Headline (via ROK Drop):
CHINESE WOMAN ON 10,000 KILOMETER HIKE LOOKS LIKE SHE HAS AGED BY 30 YEARS
A Chinese woman in her 20s who went on a 10,000km long hike turned into a grandmother in her 60s in three months.
According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post on the 10th, Xasha (28), from Hubei Province in central China, departed from Chongqing City in southwest China in January and embarked on a walking tour to the Tibetan Autonomous Region. With a backpack weighing 50 kilograms, the walking distance so far is about 10,000 kilometers.
Sasha, who walks about 50km a day, receives donations through live streaming online from time to time. When there is a lot of donations, it is about 10,000 yuan (1.87 million won) per month.
A Chinese influencer filmed her hike and posted it on social media. What made headlines was her face, not her hiking scene.
This is because she did not wear makeup and her sunburnt face looked different from her previous appearance. On social media, “Your face looks 58 years old (not 28 years old).”
I don't think I could hack that, especially not in my current debased state. I did, however, leave a comment over at ROK Drop:
A wide-brimmed hat (possibly with the back cut off to make room for the too-heavy backpack) might’ve been useful. She should’ve talked to me. Meantime, it’s too bad people are remarking on her looks instead of encouraging her. A 50-kilo pack sounds like overpacking to me, but it’s an impressive weight to carry for 50 km a day (which is also a super-impressive daily distance).
A 50-kilo backpack is insane: it's a soldier's load, and 50K a day is a soldier's distance. Maybe it makes sense if she's hiking through plenty of empty spaces, but otherwise, I'd say she should plan her walk better and have supplies either in caches or ready to be delivered to various waypoints. There are experts who hike the Pacific Crest Trail with only ten pounds on their backs—including water. Either something is off about the information in this article or the girl is just cuckoo. Anyway, good luck to her.
ADDENDUM: the math is funny. They say she started in January, and the verb tenses between the main article and the headline don't make it clear whether she's done. If she's done, then it's taken her roughly 105 days—assuming no rest—to walk 10,000 km. That's about 95 km per day, almost twice what the article claims. So I assume she isn't actually done yet. And how is she not dealing with blisters and other foot problems, given her load?
Something really doesn't make sense.
I agree. 50 lbs is believable but don’t believe she is doing the distances that it says she is doing with a 50 kg pack. I know a guy who worked back country for the US forest service, and even with all his gear and tools, he was never above 70-75 lbs.
ReplyDeleteBrian