The bikini-clad hiker, a 36-year-old woman surnamed Wu nicknamed “Brother G,” entered the mountains from Dongpu, Nantou on the 11th of this month to solo climb the “Mabolan Traverse.” On the 19th, she slipped and fell 20 meters down a valley near Panku Mountain, sustaining injuries that left her immobile. She used a satellite phone to call for help from fellow hikers, but her cold body was found by a rescue team at noon yesterday, forever resting in the mountains she loved. Well-known hiker “Snow Ram” Wanwan posted on Facebook’s “Snow Vision – vision of a snow ram” with the title “The body is gone, but the spirit lives on in our hearts,” expressing gratitude for Wu’s hiking articles and her approach to minimizing resource waste this time, which taught everyone an important lesson and benefited fellow hikers.
“Snow Ram” wrote with a sense of nostalgia: “Her passing has sent a shockwave through the hiking community, as she was indeed a capable public figure in the mountaineering world. Having conquered many of Taiwan’s peaks, she previously wrote several very useful articles on the Hiking Notebook. Among them, I think the best ones are: 1. Personal Communication Points for Solo Treks, 2. Personal Weather Reference Websites, 3. Comprehensive Bus Guide for Hiking Trips.”
He stated that these three articles have benefited many who wish to experience the beauty of Taiwan’s peaks, especially the first one, which allowed most hikers without satellite phones the opportunity to communicate with people outside the mountains, report their safety, check the weather, and even know where to seek help in emergencies.
Snow Ram said that the woman carried communication equipment (including a satellite phone if there were no signal points), a reliable GPS (she used an iPhone, whose Apple positioning is quite accurate), arranged for a contact person, and left a detailed hiking plan. These three measures enabled the rescue team to find her within 48 hours.
He also said: “She did use some rescue resources — five minutes of helicopter time and a team of elite rescuers, but the educational impact of this incident may save countless unnecessary, aimless aerial search operations and the money wasted in the future.”
In the article, Snow Ram questioned and pointed out that over the past two days, many people who didn’t understand the situation have blindly shouted “wasting social resources,” but helicopters in Taiwan charge millions, which is already leading the world, and poor Taiwanese people don’t even have insurance that can cover such costs — are netizens still not satisfied? He said: “Because I don’t do it, it’s not a necessity of life. If you get into trouble, it must be your own fault, and it’s a waste of my resources.” All “minority” fields are sentenced to death by vigilante justice due to the mindset of “I can’t do it, so you can’t either, or else just die.”