The Holy Ridge 雪山聖稜線 is one of Taiwan’s most famous big hiking trails. It’s a stunning hike along a long ridge line that usually takes about 5 days. It crosses several high peaks, including Taiwan’s second highest, Snow Mountain 雪山 (Xueshan) at 3886 m (12749 ft). The ridge is so long that three full days can easily be spent at over 3,400 m.
My friends and I hiked The Holy Ridge recently in a four day blitz. We achieved this by starting at midnight and hiking in the dark for an hour, then skipping the Snow Mountain Peak.
A hiker looks out on a sea of clouds on Taiwan's Holy Ridge, a hiking trail on and around Snow Mountain (Xueshan).
Had a great time shooting some beautiful light tonight so I though I’d share.
The following photos were all shot within about a 30 minute period in the late afternoon here in Taipei. I shot 270 images in that time, and decided to share the best here, and make a video of the rest.
Every image was made with a 50mm lens set at various settings and they were only lightly retouched in post. They’re all in chronological order, except for the first one. What’s important though, is to look at the light, how it changes, and the things that can be done with it.
Everything frame of this video was shot with Nikon D700 (A still camera, not a video camera) and edited in Apple Aperture and imovie. I think we’re just in the beginning stages of learning this technique, so hopefully we’ll have a lot more for you in the future.
If you know me personally, or follow my blog, you probably know that some friends and I entered a contest called “The Best Trip in the World” put on by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau.
It’s a contest that gave the opportunity for selected groups of bloggers to travel Taiwan for 4 days and blog about it. We were one of the lucky groups selected and we completed our 4 day itinerary back in June. The final stage of the contest has arrived and we put our adventurers into a finale video, complete with a goofy music video at the end.
Remember that this was the first time any of us ever tried to put a video together and we had a blast! We highly recommend that everyone get their friends together, plan a trip (to Taiwan, of course!), and make a fun video!
Also have a look at my friends’ websites about Taiwan:
Formosa Adventurers just got back from our 4 day trip to promote Taiwan.
We had an absolutely fantastic time and it will be one of those events in my life that I’ll always look back at and smile about.
In four days we went river tracing, white water rafting, 4-wheeling, paragliding, hot springing, local food eating, and we also learned a lot about the aboriginal culture here in Taiwan.
There’s nothing like a fun trip with your friends… you should plan one now and make some videos like we did… seriously!
These are the things we do on many weekends, but the fact that we were doing it to try to win a contest gave us a bit of extra “umpf” and made it really special.
You can learn a lot more by reading our official contest blog and watching the videos below. (If you’re short on time, day 1 and 3 are my favorites!)
The Formosa Adventurers got a write-up in today’s China Times! We haven’t been able to find an online version, but if you can read Chinese, pick one up and check out page A10! Woo Hoo!
Also, if you want to follow the Formosa Adventurers on Twitter, click the link below:
Taiwan’s tourism bureau believe so far that the team with the most special qualities and a lot of interest online is the Formosa Adventurers. Comprising of four guys from the UK and the USA, the Formosa Adventurers have had a lot of people watch their introductory video. They are planning a adventure sports and aboriginal culture-themed trip including river tracing and white-water rafting in Hualian, paragliding and visiting an aboriginal tribe in Taidong as well as experience Zhiben and Jinlun’s hot springs.
A combination of Taiwanese adventure and aboriginal culture that is very authentic Taiwanese. The team also write about Taiwan’s natural beauty and their own interesting travel experiences in their blogs which are written in English and Chinese.
“Formosa Adventurers” is the name of my and my friends’ group for Taiwan’s “Best Trip in the World – 世界最棒的旅遊” contest. It’s a contest set up by Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau to promote tourism in Taiwan.
The way the contest works is that everyone who wants to give it a try uploads a travel plan, video and group introduction to the website. From there, the contest organizers select 50 groups to complete their plans. They give them 28,000 NTD (about $800USD) to do it. After you finished with the 4 days, you upload a video and blog showing what you did. Then, one group wins the grand prize of 1 million NTD (about $30,000USD) and gets to travel in Taiwan for a month, blogging on their experiences.
Not a bad deal. And since this is what we do all the time anyway, it sounded perfect for us.
Our itinerary is (approximately) as follows:
(I’ll update this later, I don’t actually have the real one sitting in front of me now):
Day 1:
Train from Taipei to Hualien. River tracing through one of the beautiful canyons down there. Then that night, a visit to the night market.
Day 2:
White water rafting in The Rift Valley. Followed by a train ride to Taidong and a visit to the night market and a few other sites in the city.
Day 3:
Paragliding just north of Taidong. Then a visit to an aboriginal village for a cultural show and some Taiwanese Aboriginal Food.
Day 4:
Hiking through an ancient forest to a wild hot spring. Then, the train ride back to Taipei.
JiaLou Hu 加羅湖 is a mountain lake tucked high in one of Taiwan’s beautiful clouded forests. If you can get to the trail head, it’s a moderate three hour hike to the lake. On the way, you pass through some spectacular forests scattered with luscious green ferns, mossy vines, and a few 1,000 year old trees.
Three friends and I went there during the four day “Dragon Boat” holiday in late May. We did it in two days, but there is plenty more to explore in the area, and most of the people we met there were staying for the whole weekend.
I took this opportunity to give my first shot at a multi-media presentation. I would really, really like to get some critiques and feedback on what you think of it, so please feel free to comment below.
The multi-media presentation is above, but there are some still photographs and more information after the jump…
Welcome to Taiwan photographer Neil Wade's not-so-personal, personal blog. The message I portray in it tends to wander from time to time but is always representative of my personal love for photography.
If you would like to dive deeper into my corporate and editorial work, have a look at the portfolio section of Taiwan photography website.
