Pomiu (Puniu, Shenshan, Celestial Peak) : Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering : SummitPost

Overview

Pomiu is a knife edged rock peak in southwestern China.
In 1983, Allen Steck and another mountaineer of the AAC member made first ascent.
Reffer to the 1984 American Alpine Journal, page 43.
And in 1985, Keith Brown of the AAC member made second ascent with new route. It is hard to climb.
Reffer to "http://www.kbrown.kinformation.com/htm_mount/mountain.htm".
As tourism rapidly increases in the region, this could probably change soon.

Note1 ) Pomiu is part of the Four Girls (Siguniang) Mountains, a beautiful Nature Reserve with many sharp rock peaks, lakes and marshes.
Glaciers shaped the area in a distant past. The highest peak in the region is Four Girls Mountain itself, reaching up to 6250m.
The area is known for it’s abundance of blooming flowers and alpine plants. Also, a lot of medicinal herbs can be found.
The Four Girls region is at the east end of the Tibetan cultural sphere. Many Tibetans live in this area for more than 1000 years.
The main living basis is pasturage and agriculture.

Note2 ) Another name of Pomiu
"Pomiu" is the pronunciation to have transliterated Tibetan name into Chinese.
The pronunciation of Tibetan name is " Puniu"(phonetic notation is not strict) which is means the mountain of the god. "Shenshan" and " Celestial Peak" are the free translation into Chinese and English.

Getting There

Pomiu is located near Rilong town, Xiaojin County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. In Rilong town you can find many hotels.
Beware that may 1st - 7th, and october 1st - 7th are a holiday in China, so the hotels are very crowded, they also change their rates.
Nearest major airport is in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province. This is a 3 hours flight from Shanghai.
From Chengdu it's a 6 hours bus trip to Rilong town.

Red Tape

You pay the Management Bureau a entry fee (about $8) at the entrance gate in the Nature Reserve.
There are three valleys in the Nature Reserve. At the entrance gate which is in each valley, you pay the entry fee and other (like a camping fee).
At present, the climber who reaches the summit pays the Sichuan Mountaineering Association a mountaineering fee.
Please inquire to the office at the entrance gate or the following for the details.
The Sichuan Mountaineering Aassociation "http://outdoors.www29.cn4e.com/sma/"
Sometimes, the rule changes. You shuld be confirm at the entrance gate or in the travel agency.

Camping

Before building a tent, you notice this to the entrance gate and you'll have to pay a fee.

Mountain Conditions

Will research into this soon, for now see the Nature Reserve website.
http://www.sgns.gov.cn/scholaweb/conts.htm (English)

External Links

The introduction of Four Girls Mountains
Here, you can see the part of the beautiful nature of Four Girls Mountains.
Spiderman climb
Chinese write-up of Qiu xiang and Liu Xinan's August 2005 successful climb. Good photos and map.
Report of ascent by two of China's best big wall climbers, Paul Qiu and Liu Xinan. Good maps and drawings, Text in Chinese, translation pending.

Additions and Corrections

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Viewing: 1-4 of 4

Kenzo Okawa

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Many thanks for your information, Bob!

Posted Dec 23, 2005 9:37 am

BobK

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Qiu Xiang (Paul) and Liu Xi Nan of Spiderman Climbing, Yanghshuo China successfully climbed the peak on August 30, it was their second attempt.. A write-up in Chinese as well as a route map and photos can be found on the g-view website: http://www.emg.com.cn/mountain_pomiu.asp.

They climbed a total of 30 pitches and rated the most difficult pitches at 5.9-5.10a. The most difficult climbing was getting out of the base camp basin onto the south-west ridge that they followed to the summit. They found no water and very little snow on the climb.

Posted Dec 20, 2005 7:58 am