Half Spine Peak, with an elevation5430of102.907519, meters, at coordinates31.221169, is situated deep within the Bipenggou Tourist Scenic Area in Li County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. It lies on the Jiuzhaigou-Miyaluo Golden Tourism Route and is over250kilometers from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province. The journey from Chengdu to the base camp takes approximately five to seven hours.2004In the year5month4day, seven climbers successfully summited an unclimbed peak, measuring its elevation at5430meters. This summit is hidden behind a ridge, so it had no local name. Based on the shape of the peak, the first ascensionists named it Half Spine Peak.
1Climate Conditions
The Half Spine Peak area is located in a transitional zone between the mid-subtropical monsoon climate and the continental plateau climate. Due to the high-altitude terrain, the climate is cold in winter and cool in summer, dry year-round, with scarce rainfall — annual precipitation is1100-1600millimeters, mostly concentrated during the rainy season (5months). The mountain’s natural vertical zonation is highly representative. Temperatures fluctuate dramatically, seasons are not clearly defined, and daily temperature ranges can be large, sometimes exceeding20Cdegrees. Annual evaporation is1500millimeters, the frost-free period lasts220days, the average annual temperature is12.2°C, and total annual sunshine is2214hours. Half Spine Peak has a typical alpine climate — cool mornings and evenings, warm afternoons, blue skies and white clouds, starry nights, and fresh air. However, due to the high altitude, some people may experience varying degrees of altitude sickness.
2Climbing Routes
2004 In the year 5 month 4 day, seven climbers successfully summited an unclimbed peak, measuring its elevation at 5430 meters. This summit is hidden behind a ridge, so it had no local name. Based on the shape of the peak, the first ascensionists named it Half Spine Peak. After organizing this first ascent, Blade Ridge Expeditions conducted additional climbs on new routes of the peak in the same year during8month and10month. Currently, there are four routes of varying difficulty leading to the summit fromC2, making it an ideal peak for Alpine-style climbing. Located over 250 kilometers from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, the journey from Chengdu to the base camp takes about five to seven hours .
Right image: Contour map explanation: The green area is forest-covered, with Shanghaizi being the location of the base camp and also the end of the road, leading toC1the blue line indicating the climbing route. The black dashed line in the valley represents an old forestry road, which has now been paved. The county boundary line along the ridge indicates that the southeastern corner is Wulong County, while the rest belongs to Li County.5414The area between5430features large expanses of glaciers, though they are not depicted in the typical glacier representation style. The exact southern direction of this map points toward the Yaofeng (Young Peak) of Mount Siguniang, with the ridge connecting to Yangmantai Peak and leading to Yaofeng. Extending northeast from this ridge for a short distance is the site of Aba Prefecture’s second-highest peak,5922Dahuang Peak.
Shanghaizi is the end of the paved road within Bipenggou, at an elevation of3500meters. It can accommodate nearly a hundred vehicles of various types. In addition to two large color steel structures, during May Day and National Day holidays, villagers from the mouth of the valley set up tents here for tourism business. There are many job opportunities for laborers, so porters tend to charge high fees. Shanghaizi is a good location for setting up a base camp. The color steel buildings house a decent restaurant, but accommodation still requires setting up your own tent—comfortable large tents can be pitched here.
About three hundred meters down the road from the base camp, if the weather is clear, you can distinctly see the glacier near the summit on the right. Because it appears very close, it may give a false sense of proximity. Finding a stream valley makes it easier to locate the path up the mountain. The junction between the stream valley and the road is a relatively flat alluvial fan, and upward leads to a forest trail. After not going far, you’ll need to cross to the left side of the stream to continue uphill. Since there are no settlements within Bipenggou, this forest trail is not very obvious. Moreover, it’s easy to get lost in Sichuan’s forests, so it’s essential to mark the route clearly during the climb. During our ascent, there was little snow in the forested area, but on the descent, the heavy snow forced us to stop multiple times to find the way.
After exiting the forest, turn left and cross a grassy slope to reach a relatively flat woodland area with ruins of an old cattle shed. The elevation here measures close to4000meters. Setting up a camp in this woodland is not easy due to the need to clear a flat area, and since this spot is only a five-hundred-meter elevation gain from Shanghaizi, it serves only as an alternative campsite. If using this as a camp, head to the right side of the valley and climb directly up the scree slope, which is a direct route to the glacier, though the slope is fairly steep, at nearly forty degrees.
From the left side of the woodland, ascend via the rubble slope, bypass the shrub-dominated woodland, and the path becomes clearer and more distinguishable. Aside from some low shrubs, the route consists mainly of rocky and grassy slopes. The small peak on the left side of the path,4462can also serve as a landmark. After crossing several large slopes, you’ll reach a flat area about the size of a soccer field. When we arrived, it was snowy—we assume it’s a dry lakebed—and it could accommodate over thirty tents. The time from the base camp to this point is four to six hours, or up to eight hours for those with less stamina.
This is the location ofC1(Lat: 31o 15' 12.5",Long: 102o 54' 81.4",4454M). Aside from collecting snow for drinking water, there should be several small streams flowing in summer. We used water bladders to collect water from these streams, which helped conserve fuel.C1The area nearby consists mostly of rubble and grass, giving the impression of being directly below the summit. The upward path is also clearly visible—you’ll need to traverse diagonally right, cross a col, and then ascend along the glacier.
C1The section fromC2would be easy to walk if there were no snow, but when we went, the snow was deep, and we often stepped into crevices between rocks. Before reaching the col, the slope reaches forty degrees, which is steep enough for avalanches to occur under heavy snow conditions.
The col isn’t like the typical gap between two peaks—it could be described as a dip along a ridge. The elevation of the col is4850meters. Upon reaching the col, moving left along the ridge leads to the route toC2, while the right side of the ridge (which is not visible before ascending the col) is the end of the glacier. Downhill from there is a scree slope, which should also lead back to the Shanghaizi base camp.
Climbing upward along the junction of the glacier and the ridge, after crossing a few steps, you’ll reachC2(Lat: 31o 14' 64",Long: 102o 55' 13.5",5026M).C2is a gently sloped area of about ten degrees where dozens of tents can be pitched. Leveling the ground makes it suitable for a campsite. Our camp was set up at an elevation of4980meters, which offers better wind protection, though only two or three tents can be pitched there.C1toC2takes about five to six hours of climbing.
Judging from the contour map,C2the route above forms a loop. This is because the weather was bad on the day we summited, and the glacier slope we had to cross was around50degrees. To avoid triggering an avalanche by forcing our way up, we still took the junctions along the rocky ridges of the glacier — essentially mixed snow and rock terrain — following the clockwise direction of the loop route. It was more challenging, with the steepest sections reaching seventy to eighty degrees.
At that time, we tried to climb up through a snow gully, but it was too steep and posed a risk of causing an artificial avalanche, so we had to switch to a rocky ridge. The rerouted rocky ridge section consisted of four rope-length pitches, featuring a snow and ice route with rocks available for placing protection. After these four rope-lengths, there was a relatively gentle ridge leading to the summit. We took the right side of the ridge, and after three more rope-lengths, we reached the summit.
Banji PeakTOP(summit ,Lat: 31o 14' 41.1",Long:102o 55' 39",5430M), the summit is actually a very long snow ridge. The northwest side of the snow ridge is a relatively gentle snow slope, while the southeast side features an overhanging cornice. To the southeast, another ridge extends outward, with a rocky peak connected to it, standing in distant echo.