Getu Valley Rock Climbing

Getu He (格凸河) is located about 120 km south of Guiyang, Guizhou (贵阳,贵州) in a beautiful mountainous region of China. It is home to the ethnic Miao Chinese, epic limestone climbing, and the Great Arch! The landscape is covered in subtropical forest characterized by massive arches, caves, and sinkholes that were carved by ancient rivers.

Villages like Getu connected to larger cities on China's road network in 2003... and because of it's rural nature, it is not the easiest place to travel to (how to get-to-Getu below!). The area was put on climber's radar by Olivier Balma, a French alpinist, who visited in 2007 and was astonished by its potential. In 2011, Getu experienced a boom in sport climbing development with the Petzl Roctrip, and since then has seen more development catering to climbers and tourists.

Even when I was there in Nov. 2019, the village was undergoing massive construction projects in anticipation of scores of tour buses and climbers (they even built a massive state-of-the-art outdoor climbing stadium for IFC competitions and a climbing-themed hostel!). As this site is located around a small village in the countryside of China, no one is able to speak English over there. It is still possible to communicate by translating sentences on your smartphone, but having a climber friend who can speak Chinese is invaluable and will make things much easier.

The rock is made up of bullet karst-limestone, with insane tufas and scoops that form whenever the wall steepens and overhangs. Lower angle and vertical walls are also featured. The sport climbing here ranges from easy tufa pulling to 300m of sustained roof climbing (seriously), and is well-protected. All the crags in Getu are within walking distance from the main town and are generally visible from the main road. Crags that are in Getu River National Park (where the Great Arch is) will require the purchase of a visitor pass before entry into the park will be granted.

You'll need at least 16 quickdraws, 70-80m ropes (bring 2), and maybe a kneepad if you're climbing hard.

Tread lightly through the local farms and villages when approaching the crags. Getu is still a brand new climbing area and many routes haven't seen much traffic so there is still dusty and/or loose holds so be careful... this is as adventurous as sport climbing gets! One thing to be aware of is that the anchors are offset bolts with tat connecting two quicklinks. Most have not been changed, and it might be good to bring a few spare quicklinks or chain with you if you have the skills/time to replace them.

The Petzl team and CMDI for RocTrip 2011 posted the free digital guidebook online (they have physical ones at the Gezhen Hostel): http://books.climbinginchina.com//pdf/aab975c122b0b848164498e96b45f4d4.pdf

Accommodations, lodging, food, logistics, how to get-to-Getu, and overall pro-tips in the comments by James Xu below. For most Westerners this is an excellent adventure to immerse yourself in a wild landscape and Miao culture, but please be prepared and do your research since you are going to be deep in rural China. The people of Getu are stoked to have you and are some of the nicest and generous people I've met.