The 11-member "Thousand-Year-Old Team" from the Taichung Mountaineering Association entered the Central Mountain Range’s Southern Section Three from Ruisui Township, Hualien County, on the 3rd, planning to reach Xinyi Township, Nantou County, via the Junda Forest Road on the 13th. Three members fell ill along the way and stayed in the mountains. The team continued without them, only realizing nine days later upon returning to Fengyuan that 73-year-old Yu Chiyi was missing. They then reported the case to the fire department. Hualien’s firefighting team dispatched personnel to search and yesterday found Yu Chiyi with swollen feet and limited mobility at the 34-kilometer mark of the Ruisui Forest Road.
The 11-member "Thousand-Year-Old Team" from the Taichung Mountaineering Association entered the Central Mountain Range’s Southern Section Three from Ruisui Township, Hualien County, on the 3rd, planning to reach Xinyi Township, Nantou County, on the 13th. On the 4th, 73-year-old member Yu Chiyi felt unwell, and the team asked him to head back alone while the other ten continued.
The remaining ten members reached Tian Nan Ke Lan Shan near the Hualien-Nantou border on the fifth day. Ji Rongzong (71) and Zhou Taifu (67) suffered from altitude sickness and abdominal pain. Eight members sought help from authorities before continuing, leaving the two ill hikers behind to wait for helicopter rescue in the highlands.
The Xinyi and Yushan fire brigades of Xinyi Township, along with the Xinyi Precinct, received the report on the 9th and formed a 16-person search team. After three days of climbing and searching in the rain, they reached Wushuang Mountain, where they encountered two drenched hikers. Initially thought to be Ji and Zhou, further questioning revealed they were part of another missing persons case.
The hikers surnamed Wang and Lin were not part of the Taichung Mountaineering Association group. Originally a party of four, they had walked for four days from Ruisui and got separated from two companions at Taipingxi Campsite near the Hualien-Nantou border. Wang and Lin continued toward Nantou, while the other two went missing. It is "guessed" they may have turned back to Hualien.
Rescue personnel split into two groups on the 11th. One group escorted Wang and Lin down the mountain, while the second, led by Jian Hongru, captain of the Xinyi Fire Brigade, pushed on toward Tian Nan Ke Lan Shan. On the morning of the 12th, the weather cleared, and the team quickly called for an air rescue helicopter, which hoisted Ji and Zhou to safety at 6:58 a.m.
Jian Hongru led the rescue team back to Xinyi Township overnight. Just after showering, they received another report: Yu Chiyi had been missing for nine days in Hualien, possibly having crossed into Nantou. The team, who had just removed their gear, immediately geared up again. Fortunately, within half an hour, news came from Hualien that Yu had been found.
Rescuers lamented that climbing peaks over 3,000 meters in the Central Mountain Range typically requires a high-altitude guide and at least three people. Even two is below the basic safety requirement. How is it that in just a few days, two mountaineering teams have created four cases involving seven people stranded or abandoned?
They said helplessly that fire departments have been heavily criticized lately for mountain rescues. Are the hikers simply reckless, or are the rescuers not doing their job?