Mountains made her spiritual kin to some of us — Taiwan's Gigi Wu

© 2019 Peter Free

 

23 January 2019

 

 

Gigi Wu was Taiwan's "bikini hiker"

 

She died solo, after tumbling into a ravine in Taiwan's Yushan National Park. Wu reportedly managed to cell phone for help, after recognizing that she could no longer move her lower body.

 

Due to unhelpful weather, rescuers took 43 hours to reach her. Pre-autopsy, the suspicion is that she died of hypothermia.

 

The bikini element arrived this way:

 

 

In a televised interview in July 2018, Wu said the bikini shots came about a few years ago when she lost a bet to a friend, and the punishment was to take pictures in a bikini after hiking up a mountain.

 

Wu said she had completed 100 hikes and worn at least 97 bikinis over the past four years.

 

© 2019 Wu Che-hao and Ko Lin, Celebrity hiker dies of suspected hypothermia in central Taiwan, Focus Taiwan (21 January 2019)

 

 

Here's a link to a picture of the intimidating terrain she dealt with

 

Dangerous stuff. Not for sissies and normal people.

 

 

Mountain souls can empathize with the injured, lonely manner of her passing

 

As a solo hiker, boulderer and crappy climber myself, I am usually unannounced and off trail. In the comparatively untrodden places I seek out, would-be rescuers would not look for me.

 

I have often imagined a demise similar to Gigi Wu's. Minus the cell phone.

 

 

The moral? — Freedom of heart has its price

 

Taiwan authorities reported that Ms. Wu had no permit to hike the Yushan Mountains. She was "in violation of the law."

 

I can empathize with that, too. Authorities sparing me from myself never sat well.

 

Ms. Wu's perky gumption is recalled by a touching tribute at Facebook. Her own page is here.

 

Go softly, gal.