Are You Afraid of Heights? Video of One of the World’s Most Dangerous Hiking Paths

At first glance this video may look more like mountain climbing than hiking. The Hua Shan trail, located on China’s Mt. Hua Shan, might develop a better reputation if  more people treated it that way. Still, with peaks as high as 7,000 feet, a fall from Hua Shan is a long, long way down and that is certain to command a measure of respect from just about everyone. While specific statistics where unavailable at the time this article was published, the mountain has a reputation for a high number of annual fatalities.

One reason for those fatalities might be (if imaging yourself hiking this path sends shivers down your spine, you might want to skip this next bit) the fact that many Chinese make this hike in the dark. As one of China’s most breathtaking views, it has becomes something of a tradition to climb Hua Shan at night in order to reach the mountain’s east peak at sunrise.

Benjamin T. Lambright

I'm a poet and and author. I received my BA in Creative Writing from Central Michigan University and I am pursuing my MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College. My work has appeared in The Greatest Lakes Review, The North Central Review, Dexter magazine, Open Palm Print, newspapers, magazines, bathroom stalls, the backs of highway billboards, under bridges and other, stranger, places.