This route has not been walked, so there are no measured segment times on this page: the times are transcribed verbatim from Sunriver Culture's step-time diagrams and are a shared yardstick, not my pace. Every station's position and name was checked one by one and follows Sunriver's naming, so names and elevations match what hikers recognise.Route is for reference only.This route has not been walked yet. It is a planned line routed along OpenStreetMap's trail network, its shape checked against four GPS records of people who walked it. Please note:
- Carry water from the previous campground. The third night's Campground below East Peak has only two dark ponds (they never dry out, but the water is poor); at the fourth night's 2899 Saddle Campground there is only a nearly dry dark pond (three or more public records, 2020–2021). Before leaving Mushan Pond on day three, fill up for two nights: carry it yourself the day before, or hire a porter. Sancha Peak Campground has no water of its own either; it is at Mushan Pond, 5–10 minutes on.
- On day two, past Ganzhuowan Mountain, comes the cliff section: a narrow ridge, two near-vertical fixed ropes, then a scree climb (two public records agree). In cold weather frost makes it slippery.
- Day four is spent entirely on the eighteen peaks: from Campground below East Peak to Zhuoshe Dashan, up and down one summit after another, with ropes, abseils and cliffs concentrated in the second half (public records agree). One four-day record from October 2025 took 7 hours for it, then 2 hours more to 2899 Saddle Campground. This is how five-day itineraries usually split it (four public itineraries from 2020–2025 all spend the third night at Campground below East Peak, which some call Northeast Saddle Campground). This page spends the fourth night at 2899 Saddle Campground (also called the 2900 campground in records); some stop at the campground just past the Zhuoshe Dashan summit instead, or push all the way down to the forest road.
- The car cannot reach the trailhead. The start is the end of Wanda Forest Road at 9.1K, where three of the reference records began walking, but the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency's trail page (2026-08-28) gives the road a total length of 9.17 km and a drivable length of 8.9 km: “vehicles can pass only as far as the collapse at about 8.9K”. So you park at the collapse around 8.9K and walk the last 200 metres of forest road to the trailhead. Some public itineraries say they “started at 8.9K”, meaning the parking spot, not the end of the road. The same page listed the road as open at the time; check its condition again before setting off. Drives are not drawn.
- Day five follows the ridge west from Zhuoshe Mountain past the Big Reforestation Sign down to Liqi Creek, as all four reference records do; the organiser's schedule has the pickup at Liqi Creek, so the line stops there — Wujie Dam is another 12 minutes on. The other way from Zhuoshe Mountain, north to Wujie Forest Road 48K, is not drawn here.
The switch between the heavy pack and a summit day pack is at Mushan Pond Campground (Day 03, out and back to Mushan and Huoshan). The line was compared day by day with the four records: every day, at least two records have over 95% of the line within 50 metres, and no stretch of 150 metres or more leaves all of them. Only their horizontal positions are used, never their elevations or times. Pace and how much each day packs in are for reference only; follow conditions on the ground.
