Mental fortitude

Wu, the climbing and hiking enthusiast, said commercial promotion has contributed to the surge in interest, but outdoor activities are not just about wonderful scenery as many ads suggest.

A lack of skills, equipment and planning, including checking routes and weather forecasts, can cause problems for careless hikers and even place them at risk, she said.

"People who encountered accidents tended to be those who acted on impulse and overestimated their own abilities," she added.

"Apart from the lack of basic skills and equipment, another indirect cause of death and injury is a lack of mental toughness. When faced with an emergency, such as extreme weather, animal attacks or losing one's bearings, many people are likely to break down psychologically."

In 2016, she set out on an inhospitable hiking route in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region with four people who had formed a team via a website for outdoor enthusiasts. During the trip, the team walked along cliff paths, gravel-covered slopes and snowcapped peaks, and also waded across 30 rivers.

The route-about 200 kilometers in length and at an altitude of up to 4,000 meters-was scheduled to take six to seven days, so each person carried enough food for eight days, along with tents and clothing. In all, each participant carried about 50 kilograms.

"When you begin to tire after hiking with a heavy load, it is important to maintain a strong attitude, because any accident may break you," Wu said. On the second day of the trip, a snowstorm blew up, so the team immediately donned thicker clothes and ate energy gels to maintain body heat.

"We had to eat the gels as quickly as possible, because if we got cold, we were likely to die. Inexperienced hikers tend to be mentally affected on such occasions and they can't control their hands and feet, so they cannot respond to problems quickly," Wu said.

Having started organizing weekend outdoor activities in 2006, Wu is highly experienced and has overcome many problems.

"Once, on a one-day climb of a tough mountain, a young woman on my team was so scared halfway that she burst into tears. On a different occasion, a very overweight man insisting on joining our hike, even though I advised him not to. In the end, he got too tired to keep pace with the group, which slowed us down a lot," she recalled.