Big Cannon Cliff 大炮岩

Region: Taipei,  Xinbeitou

UPDATE – Big Cannon Cliff is now officially illegal to climb at. Enter at risk of a $15,000 fine.

Location: Big Cannon Cliff, YangMingShan

Type of Climbing:  Top rope, a little bit of bouldering and trad

Rating:  

Directions: From Beitou Metro station, take the 小25（S25） or 230 in the Yangmingshan（陽明山） direction. Get off at stop “DaHuangZui(大磺嘴).” Walk down the road and you will see after about 5 minutes a yellow sign on your left – this is the access trail. Follow the trail up to the right. Alternatively, you can go by bus to the stop “Dunxu High School of Industry and Commerce” and walk around 700M downhill to the trailhead.

Notes:  Short technical climbing on Yangmingshan, mostly face climbing. With beautiful scenery and hot springs nearby, BCC is a nice, convenient crag right outside Taipei.  It is also among the earliest climbing areas in Taiwan.  Be warned though – the grading here is very hard and most of the climbs here aren’t easy.  Beginners may have a tough time adjusting compared to Long Dong. Approach is short from the main mountain road.

The rock is Volcanic Andesite.  Holds are much smaller than at Long Dong. Climbs here can get quite technical and range from about 5 to 9m high. Difficulty goes from 5.8 up to hard 5.12d. Expect crimps, pockets,  cracks… and more (slopey) crimps. If you have a pad there are some decent boulder problems to tackle.

Hike to the top of the cliff to find glue-ins for top rope anchors on some climbs(see pictures). On other routes you will have to set up your own anchors using trees, bushes, etc.

Gear needed:  Any Rope 30m or more is fine. Slings/webbing, lockers to set up top rope anchors. Something to pad the rope over an edge is a good idea too. Trad climbing is  a possibility on a number of routes but can get bold at times. Tricams have been recommended.

If you want to use natural anchors you will need a LOT of static cord or webbing since most of the solid trees are about 5-20 meters away from the cliff.

Topo:

Ron’s Taiwan Climbing Page - a guidebook with Topos. Ron translated and enhanced an old guide originally created by Milk, a veteran of the Taiwan Climbing scene.

Climbio page for BCC.

Thanks to 郭寶 for guiding us here