Chasing the Milky Way at Mount Huangshan

At 9 p.m., I packed my gear and set out from Paiyunlou, trekking through the night across Bright Summit and Aoyu Peak. After three arduous hours, I finally reached Lotus Peak, where I captured the Milky Way cascading above the razor-sharp silhouette of Tiandu Peak.

The wind that night was ferocious — strong enough to unsteady one’s footing. Just before dawn, in a cruel twist, my camera was swept off the cliff. For a breathless moment, it vanished into the darkness — only to be miraculously halted by a ledge of rock halfway down the mountainside.

In a single night, I tasted the full arc of despair and deliverance — a vertiginous plunge from loss to recovery, as dramatic as the peaks themselves.