Chou’s simple understanding and unmatched consciousness of the mountain terrain shortly created him a sought-after guide. The Taiwanese federal government even began to acquire observe of the sport’s increased recognition, thanks in no modest part to Chou’s initiatives. In 2005, then-president Chen Shui-bian summoned Chou for a assembly, and Chou handed the leader a proposal to boost the point out of mountaineering in Taiwan. Quickly right after, Taipei Metropolis started marketing mountaineering trails in its town limitations, budgeting around US$2m for every 12 months to sustaining trails and linking current trails into loops – a person of which would come to be recognized as the Taipei Grand Path, a 92km route stretching from Yangmingshan in the north of the town to the district of Muzha in the south.
In 2011, Chou’s climbing attained its crescendo when he tried to split the file for ascending all 100 of Taiwan’s 3,000m-as well as peaks in the shortest quantity of time. It took the earlier record-holder six months to ascend all 100 peaks, and he did so with a manual and crew who served have provides up and down, working day right after working day, in 24 separate journeys. Chou imagined he could do it in just eight outings, and if every little thing went according to system, he could finish all 100 ascents and descents in significantly less than a few months.
“We only experienced 4 people [and] 20-30kg packs,” Chou recalled. “No issue if there was rain, hurricane or earthquake, we experienced to go.” In the close, Chou and 3 other folks who designed the try ended up in a position to ascend the 100 peaks in just 87 times, obliterating the former document. The accomplishment alone is not what Chou recollects most fondly, but what they had been capable to do for some others along the way.
“The most significant thing is that we tied heaps of markers on the path to support men and women obtain their way. In the mountains, at the time you get shed, you’re in difficulties,” he stated.
In addition to operating diligently to change mountaineering society in Taiwan, Chou has also been functioning to make the sport safer. Taiwan’s landscape is altered each 12 months by typhoons, and Chou has often mapped out new routes to bypass all those washed out by landslides though educating hikers regular navigation competencies so that they really don’t rely far too greatly on smartphones and other engineering, which could usually fail.