EDITORIAL: Hiking education is crucial
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on global travel, Taiwanese have been flocking to domestic attractions “with a vengeance,” a term that entered the Taiwanese lexicon shortly after local restrictions were lifted.
Coupled with the opening of the nation’s forests and mountains to the public in October last year, there has been a surge in people trying to tackle the nation’s highest peaks and naturally, problems and accidents have increased as well.
Take Pingtung County, for example. It announced on Monday that mountaineering accidents in the county had tripled from last year, with one-third of them occurring on Beidawu Mountain (北大武山), whose difficulty belies its height ranking of just 92nd on Taiwan’s top 100 peaks list. Not only is this due to a significant increase in the number of hikers, but also those who try to ascend and descend the mountain in one day.