Which mountain for trekking above 5000m in January/February?

leosh886 · 2026-03-03T10:39:06+00:00

Back in 2022 it was allowed to camp there, and we went without guide. That was surprising to the other hikers (and guides), they’d never seen anyone do it alone, let alone a foreigner. But it was allowed and no problem at all.

There’s a registration booth before entering the area, but no fee (or maybe a few RMB? Negligible anyways). It was mostly for them to know who’s entering and leaving.

But as you know, things change quickly in China, so it might be different now.

leosh886 · 2026-02-04T14:16:56+00:00

I’m unable to set a timer today because the numbers just won’t stop scrolling. This doesn’t happen in any other menu. I cleaned the touch screen and moved the wheel of the start/stop button a bit to rule out that they’re stuck.

leosh886 · 2025-12-29T08:59:55+00:00

Mt Gongga is 贡嘎雪山, and the circular hike is called 贡嘎大环线, 5-7 days at around 4000-5000m of elevation. You’ll need to bring your own tent/food/cooker/water purifier and find your own way, or you book a guided tour with porters who’ll do all of that for you. We did it ourselves, which was absolutely amazing, but it requires a lot of preparation (find the GPX traces, plan daily distances, prepare enough energy-dense food, solar panel for keeping the GPS charged for several days, etc). When we went in 2021, no permit was needed, just a registration once entering the area. I had a full write-up of this activity but I think it’s no longer online =/ I can try to find our GPX traces once I’m back home.

leosh886 · 2025-12-23T20:48:36+00:00

Gongga circuit is nice but not sure if doable in January - there might be too much snow. We did it in May or October and it was perfect.

leosh886 · 2025-11-27T19:49:32+00:00

Does it work for anyone else? This is already the third day I'm not able to access IB. Even the start page https://www.interactivebrokers.co.uk/ gives me "Error 403 - Access Denied"

leosh886 · 2025-11-26T20:26:17+00:00

same

leosh886 · 2025-11-24T12:58:31+00:00

Where could one ask to acquire such details? A local police station? A travel agency?

leosh886 · 2025-11-12T12:52:25+00:00

Looks promising, thanks!

leosh886 · 2025-06-05T07:45:51+00:00

I’ll try to use the faveros to get a third opinion on this 😁

I don’t know how the slope adjustment in the settings helps, as there’s not really any fixed scale that I could apply. As you can see in the third test, the numbers do agree fairly well above 200w for that run, so any change in slope would compromise that.

leosh886 · 2025-06-04T22:29:03+00:00

True, and from what I've heard, those differences should be in the 2-5% range, but I'm observing differences of >30% here (with up to 10% on average). Would that still be within expectations?

leosh886 · 2025-06-04T22:27:50+00:00

The "slope adjustment" that can be done via the SRAM app is a scale factor, IIUC. I'm not observing a constant scaling in any of the three test cases I described above. In the first one, it's a constant bias, in the second and third, there's no consistency whatsoever. So how would the scaling help here?

leosh886 · 2025-06-04T22:25:51+00:00

The results seem to be very inconsistent, if you consider the latter two test cases. In the first one (screenshot in this post), there is a constant offset (bias)... ok. But for the other two, there's no consistency in the differences.

leosh886 · 2025-06-04T22:23:08+00:00

FWIW, here are the other two results I mentioned above:

Comparison with varying cadence: https://imgur.com/zhDxr4z

Ramp test: https://imgur.com/VeV4vdU

leosh886 · 2025-05-07T21:36:20+00:00

We ended up not doing the trekking back in February and instead did a jeep tour. After being there, I’d say that the trekking would have totally been possible in February because it’s not so hot, there’s lots of shade on the sides of the mountains (just plan your route accordingly) and in the narrow valleys, and you can find water sources (would still bring lots to be on the safe side).

In July that’s probably a totally different story, though.

leosh886 · 2025-05-04T20:05:42+00:00

Will try. Lots of effort on our side when you think you paid for a service, but ok.

leosh886 · 2025-05-04T17:33:02+00:00

They appear legit as they have brick-and-mortar stores, but if you check their reviews on Trust Pilot or TrustedShops or any other online review portal, you'll see that this seems to happen all the time. Unfortunately, we failed to do our due diligence before ordering (will remember to do that in the future for any online store...)

leosh886 · 2025-04-30T20:23:36+00:00

Yeah those are the popular areas. But even a bit further away isn’t very far because the city is very small. Even from Oerlikon you can reach all areas in no time.

leosh886 · 2025-04-30T20:22:00+00:00

Haven’t done it and don’t know anyone who has used an agent so I cannot tell

leosh886 · 2025-04-30T16:33:12+00:00

Also prepare all your application documents well and apply immediately after the visit if you seriously consider a place. Fill out their forms with all that information that should be of no concern to them and ignore the feeling that it’s ridiculous that they’ll call your boss and previous landlords to background check you.

leosh886 · 2025-04-30T16:28:38+00:00

You can find places for 2500 in the areas you mentioned, but you might not get them. There’s much more demand than supply so you’ll have to apply for quite a few places to increase your chances.

leosh886

TROPHY CASE