Nhiu Co San Peak

Wind hisses along a rocky ridge. Cloud below hides the whole Bát Xát valley. The first sun lights the primary forest, and treetop after treetop brightens in the mist. That is the moment many people climb Nhìu Cồ San to meet.

The summit lies in Sàng Ma Sáo commune. The commune is part of the Bát Xát area of Lào Cai province. The Lào Cai newspaper gives the height of the peak as 2,965 meters. It is one of the highest peaks in Vietnam, in the Hoàng Liên Sơn range. The name comes from the Hmong language. Nhìu Cồ San means "buffalo horns," because the mountain has two peaks that rise like a pair of horns. That is the explanation in local sources, not an official linguistic conclusion.

The Bát Xát Nature Reserve covers 18,637 hectares and spreads across five communes. Y Tý and Dền Sáng are two of them. Sàng Ma Sáo is a third. Trung Lèng Hồ and Nậm Pung are the last two. The reserve is where the Hoàng Liên Sơn range begins, and its high peaks run from Y Tý all the way down to Fansipan. It holds 976 species of higher vascular plants, many of them rare. To go up Nhìu Cồ San is to enter one of the richest stretches of forest in the Northwest.

The villages around the mountain are mostly Hmong. In some places there are also Hà Nhì and Giáy families. People live here among maize fields, terraced fields, forests of thảo quả and wooden houses.

The climbing route passes the Ong Chúa waterfall in Sàng Ma Sáo. It goes on through the thảo quả forest, then through primary forest draped in green moss. Next come patches of rhododendron, called đỗ quyên, that bloom bright red in season. Higher up there are forests of conifers, cliffs, and a ridge that leads to the top. The climb is usually split into two days and one night, so the body can get used to the altitude. On a clear early morning, cloud fills the valleys, and the higher peaks of Bát Xát rise out of it.

However beautiful it is, climbing a high mountain asks for care. The routes in Bát Xát, Nhìu Cồ San among them, are run with local guides and porters. In just over two months at the end of 2023, they drew more than 4,000 visits. A guide who knows the terrain is not a formality but a necessity. Parts of the forest trail are steep, the rocks are wet, and thick fog shortens the view. The weather changes fast, and the temperature can drop suddenly.

The Bát Xát Nature Reserve is now being assessed as meeting the conditions to become a national park. Its mossy forests, its red patches of rhododendron, and the sound of the Ong Chúa waterfall carrying far are still almost intact.

On the summit, the wind runs along the spine of rock, and white cloud rolls at the climbers' feet.