Mission

LittlePo Adventures is a relationship-based guiding service, a bridge connecting international explorers with natural wonders in China and Taiwan. Equipped with abundant local knowledge, language skills, and outdoor professionalism, the staff of LittlePo Adventures creates personal expeditions and decorates them with cultural touches.

History

LittlePo Adventures is founded by Szu-ting Yi in March 2010; however this business idea has been incubated for several years. Szu-ting was born and raised in Taiwan where beautiful mountain ranges and astonishing geological features reside. Not until she came to United States for her graduate study in 1998, did she have in contact with various outdoor sports, including skiing, white water kayaking, mountaineering, and rock climbing. Eventually, she decided to take a career shift from computational linguistics to outdoor education and guiding. During her pursuit of an outdoor career, she was frequently approached with curious questions regarding the outdoor scene in China and Taiwan. Based on sharing the passion towards the outdoors, the prototype of LittlePo Adventures was therefore formed - a guiding service which promotes mutual understanding among international explorers with different cultural backgrounds via outdoor discovery.

Philosophy

Your Friend. Your Guide.

Our clients are our friends. If you show interest in our trips or if you approach us for a customized trip, you have demonstrated the desire to explore wild beauty or the curiosity of experiencing the unknown. And therefore, you are our friend. LittlePo Adventures strives to provide seamless service from trip preparation to a safe return. We make our promise not to outsource our trips or toss our clients around random outfitters. We are always there to support and help you evaluate the risk and wade through unfamiliar terrain.

Be Small. Stay Close.

LittlePo Adventures prioritizes personal and unforgettable client experience, and therefore we guide small-group expeditions. Not only does a small group function more organically, but it facilitates flexibility and customization. Everybody’s voice is heard and personal needs are addressed.

Exchange. Collaboration.

LittlePo Adventures connects and collaborates with local people. We exchange our expertise: LittlePo Adventures wants to bring revenue and help develop local communities; our local friends provide us first-hand beta and advice in order for us to create an authentic local experience.

Adventures

LittlePo Adventures currently offers three types of adventures: climb, trek, and scout. We also welcome you to reach out to us for a customized trip for you and your group.

Climb

This adventure includes Dirtbag China climbing series and Dirtbag Taiwan climbing adventures. Areas we will visit include Yangshuo, Kunming and vicinity, Long Dong (Dragon Cave) and the list goes on. Climbing adventures are suitable for budget climbers who are long for an international climbing vacation. As climbers we are destined to travel because it is in our blood to touch different kinds of rocks, experience exotic foreign atmosphere and cuisine, and live the dream.

Trek

This adventure gives avid hikers and backpackers an opportunity to trek through breathtaking mountain ranges and to appreciate extraordinary landscape. Areas we will explore include western China and Taiwan. Trekking adventures are suitable for natural wanderers who seek pristine dreamland. On foot, we hikers understand the true essence of being with nature.

Scout

This adventure invites keen explorers to participate in the process of developing future trips for LittlePo Adventures. With a general direction but without a scheduled itinerary, we encounter unique experiences and face unexpected challenges. Forthcoming projects including cycling Taiwan accompanied with hot-spring visits, river tracing, and a few trekking trips in northwestern Yunnan and Qinghai. We adventurers know that it is not an adventure when everything flows according to the plan.

Customized

Send us your thoughts no matter how preliminary they are, and LittlePo Adventures works with you to create your ideal trip.

Acknowledgement

The video of LittlePo Adventures is created by David E Anderson

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Geno, Mark and I have known each other since our NOLS Denali expedition in summer 2007. We reunited in Mendoza Argentina on the evening of December 26, 2008 for our climb of the highest peak of South America, Aconcagua. We had planned this trip months ago. Weighing the factors including our competency of technical skills and desire for challenge, we set our mind to summit Aconcagua thru Polish Glacier Route.

The Polish Glacier did not seem to have good conditions this season, we were told by another team who wanted to attempt the same route while we were all hanging out at Camp 1. The less steep Original Polish Glacier Route was super icy and the Polish Glacier Direct which usually has better snow conditions had many ice patches too. They said, “a person just died because of a fall.” This news was very unsettling but we didn’t realize how much we were affected by it until later. In any rate, we hadn’t even assessed the route ourselves yet.

On January 4, 2009, we ferried some load to Camp 2, which was also the common spot to set up the high camp for teams climbing Polish Glacier. The weather was good, and the visibility was high. Underneath the bluebird sky, the glacier was beautiful, breath-taking, and inviting. Both Geno and I were a little tired due to being at high altitude - I started to experience some mild headache since we hit 18,000 feet. We decided to head down right after we dropped our load despite our original plan - we planned to scout the glacier and find a higher spot to set up the high camp to shorten the summit day. We did give the glacier a few more glances before descending though. There was some red fiber hanging around, and we suspected that it was a tent from another team.

We moved our camp to Camp 2 the next day. The weather wasn’t that great. We had to pitch our tent to wait for a wind storm to die down. The wind never stopped; it just became more tolerable after a long nap. We kept pushing up, and we witnessed a few rangers dragging a body down. The body was not on a litter, or in a body bag. The body was just dragged down, tumbling on the ground. I had a weird feeling and I kept telling myself that he would not experience any more pain, but the feeling was like a fish bone stuck in my throat. I didn’t see his face, but his coat was in a recognizable red, the tent we thought we saw the previous day was apparently his coat. We three didn’t talk about this at that moment, not even the whole day. During the last push, I was cold so that I had to put my puffy jacket on while I was hiking. The wind was strong, but was the wind the reason I was feeling cold?

Wind storms; snow storms. We stayed in the tent for the most time on the 6th and 7th. On the 7th, we were out for a brief crevasse rescue practice. We had to fast forward the practice because the wind chill was unbearable. A few rangers came and asked us about 5 missing people before we headed back in the tent. Another accident? We reached the consensus of doing the False Polish Glacier Route instead without much discussion. We decided to give it a shot the next day as long as the weather was not too hindering.
False Polish Glacier Route is not technical but is very long, starting from the base of Polish Glacier, it traverses the mountain towards Normal Route and merges with Normal Route to reach the top. Many parties set up another camp between Camp 2 and the summit, but we didn’t have the luxury to do so because our food was running low.

We started our summit day at 5 am. The snow was fresh, soft and deep. Even though I was in the back, I still had to break trails. We didn’t have snowshoes, because usually snowshoes are not required here, and booting took forever. We got to 21,250 feet at around 11 am, six hours later. The clouds started to merge in and soon the road to the summit was less visible. We had a discussion. According to the weather patterns we had observed for the past few days, in addition to needing at least another good three hours to reach the top, we decided to turn around.

This was not the first time I turned my back to a summit. On the Denali summit day, my tears bursted out when I turned around at 19,400 feet. It was a hard moment, but it was not a hard decision, because I was seriously affected by altitude. This time, it was a hard decision for me. The condition of Normal Route was much better than the traverse section, and many other climbers were before us and after us. Say we might need to make it a 15-hour day but I knew I would be fine with 15 hours of hard work. I suspect the root reason for the difficult decision was me not wanting to turn around again. I didn’t try to justify the decision because there were too many variables involved, I just knew that I accepted the decision.

Before we planned this expedition, we knew that whether we would reach the top was based on efforts and chance combined. We didn’t expect to see or hear people die (two out of the five missing people died as well). I was not horrified but I was certainly made to be more full of awe. Aconcagua is a big mountain, and everything could happen there. I never try to underestimate any mountain but I know I will try to minimize its chance of happening in my future expedition planning after this trip.

Related Articles:
Heading Toward Aconcagua

On June 11, 2008, after many days of bushwhacking through numerous willows in the Alaskan tundra, we newborn NOLS instructors were anxiously waiting for the bus along Alaskan Highway. It was raining a little bit, but the wetness and coldness couldn’t rub people’s spirit away. On the bus ride, the atmosphere reached the climax; people were screaming about who got the most letters after one month in the field and fighting over papers which were already two days old…and I got handed a card unexpectedly. It was from Seattle, and the cover of the card was a breathtaking shot of the snow-covered Rainier. “They reached the summit,” I exclaimed,“ and they remembered to send me a card to congratulate me; I am so touched.”

They are Geoff, Geno, and Mark. We climbed Denali together, and after that climb, we knew that we would climb together again. In fact, before Rainier, Geno and Mark had climbed another high peak in Mexico (~ 20,000 feet) while I was rock climbing in Red Rocks. They were planning to tackle Aconcagua and this time I had decided not to miss it again. Therefore, we three will celebrate the new year of 2009 at Plaza Argentina, where the base camp of Polish Glacier Route is.

Concerns

Aconcagua is the highest peak of the Americas and is also the highest summit outside of Asia: its elevation is 22,841 feet (6,962 m). My biggest worry is therefore altitude sickness. Right now I can still remember the tears I dropped on Denali; I had to turn around from the summit at 19,400 feet because my body couldn’t receive well executed commands from an oxygen-deprived brain. Aconcagua is higher than Denali and much higher. I know that Denali might have higher physiological altitude, due to its higher latitude (see reference 1) and I know that previous high attitude experience does not necessarily imply how my body will react upon my next encounter; however, every time I think about this climb, I can’t help but keep telling myself “remember to drink water, breathe more, and you can always turn around.”

I did consider to bring diamox with me but it seemed that now taking diamox is forbidden on Aconcagua because park staff think diamox can mask the effects of HAPE (see reference 2). Besides, diamox is generally not recommended for Aconcagua because it can lead to dehydration and Aconcagua is an arid mountain. Therefore, in terms of dealing with high attitude, proper acclimatization and descent will be the key elements.

Route Selection

The first two popular routes leading to the summit of Aconcagua are Normal Route and Polish Glacier Traverse Route (also called False Polish Glacier Route). Normal Route travels through the Horcones River Valley and ascends the mountain along the western slopes. Polish Glacier Traverse Route travels through the Relinchos Valley and ascends the mountain on the peak’s east side. Upon hitting the base of the Polish Glacier, the route traverses the mountain towards Normal Route and eventually joins the Normal Route to the summit. Both of these routes present no technical difficulties: they are basically a “hike-up.” Altitude and weather are the two major objective hazards for both routes.

Since all our team members have moderate glacier travel and technical climbing experience, we decided to do something more challenging – the Polish Glacier Direct Route. This route has a few variations, many parties make their final decision at Camp 2 (19,000 feet; 5800 m) where they have a great view of the Polish Glacier. The deciding factors usually are the gradient of the slope, and the amount and conditions of snow and ice. After reading several trip reports and expedition description of some guiding services, we have learned that it’s possible that we will need to do some ice climbing or mixed climbing. In addition to running belays, many parties set up intermediate belay stations at more technical sections.

To conclude, we will attempt Polish Glacier Direct Route to reach the summit, take the Normal Route to descend and use Polish Glacier Traverse Route to get back to the high camp. The next section spells out our tentative itinerary.

Tentative Itinerary

Campsites: Most parties take three days to get to the base camp of Polish Glacier Route (Plaza Argentina), and many parties use two intermediate campsites between the base camp and the summit – Camp 1 & Camp 2. It means Camp 2 will also serve as the high camp. Some parties use an intermediate campsite between Camp 1 & 2, which is at Ameghino Col (17,700 feet). There are also potential camp spots between Camp 2 & the summit (see reference 3).

Route Description: We will starting hiking at Punta de Vacus (trailhead), reach the base camp at Plaza Argentina, use Polish Glacier Route to reach the summit and descend through Normal Route and then Polish Traverse back to Camp 2 and descend back to Punta de Vacus.

Day 1 (Mendoza):
Arrive at Mendoza, stay overnight

Day 18 - Day 19:
Two-day hike out to the trailhead and depends on the time of the day, might stay overnight @ Los Penitentes or Mendoza

Reference

1. For more info regarding “physiological attitude,” please refer to Altitude Illness by Charles S. Houston, M.D. 1979. The American Alpine Journal Vol 22 Number 1 Issue 53, p153-159. For further reading on Altitude Illness, I recommend Chapter 21 & 22 of Medicine for Mountaineering & Other Wilderness Activities. 5th Edition. Edited by James A. Wilkerson, M.D. The Mountaineers Books.
2. http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/150197/aconcagua.html
3. Aconcagua: A Climbing Guide. Second Edition. R.J. Sector. The Mountaineers Books.

I worked three climbing courses this summer in Pacific Northwest for YBOYS. It’s self-explanatory that our students were all boys, and they were middle school or high school Seattle urban kids. Besides that, all my co-workers were guys, and therefore I was the only female on board.

YBOYS has ambitious goals and one of them is to encourage diversity. Our groups often consisted of boys from different backgrounds in terms of race, ethnicity, household income etc. I often joked that I was hired because I would add diversity to the program – I am a female, I am Asian, and I speak English as a second language. My responsibility should have been just hanging out there, posing in photos for fund-raising purposes. It turned out that it was only perhaps less than 1% of my duty. All my trips were technical, mentally challenging, and sometimes frustrating. However, I enjoyed them all because they were all super fun and rewarding; I gained precious experience, I made good friends with my co-instructors and I made some difference for the boys.

I can’t recall what my answer was when Andrew Jay, the program director of YBOYS, asked me about how I feel about possibly being the only female on board. That was the last interview question and I knew that he was more or less simply curious because at my previous job I worked with all-girl courses for seven months. That question made me start thinking; other than disguising myself better when taking a natural break, not being able to talk too openly about my period, what else? I hate stereotypes and I don’t like to overgeneralize, but I couldn’t help but wonder would there be significant difference between all-boy and all-girl groups and would I have to make adjustments interacting with boys?

The last time I asked myself similar questions was before I attended college. I chose computer engineering as my major so I knew that I would be one of the few girls in class. That was a big transition for me because I was from a single-gender high school. I finally decided that I would treat all boys the same way as I treated all my high school female friends. I was so outgoing and so enthusiastic to know everybody that in my junior year many of my good male friends confessed to me that my over-passionate style of breaking ice made them wonder whether I was hitting on them. I was puzzled, did it really take them two years to realize I just wanted to be friends?

The first course was a 6-day rock climbing camp at Tieton River Rocks, I felt that I was more like a caretaker than an outdoor educator. Those middle school kids had tons of energy and enjoyed provoking each other more than rock climbing. My co-instructor Ian Farquhar and I spent more time asking them not to throw rocks or stick fight than teaching them how to move on rocks. In the morning, we often spent much time resolving conflicts before we felt safe to take them to the crags. Ian commented that some of these kids projected a mom figure onto me despite that it was the last role I wanted to possess. His not-at-all persuasive argument was that if I had a kid when I was about their age, I would have a kid their age now. Toward the end, when I started to feel some connection with some kids and successfully convinced them to step out of their comfort zone, I suddenly did not mind anymore if they considered me as a mom. A short trip like this with such a young group, it was all about planting seeds.

The second course was a 14-day rock climbing camp at Squamish BC, Canada. Ian was again the course lead and we had a third volunteer instructor, Craig McKibben, who was awarded the position of President of the Washington Trails Alliance this year. This course, we had high school kids, and many of them were either alumni who understood the structure of a typical YBOYS trip or had intention to learn all about rock climbing. We therefore were able to execute our curriculum pretty well; many of them mock led on sport routes and were guided up a multi-pitch trad route.

Kids in general respected me as a climbing instructor; however, there were some awkward moments for me because kids made borderline comments toward me which could be interpreted as affection or flirting. Sometimes I was aware that they pushed too far and I asked them to keep the conversation appropriate; however the request was usually not effective because I was fairly friendly with them and they even told me that I should not discipline them with a big smile on my face. Sometimes I was not even aware that they might have pushed too far, due to cultural and language barriers. Ian’s explanation was that I should have been prepared for this; he said “they are high school kids and there is no girl around.” I respect Ian as a professional outdoor educator and climbing instructor but in terms of the dynamics between me and the boys, I took his words only for reference.

The third course was a 14-day mountaineering expedition in Alpine Lake Wilderness area. Salz was the course lead. The terrain was less technical than the previous two rock climbing camps, we never traveled on fifth class terrain, but the trip was in fact more intense and physically demanding. We had many long days, much off-trail travel and bushwhacking in the area was demanding. When we attempted peak ascents, the approach was usually a combination of snow travel, hopping over boulder fields, walking on screes, and traversing exposed slabs. It was not technical but the consequences were high. Kids were scared when they did fixed line travel and when we belayed them or lowered them down. We were most afraid when kids were on less technical terrain and they felt relatively safe and felt okay to mess around.

I became more authoritative during this course. There was just no time to engage in a conversation with a kid while descending a steep rock pile. I wanted them to follow specific instructions promptly because I didn’t want them to get hurt; if I happened to hurt somebody’s feelings, so be it. We could deal with that after we made it back to camp. Salz and I understand that nobody likes to be commanded all the time, and teenagers are even more rebellious. We explained to them the circumstances and most of the kids understood it and took it just fine. However, there was this one kid who had strong resistance toward authoritative figures, and he reacted to Salz and I differently. He would argue with Salz but after Salz reiterated himself, he would suck it up and complain about it covertly. With me, he would try to engage endless arguments, defending himself, and then propagate his complaints overtly among other boys. Because the requests from Salz and I were pretty much the same and the method we used to deliver them was similar, I sometimes wondered whether I got the special treatment because I was not a guy.

Some parents were surprised when they learned that their kids would be with a female instructor, but the reactions were always positive; it seemed that they were happy to see a co-ed instructor team. A father said that I was brave to spend two weeks mountaineering with boys. A female social worker was excited to see me work with YBOYS and a couple moms said “I have to meet you” and shook my hands passionately when they picked up their sons after we returned from the backcountry. I was flattered and encouraged and at the same time I felt a little bit bad because my co-instructors worked just as hard or harder than I and they didn’t get the same kind of recognition.

Even though I have reported some observations from working with boys this summer, I still haven’t had a definite conclusion or genius discovery to share about the differences between working with boys and girls. Instead, I have realized that there are more similarities than differences when working with boys or girls. The decision I made years ago before I entered the man-dominated engineering world is still in style. I love to address people’s needs in a more generic sense; as for non-biological driven differences between males and females, I’d like to deal with them on a person-to-person basis. It is just more fun for me to not make assumptions, not think about stereotypes and to interact with people on a more personal level. Especially in a professional setting I would rather others treat me as a human being rather than a female. In order to accomplish this I should take the initiative to treat others as human beings as well.

Rock climbing is a necessary endeavor for mountaineering, at least that is what I believe, and that was why I started to rock climb a couple years ago. During the occasions I have spent on rocks, I have gradually discovered the charm of the sport itself; however, to me, there had been something missing. I did not know what the missing component was, but I knew I needed it to extract the buried determination to become a better climber. The Grand climb terminated the long search and provided the last piece of the puzzle.

I arrived at Jackson Wyoming around noon on August 25, 2007, less than a week apart from my last field trip: a ten-day AMC major excursion in Yosemite. The weather was touchingly pleasant, especially when I compared it to the torturing hot and dry Sierra climate. If not because of the skyrocketing real estate market and flooding tourists wandering on the streets, Jackson is almost a paradise.

I walked in the Jackson Hole Mountain Guides (JHMG) office for a gear check. All I had in my backpack was my personal clothes, toiletries, snack food, water, and a headlamp; and this backpack was all I had to carry during the climb. The sleeping gear and climbing gear were waiting for us at 11,000 feet, where the Corbet High Camp lies below the Eastern face of the Grand and the Teepe Glacier. A light backpack!? Breakfasts and dinners would be prepared by the guides!? I felt like I were a nobleperson. “This climb is gonna be easy,” I thought, which was soon proved to not exactly be the case.

Robby Grossman, one of the NOLS 2007 Denali expedition members, recently released the first batch of his professional and artistic Denali shots. The pictures are breathtaking; therefore I want to share with you all:

Robby Grossman’s Denali shots

Readers, how many LittlePo’s do you find in the photos?

LittlePo also presents you:
Photos from other expedition members:
1. Erin Murphy’s photos
2. Dan Ruth’s Denali photos

On May 31, 2007, I arrived at Anchorage Alaska. This was my second time in Anchorage; streets, shops, even pedestrians looked familiar. The objective of visiting was still the same as that of last year: mountaineering. However, this time I was going to climb Denali, the highest peak of North America. It is significant, and it is significant not only to me but also to many people who care about me and my outdoor pursuit.

Last summer, I took a NOLS Alaska mountaineering course in Chugach Range; we could see Denali if the conditions cooperated. Denali has this unexplainable attraction: when I look at it, I can’t help but wonder what it is like to stand on top of it. Especially during the course, I learned how pristine Alaskan glaciers are; how satisfactory glacier travel is. My instructor, Shawn Benjamin, told me, “NOLS has an alumni course to climb Denali,” and she understood that I loved to position myself in a less crowded environment, “we climb from the Muldrow glacier instead of the popular West Buttress route. It is possible you will not see any other groups.”

I did not apply for the course right away after I got back to civilization in mid August last year. I remember when I called my older brother, who used to be an active backpacker and rock climber, saying that “brother, I am going to climb Denali in June, 2007,” he replied me, after a long pause, “can’t you climb something easier first?” That was exactly my concern: I didn’t have much mountaineering experience. In addition, the course was expensive: including the airfare, it would cost me about eight thousand dollars.

After debating for months I finally called NOLS in November and was put on the waiting list. I then had to fill out this lengthy questionnaire, detailing my experience (preferably on extended trips, which should be at least 10 days) on glacier travel, crevasse rescue, winter camping, high altitude travel and of course my physical strength. While I thought my registration would be turned down, I received the acceptance letter in January. I was on; there was no turning back.

Date: 07/05/2007

Hello,

Here is the final one.

The instructor team and I had a great four-hour discussion yesterday. We are already working on some small changes–looking into getting 15 pairs of booties like Erica’s, making slight changes to the gear list, and adding better snacks for 3-4 days to eat at 14,000′ and above. By the way, I learned two instructors had synthetic booties and one had fleece. Erica is briefing for her next course at the moment but also finalizing a report to the park. Ben flew back to Jackson and Patrick starts his next course in a couple of days.

Naomi, Geoff–how are you healing?

Best wishes and stay in touch.

Date: 06/29/2007

Greetings,

As expected, it has been a quick trip down the hill for the NOLS Denali expedition. The day after they summitted they slept in and still moved from 17,000′ all the way down to 12,000.’ Yesterday they dropped to 8,100′ just above the Hill of Cracks. And just now, they checked in from the cache at 5,700′–nearly three miles vertically below the summit. They are now below snow-line, but still have one mile of bare glacier to walk across to get to McGonagall Pass. They probably don’t have mosquitoes to deal with yet. They’ll have swarms of them tomorrow night!

Tomorrow they plan to re-group and figure out how to split up the weight of the cache to carry it all out. Their next big obstacle is fording the McKinley River. If all goes well, they will cross the river–a mile of braided streams– on July 1st and return to NOLS Alaska here in Palmer on the night of the 2nd. They might have to cross in the middle of the night (early morning hours of the 2nd), though. It isn’t really over until they cross the river!

Date: 06/27/2007

Hello,

We just got a satellite phone call from high camp (17,000′).

Eight students (Geoff, Geno, Jon, Naomi, Mark, John, Dan and Lane) reached the summit yesterday afternoon with instructors Erica and Ben! Patrick turned back at 19,400′ with Szu-ting and Robby who were both slowed significantly by the altitude. Erica said both of them agreed it was a good decision and that they were healthy and in good spirits. She said the weather was beautifully clear, but cold: “-15 degrees F with mild to moderate winds.” With weather like that, the view was probably a couple of hundred miles. You can see Denali from Anchorage on a clear day. They said they had the summit to themselves, which is unusual. Often there are folks from the more popular West Buttress route going for the summit as well. Ben broke trail up the summit ridge to 20,320′–the highest point in North America.