Overview

On top of Liming’s best multipitch, Back to the Primitive 5.11, 6 pitches.

Liming is a tiny one road village 3 hours west of Lijiang city in Yunnan province. The climbing here offers some of the best sandstone crack climbing you will ever have the pleasure of experiencing. I honestly think that the climbing here is way more fun than Indian Creek. Each line here has a personality, making the climbing very memorable. You’ll need to bring your entire bag of tricks to tackle these devious lines with defined cruxes and wildly varying crack size.

Details

Flying to Lijiang is your best option. From there you will likely take a bus into the city center and then transfer to another bus to Liming. In this part of China, knowing a little bit of mandarin will help immensely. If not, maybe having Liming written in Chinese might help you get to your final destination. Either way, have some patience, you’ll get there eventually.

A 60m rope will suffice, most raps are meant for a 60. A double rack or higher would work, and make sure to bring some larger pieces as most climbs will have an offwidth section.

Classics

Souls Awakening 5.10

Scarface II 5.10
Faraway Corner 5.11-
Clam Digger 5.11-

clamdigger rock climb liming — Clamdigger 5.11-, a classic Liming test piece that will bloody most who try it for the first time.

Japanese Cowboy 5.12-
Funky Dan 5.12

Seasons

Spring and fall are the best seasons. You’ll likely to be able to find a partner during these times, as this climbing area grows in popularity. Most climbers stay at the Faraway. Summer brings the monsoon season while winter is really too cold.

Accommodations

While people have pitched their tents in various places around town, far and away the best option for sleeping is the Faraway Inn. A bed goes at about 30rmb ($5), but negotiable with a longer stay.

Water

You can get water at the Faraway, but if you are not staying there, you should get your water somewhere else. You can also buy bottled water at the many convenience stores around town.

Food

We’ve tried pretty much every restaurant on the one strip of road that runs through town. The best one is pinned on the map above. The owners of the Faraway Inn sometimes will offer dinner if there are enough people staying there. If she offers it, I would take it, her cooking is excellent and the menu is rotating.

The potato pancake from the restaurant at the end of town was a unlikely place to find a taste of home.

Showers

Wherever you end up staying will have showers.

Rest Days

The via ferrata is really fun and the exposure is unreal.

It’s way up the valley, about a half hour hike from the start of the boardwalk. It also seems shut down, so you’ll likely be the only ones there. A harness and a PA felt safe to us.

By James Huang