In 2022, a young female poet after 95 was tragically killed while climbing Qinling Mountain on foot.
Originally, she wanted to follow the footsteps of Li Taibai at the top of the Qinling Mountains, but she did not think that the romantic act would lead to tragedy. The poet's body was found on the Aotai Line, known as the Forbidden Land of Qinling. When she was found, she was curled up in her tent, the specific cause of death is unknown.
The image originates from the internet
For a time, the Qinling Forbidden Land Aotai Line once again appeared in everyone's sight. Friends who love hiking may be familiar with the Aotai Line, a hiking route known as the "Line of Death" that kills people every year. According to incomplete statistics, in the short five years from 2012 to 2017, 46 people have disappeared or died while crossing the Aotai Line on foot.
So, what is the secret of this "line of death", why do many people lose their lives here, still can't stop the pace of many hiking enthusiasts, and want to conquer it one after another?
Qinling Aotai Line, mystery and crisis coexist
Speaking of the Aotai Line, we have to say Qinling.
Qinling is known as "Zhongnan" and is also known as "the dragon vein of China".
Stretching for more than 1,600 kilometers, it runs through the middle of the vast territory of the mainland and is the dividing line between the north and south of the continent.
Qinling, in ancient times, was described by countless literati and inkers, such as Han Yu's "Where is the Yunheng Qinling Family?" Snow and blue are not moving forward. "Another example is Li Bai's" Xidang Taibai has a bird path, which can cross the peak of Emei. ”
At the same time, Qinling is also the place where many famous historical allusions occur, such as Han Xin's "Ming Xiu Zhan Dao Darkness Chen Cang" and "Li Zicheng's defeat and ambush in Qinling" all occurred in the Qinling area.
In addition, Qinling also has many legends and secret talks. Among them are the legend of "Mother Heaven and Earth", "1987 Chinese New Year's Eve Tanuki Incident", "The Mysterious 925 Institution" and so on. Its mystery has always been the object of people's talk.
The Aotai Line is a path from Qinling to Taibai Mountain, between Aoshan Mountain and Taibai Mountain, with an average altitude of 3400 meters.
Perhaps because it is located in the Qinling Mountains, the topic of the Aotai Line has remained hot in recent years.
This route is known for its dangers and deaths.
The total length of the Aotai Line is about 150 kilometers, divided into three sections, namely the Big Aotai, the Standard Aotai and the Small Aotai.
Among them, Daaotai starts from Tangkou and ends in Parrot Town, with a total length of about 140 kilometers; the standard Aotai starts from Tangkou and ends with thick hair, with a total length of about 120 kilometers; Xiaoaotai starts from Tangkou and finally dudumen, with a total length of about 80 kilometers.
Initially, many hiking enthusiasts did not take the Aotai Line seriously. Because in terms of altitude, it is not as good as Mount Everest, and on the mileage, the line is not too long.
But it is this seemingly unremarkable line that has swallowed up many living lives.
In 2008, a group of 4 people in a hiking club had a sudden accident while climbing Mount Taibai on the Aotai Line, and the captain had severe altitude sickness and died of ineffective rescue;
In June of the same year, veteran hiking enthusiasts lost contact when crossing the Aotai Line, and have not seen any dead bodies so far;
In 2012, a total of more than 10 donkey friends climbed Aotai and did not want to encounter extreme weather, and 3 people died of intemperature.
In 2017, more than 30 donkey friends disappeared during an expedition to the Aotai Line, an incident that even alarmed the Central General Office.
......
And these are just the tip of the iceberg of the many accidents on the Aotai Line.
The Aotai Line where heaven and hell coexist, the hidden "three major crises"
In the hiking group, about the Aotai Line, there has always been such a flag:
"Hikers are proud to walk Aotai, and only those who walk through Aotai are qualified hikers."
Many hiking enthusiasts know this sentence, but ignore another sentence:
"Aotai Line, between heaven and hell."
Heaven and Hell reveal the two characteristics of the Aotai Line: beauty and danger.
The Aotai Line is beautiful, with ice-era sea stone scenery, stretching holy snow mountains, red forest and sea galleries, and countless rare birds and animals, rare plants and trees. The clouds are swirling, like a fairyland of lingtai. That's why so many hikers are desperate to come and enjoy its beauty.
Again, it's dangerous there.
The Aotai Line is rated "high" in the danger rating of the hiking route, and its safety index is below 27% of the standard value, making it one of the most difficult hiking routes in the country. The main reasons for this are the unpredictable climate, complex and changeable road conditions, and long-distance no-man's land.
Unpredictable climate:
The Aotai Line is located in the Qinling Mountains, which are like a huge screen, dividing the mainland from north to south. This pattern acts as a natural barrier, effectively blocking the humid ocean air flow, making it impossible to reach the northwest region, and at the same time blocking the cold tide to the south. Under this situation, a unique ecosystem of the Qinling Mountains was formed.
Affected by the geographical and climatic characteristics of the Qinling Mountains, the Aotai Line in the hinterland is unpredictable, the climate is changing rapidly, and the four seasons are experienced in one day. Extreme weather also occurs frequently, such as strong winds, heavy rains, hail, etc.
A donkey friend once told about the terrible "change" he experienced on the Aotai Line.
It was around the Qingming Festival in 2013, and the donkey friend led the team to prepare to cross the Aotai Line. When we reached a certain mountain, we encountered a sudden storm. The wind was so strong that people were caught off guard.
To make matters worse, the winds brought a sharp cooling. On the day of spring, the team members had to wrap up in windbreakers and even down jackets for mountaineering.
As the temperature continued to drop, some of the team members obviously felt that their body temperature was constantly decreasing. In this way, there will definitely be players who will cause shock due to the loss of temperature, and the consequences will be unimaginable.
Donkey Friends led the team to brave the storm and struggle to find a suitable safe haven in no man's land. Just as he was headwinding, the donkey friend was surprised to find that a clear "feather" had grown on the cuff of his clothes. Looking closely, it turned out that those feather-like objects were actually condensed ice cubes!
Thankfully, this group of donkey friends eventually escaped the danger without any danger. After descending the mountain, the team members learned from the local villagers that they had just encountered extremely bad weather known as "white hair wind" by the locals.
I am lucky to be able to walk out safely!
Complex and varied road conditions:
The route of the Aotai Line is complex and changeable, with most of the stone sea, blade ridge and horn peak on the way. In addition, the climate in the route is strange, and there is often thick fog, which greatly affects the direction judgment of explorers.
Many donkey friends who try to climb the Aotai Line, after experiencing hiking routes such as the Xinjiang Wolf Tower and the Sichuan Gongga, always feel that they have accumulated considerable experience and are full of confidence in conquering the Aotai Line.
But when these donkey friends really walked through the Aotai Line, they realized that Aotai was far more simple than they knew.
As mentioned earlier, the Aotai Line can be divided into three branches in total, with different routes, different landscapes, and different landforms.
Even the shortest kootai, just 80 kilometers away, takes the most experienced hikers 3 days to complete the journey.
Although the standard Aotai is moderately long, there will be long-distance no-man's land on the way. There is no supply, no water, and even telephone signals cannot be received. It takes about 6 days to complete this section.
The most difficult is the Daaotai route.
The whole journey is more than 140 kilometers, the longest line, the highest altitude, the risk factor positioning is extremely high, known as "walking in the Chinese Dragon's Back".
The main reason for this is the steep mountain terrain and the unpredictable weather.
Often, donkey friends lose their lives because they get lost, fall off a cliff or lose their temperature on the way.
In the route of the Aotai Line, the most frightening thing is the Nine Stones Sea.
The Nine-Fold Stone Sea, as the name suggests, the stones are like an ocean densely packed on the earth, like a sea of rock formations. The messy gravel varies in size, the huge ones are like cars, and the small ones are like sharp thorns. When crossing the Nine-Fold Stone Sea, the physical requirements are extremely high.
According to the memories of donkey friends, crossing the Nine Stone Sea is the most memorable hiking career, and many people will cry bitterly due to extreme fatigue and despair when crossing the Stone Sea.
The stones in the sea of stones are embedded and squeezed by each other, but they are not solid, easy to loosen, and it is very easy to cause the collapse of gravel. There are still many gaps in the area where the stones are connected to the stones, and it is easy to step on the air if you are not careful, and the light is broken skin and bleeding, and the heavy is broken hands and feet.
Once, a female donkey friend was passing through the Nine Stone Sea, because of the rise to take pictures, the result was slack attention, stepping into the gap and falling and fractured. Fortunately, the accompanying team members helped each other and carried her down the mountain in a relay manner, but the consequences were unimaginable.
Because the "Stone Array" of the Nine-Fold Stone Sea is not on the same plane, it is layered on top of each other, and one mountain is still high. There are steep slopes, there are cliffs, and the climbers need to be highly concentrated and use both hands and feet.
When hikers have crossed a stone sea mountain through all kinds of difficulties, and suddenly find that a higher stone sea appears in front of them, it is an extreme test of physical strength, endurance, and energy, which makes the explorer fall into despair.
Long-distance uninhabited area:
The Aotai Line is located in the high mountainous area between Taibai Mountain and Aoshan Mountain, which is a long-distance uninhabited area.
The mountains are mostly exposed rocks, not covered by tall vegetation such as trees, and according to statistics, about 65% of the way is completely exposed.
Such a route means that when the walker encounters extreme weather, he may be in an unavoidable situation.
In 2007, an outdoor team in Xi'an organized people to trek across the Aotai Line. One of the team leaders is a professional athlete with considerable outdoor experience. But that experience left the professionally trained man with lingering feelings to this day.
According to the captain, 6 of the total 7 days of mileage were raining.
Anyone who loves outdoor sports knows that sustained rain is catastrophic.
Because outdoors, especially in mountainous areas, rain will not only bring extremely cold weather, but also accompanied by dense fog with extremely low visibility. Due to the excessively high nudity of the environment, it was impossible to find shelter, and for 7 days, all the team members were in a wet state.
As the team reached the ridge, the fog disoriented everyone again.
Continuous rainfall, persistent low temperatures, no man's land, no contact with the outside world, no food supply. Lost, lost, exhausted, all kinds of conditions plunged the whole team into helplessness.
Eventually, the captain had to issue a retreat order. When descending the mountain, some of the team members' spare clothes are also wet with rain, so they can only warm each other back to back, so as to ensure that there will be no dangerous situations such as shock due to loss of temperature.
When all the members arrived safely in the civilized area, the team members hugged and cried, and the captain felt guilty for a long time because of this incident.
"Death line", frequent accidents, why repeatedly banned
In recent years, due to frequent accidents, the Aotai Line has changed from "Chinese Dragon's Back" to "Death Line".
According to the "China Aotai Crossing Accident Investigation Report", as of 2021, the accident rate of the Aotai Line is still on the rise, and the number of registered deaths has climbed to 50.
In the "Conditions of Nature Reserves of the People's Republic of China", it has been clearly stipulated that no unit or individual is allowed to enter. The Aotai Line belongs to the Taibai mountain national nature reserve in Shaanxi Province, and it is illegal to cross without authorization.
In addition to national laws, in order to avoid the tragedy from happening again, in 2018, the local government issued relevant mandatory documents to prohibit donkey friends from crossing the Aotai Line, and set up warning signs on the only way up the mountain, and arranged staff to supervise and persuade them to return.
However, due to the fact that the Aotai Line is located in a mountainous area, the route is fish-stinged and there are many branches, making it more difficult to guard. From time to time, donkey friends cut trails or sneak into the mountains when the staff is off work, which greatly increases the difficulty of management.
Despite a series of prohibitions, it was impossible to stop the determination of avid hikers to conquer Aotai. A big reason for this lies in people's curiosity.
Especially with the development of the network, the rise of the short video industry. More and more self-media people are desperate to get more traffic.
The popularity of short videos has spawned the impulse of many ordinary people to go to the secret world. However, these people have neither professional equipment nor extensive outdoor experience.
Rushing into the mountains eventually led to one tragedy after another.
In addition, the psychology of vanity and competitiveness is also the root cause of many illegal crossings. Because of the crossing of the Aotai Line, this move has a relatively high status in the hiking group. Many donkey friends are proud to cross the Aotai Line, becoming their capital for showing off.
Therefore, every year, a large number of senior donkey friends will disregard the ban, disregard the safety of their lives, ignore the law, and force them to go.
In order to further eliminate and prohibit the occurrence of illegal incidents of "Ao Tai Crossing". The local government has stepped up patrol supervision, including the number of patrols on the mountain and the installation of surveillance cameras. At the same time, we will cooperate with the local forest public security bureau to strictly control and crack down on illegal trespassers through fines and other means.
It is hoped that with the joint efforts of all walks of life, such tragedies will not be staged again. It is also hoped that the donkey friends can carry out legal and compliant hiking under the premise of ensuring their own safety.
May those who remain in the vast mountains and wilderness rest in peace;
May those who are about to embark on an adventurous journey return safely.
Finally, I would like to use this article to remember all those who unfortunately lost their lives on the Aotai Line.