao Cai
Transport to trail head of Fansipan
Trek to first campsite
Day 2
Trek to the Summit
Returned to higher camp
Day 3
Trek back to the trail head
Transport back to hotel
Mt Fansipan, Vietnam, is a name that would be familiar to most seniors in SMUX Trekking after the previous Winter Expedition there in 2010. From what I’ve heard, that trip was fraught with sub-zero winter temperatures, incessant rain and ever-present mist, as well as a voluminous amount of mud which one senior described as “walking against a mud waterfall”. I had heard that the previous expedition team had underestimated the difficulty of the trek, hitting night trek every single day of the climb.
According to Tripadvisor, the best time to visit Sapa is during the relatively pleasant season of March-May, which is during the dry season in Vietnam and when it is sufficiently warm enough. So it was with that advice in mind that more than two years later, SMUX Trekking headed back to Vietnam, determined to conquer the mountain when better conditions could be reasonably expected – or so we thought…
What I hoped we would see…
Before I continue, here’s a shoutout to those who came to send us off at the airport.
– Thanks Zavier, don’t get eaten while photographing lions in Kenya!
– Thanks Grace, enjoy your OCSP to Vietnam with…;)
– Thanks Eugene! :blush:
Last glimpse of Singapore! "
Oops just realized the three of them aren’t in this picture
In the evening of 27th April, 2013, our intrepid team of 17 trekkers arrived at Hanoi Railway Station to catch our sleeper train for the town of Lao Cai in northwest Vietnam. The station itself felt like the beginning of an epic adventure: striding onto the railway tracks like a boss, we felt (or at least, I felt) transported back to the 20th century where long travels by train was the norm.
Perfect backdrop for a shootout scene
On the train, the two commandos (Weijie and Xuanzhong) had to share a room with two different strangers, but I think Xuanzhong’s friendly countenance soon won them over. One of their roommates was a little girl who was leaving her parents in Hanoi, and she stood outside the cabin for a long time waving goodbye to them. Awww :}
As the train pulled out of the station, a few of us (I remember Jiajun, MX, and Elizabeth) were overzealously waving to flabbergasted traffic and pedestrians.
Way too many people on one bed
Our journey to Sapa
I told my cabin (Rico, Elizabeth, Amelia) that the train would be arriving Lao Cai at about 5am as per the schedule. Unfortunately, the train was almost 1.5 hours late, which resulted in them waking up way to early. Sorry
However, this gave the opportunity for Rico to paste…
The first of many to come
After evading some taxi hustlers, we met our guide Nam, who was holding a placard that read “Mrs Ng Yu Hang”. After I promptly corrected that misconception, we boarded the chartered bus up to mountainous Sapa.
Sapa city centre
Allow me to digress a bit here to express my appreciation for the Sapa Unique Hotel staff. Although we were a large group to handle, and upon our return trip muddied the hell out of the lobby, the staff was always patient and genuinely friendly. The crowning moment of awesome came when the manager offered to throw my tissues for me, and after I insisted I would dispose of them myself in the kitchen, I then met a friendly cook that I had a genuinely nice conversation with.
The picturesque view from our hotel restaurant (on a clear day)
That aside, on our first day at the hotel, it began to pour. To make matters worse, the train delay also apparently delayed the bus that was supposed to bring us to the trail head by another hour, causing us to start much later than expected. The temperature dropped, prompting boss Neo to engage in almost half an hour’s worth of debating with himself if he should change to more appropriate attire much to the amusement (or scorn?) of Ella and anyone else around him. Foreseeing that things might not go as planned, I did a quick briefing to prepare everyone mentally of what to expect.
Finally the bus arrived for our transfer to Tram Ton Gate (Heaven’s Gate) at about 1,900m above sea level, where we would commence our climb. The weather was still dreary and spirits were not high as Nam described to us the route we would take
Not exactly on full throttle
Thankfully, the rain began to let up as we started, and soon the sun allowed for a relatively pleasant climb to our lunch site at Camp 1 (2,200m). As I recall, it was as we started that Rico and MX predicted it would be no longer than an hour before we break formation – well, it didn’t happen for the entire trek En route to Camp 1, we came to a clearing known as “Buffalo Hill” where, as the name suggests, we can see buffaloes. And also a lot of buffalo poop.
Amelia’s Group 1!
Tommy’s Group 2!
Xinfang’s Group Three!
Pandemonium reigned at Camp 1. I don’t think any of us – not even Weijie, who had been to Fansipan before – expected such chaos at a camp. Unfortunately, our climb coincided with one of Vietnam’s most important holidays – Reunification Day on April 30th and Labour Day on 1st May – so apparently half of Vietnam decided to climb Fansipan at the same time. It was also commercialized – people were roasting whole chickens for sale and soft drinks were everywhere. Lunch came in the form of tasty sandwiches served with tomatoes, cucumber, cheese, ham, and omelettes, filling us up quickly. At first, Chelsea and Ella were attempting to tear slices of bread with their bare hands to hilariously dreadful results. Thankfully, in came Nam to rescue us with his knife.
Camp 1
With our appetite satiated, we began to ascend out of the forest canopy. The mists of Fansipan are an unpredictable bunch, coming as fast as they left. During the fleeting moments of clear sky, Nam pointed out to Amelia and a few of us Devil’s Head Peak and of course, the peak of Fansipan, rising high in the distance at 3,143m. This was also the beginning of a number of steep downhills and uphills that gave everyone their first taste of real mountain climbing. We didn’t let up our pace and, to my relief, arrived at Camp 2 (2,800m) with some time left before sunset. This is where we would be camping for the night.
I believe the protruding one is Devil’s Head and Fansipan is obscured to the right
This part of the forest was burnt by the native Hmong
I probably chose to slide down this part
Camp 2 was just as chaotic as Camp 1, with tents as far as the eye can see. The porters had prepared just one long-ass tent for us to sleep in, which obviously was not as clean and comfortable as the school 3- and 4-season tents I had become accustomed to. As Chelsea put it though, once you get into the tent, the inertia to stay in the tent is “too damn high!” The temperature was beginning to drop again with nightfall, and dinner could not have been more welcome. We had dinner in the tent itself (a welcome change from eating outside in the bitter cold during Taiwan, argh), which came as a sumptuous meal of 5-6 dishes.
Camp 2
The tent interior
Shortly after dinner, me and Tommy embarked on a little adventure out of the tent to find Nam – no easy feat at night. We could only locate one of the four lightsticks that were supposed to mark the way to the centre of the campsite and were stumbling around in the dark till we fortuitously ran into Nam. After confirming the plan for the second day, we headed back the way we came – or so we thought. The tent we came to greeted us not with Weijie’s voice, but a bunch of amused Vietnamese people. After regaining our bearings, we helped each other bash through the shrubbery to arrive back to our sanctuary. Thanks for being with me Tommy!
FOOD
It rained all night with drops of water greeting my face almost every hour. The morning was bitterly cold thanks to the incessant rain, and it was clear that mud was awaiting us on the path. What’s more, the mist was the worst we had encountered, lowering our visibility significantly. Things were not looking peachy prior to the summit push.
To the summit! (in shitty weather)
Nevertheless, all 17 of our team decided to go for it, much to the surprise of Nam. He told us about another big team that had decided to forego the summit altogether, and congratulated us for our bravery to persevere through. To no one’s surprise, the route to the summit was muddy and slippery, but thankfully not to tricky and steep. Within 3 hours, we reached the “roof of Indochina” at about 11am, 29th March 2013. As expected from the mist on the way up, the view was entirely obscured by clouds. Despite the howling wind, all 17 of us clambered on top of the rocks where the summit tetrahedral stood to pose for photos. MX suggested that I try peeing off the summit, which was not such a fantastic idea because it would be against the wind. Nice try bro.
Despite the mist and cloud cover, some of us actually took some nice photos!
Profile pic’ed! (and photobombed)
After another 3 hours, we were back down to Camp 2 at 2pm, where we were ushered to the main hut for lunch. This has to be one of the poorest eating conditions I’ve had: claustrophobic, dark, cold, and dirty, this was a lunch to forget.
Thankfully, the weather got better after lunch on the way down to Camp 1, where we were actually treated to some sprawling views of the Sapa mountain range around us. At one point, I realized I was looking at the exact same view as the Group 1 Whatsapp Icon
Thanks to the weather, we were able to hasten our pace and amazingly reach the campsite before dark, sealing the fact that we would avoid night trek entirely for Fansipan. Fantastic Rico, however, was less optimistic, saying “wasted, the newbies won’t get to experience night trek this time”, to no one’s agreement. Knowing the worst was over, it was a relatively relaxing night with some of us like Weijie, Xuan Zhong, and co. sharing a campfire night with the guides and porters. I knocked out early, but I heard when asked to sing campfire songs they resorted to the National Anthem and some army songs. Time to join us for K during summer boys~
On the last morning we rose at 7am, raring to go and finish the trek. On the way down we stopped by Buffalo Hill once again, where we hung around to take some group photos and soak in the last sights of the mountain we had climbed over the past two days. Check out me, Tommy, and Matthew trying out to be porters
Finally, at about 11am, we were back at Tram Ton Gate, weary but happy that we had finished the trek. JJ and Xuanzhong, who were ahead of the group, headed to the nearby Silver Waterfall without informing anyone, which prompted me and Weijie to run around like headless chickens trying to find them. We both agreed that that 15 minutes was more tiring than anything the climb had thrown at us.
The final steps!
Rico’s “shoes”
After some final photos, we proceeded back to the hotel where we were helpfully given 2 rooms to take a satisfying shower in. Thankfully there was no repeat of Yu Xuan after Titiwangsa, where she held up the restroom with a 2-hour long bath. We were soon refreshed, reestablished contact via the hotel Wi-fi over lunch (and of course post a picture on Trekking Family), and headed out to explore Sapa for half a day before our train back to Hanoi at night.
The view from Sapa upon our return
MX could have eliminated the OIC and 2IC in one push (it’s a 2 storey drop)
As the description reads, we are “the vanquisher”
As Meilin puts it, it seems that “SMUX Trekking has no fate with this mountain”, being denied the summit view not once, but twice. However, I’d like to think that mountain climbing is as much about the journey as the destination. I enjoyed the little victories enroute: the sun lighting up the route for the first time as we started our climb; seeing the majestic peaks of Devil’s Head and Fansipan in the distance; things going smoothly as planned with no night trek; singing random songs with Chelsea; seeing the team help each other out to overcome obstacles; feeling a sense of camaraderie; chatting with Nam about mountain climbing; meals which were far better than (I) expected; the panoramic views of the mountain range whenever the mists have the good grace to part; and the sense of accomplishment upon finishing the trek each day.
These are the moments I will cherish from the trek, and I’m sure you all have a host of memories to remember from the experience as well
Raaaaaaaaaainbow
Great job for the first timers: Benjamin, Elizabeth, Peiqi, Ella and Marie (kind of, cause Berkelah Falls isn’t a mountain). I’m sure a few of you (esp Ben and Ella with your scant layering!) might have underestimated the conditions on a mountain, but I hope that looking back you’ll appreciate the experience – like I did for Mt Kinabalu more than a year ago. Hope to see y’all at more trekking events and I’m sure there’ll be unobstructed views at the summit for your next mountain!
Ben about to become one with nature
I’m not sure if Weijie is attempting to smile
Respect for the lao jiaos: Jiajun, Matthew, Xuan Zhong, and Rico. Your experience and fitness is evident and thanks for helping the others out.
JJ: See you soon again at iConserve 2013, and may it be a success with your leadership;
Matthew: Great to see you in three out of the last four treks, and maybe we can take some Pol Science mods together sometime
Xuan Zhong: Always interesting to talk to you and I appreciate your openness/interest in interacting with the locals and understanding new places. Have a blast at Mexico man!
Rico: Meilin for Stok Kangri
It’s been nice chatting with you four!
Kowtow to the lao lao jiao: Yoong Mei Lin. Even though I constantly kp you at every opportunity, we’re glad to see your return to trekking events!
Special thanks to my org comm: Tommy, Amelia, Xinfang, Chelsea, MX, and Boss. You already know what I have to say to you :3
Have a great summer!
The End
Photo credits: Amelia, Xinfang, Meilin, Matthew, Myself
Log written by: Yu Hang Ng, Trek IC
