Phu Tra
- Phu Tra
- 2540 m.
- Prominence: 1670 m
- Vietnam
- Location: North 22.168, East 103.589
- Difficulty: (YDS) class 1
- Climbed March 4th. 2026.
Phu Tra
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How to get there:
A good point of reference is the village Tam Duong. There is a pretty
direct bus from Hanoi, that will make a stop there.
One may stay in the nice village of Si Thau Chai, located at about 1450
meter of elevation. This village has a trail to Pu Ta Leng, 3049m, a Ribu with
prominence 1100m. This mountain is only 98 meter lower than Fansipan, the Vietnam HP.
Consider doing this peak as well. (Considered a 2 day hike, 16km trip, possibly a single, very long day?)
From Tam Duong, travel south on Hwy. 32, to location N22.22779, E103.72168, fork right and connect to
location N22.20791, E103.70380. Continue uphill to location N22.19876, E103.66355. You can drive to here
with an ordinary car, for example a local taxi. A rougher road forks left here. This is the best access to
the village with the trailhead. The road has a 50 cm wide motorcycle pavement most of the way. This road
may also be driven by a good 4WD vehicle. There is a second access starting about 5 kilometer onwards from
the paved road, we tried this, but this is a much rougher trail only barely passable by motorbike.
Continue steply uphill on this recommended road, 6.3 kilometer to location N22.17359, E103.63627, elevation
1380 meter. This is the location where my local guide lives.
One can continue another 1,5 kilometer by motorbike
to the trailhead
at 22.17094, 103.62656, elevation 1500 meter.
Route description:
The first 2.3 kilometer is uphill, first pretty gentle then more sustained. You will pass a water source near location
N22.17456, E103.61732, elevation about 1830m. Shortly therafter, crossing the creek then ascend steepish rock with
man-made footholds. A rope protects the upper part.
This is the crux (steepest part) of the route. It is much steeper
than it looks in this picture.
Immediately after this short, steep part, take the right fork (along the creek).
You will climb about 700 meter in this 2.3 km section.
Continue more gently to a shelter
near N22.17473, E103.60845. The correct trail continues sort of left, but after about
50 meter, the route leaves this trail, going right,
uphill in order to follow the ridge higher up.
The remaining route
follows along this ridge crossing a local col along the way.
The trail was vewry clear and easy to follow from the trailhead to this shelter.
The remaining part has a visible trail
only here and there. Our guides used their machetes frequently
and in places the route was indeed difficult to follow.
A few more parties and this could
improve.
The route passes (one may actually go through!) a small hut at
location N22.17152, E103.59508, elevation 2470 meter.
The summit area has two distinct humps on the ridge,
the first one being the highest.
A tree with a cross
is located very close to the highest ground.
A track is posted on Peakbagger.
Comments / Trip report:
I travelled from Phnom Penh in Cambodia to Hanoi, stayed a night there before
traveling by "sleeper bus" to the village Tam Duong. The bus had no seats, but
24 sleeping cabins,
distributed on two levels. Quite comfortable.
From Tam Duong, a short taxi ride got me to a nice home stay in the small village
of Si Thau Chai.
I was somewhat surprised since I had expected my lodging to be on the
same side of the valley as the mountain. I was never able to get this information from
my local contact before traveling. As it turns out this village is the trailhead for
a Ribu mountain, Pu Ta Leng, 3049m, with promience 1100 meter. Thus, I should have booked
a slightly longer stay here, would have been a nice "bonus" Ribu.
Breakfast at 0630, we left by taxi around 0700. The taxi drove us to the north-west of the
two possible access roads to the upper villages on the south side of the mountain. Without
prior knowledge this made sense as we could head more or less directly south from Tam Duong.
My Vietnam contact that had taken care of the overall logistics, his name was Viet age 44, wanted to
come along. He had organized 2 motorcycles
to take us up to the village. It turned out that this
"road" was a rough trail, quite exciting on a motorcycle, I had to get off and walk several times.
We stopped where the local guide lived.
Some welcome tea was served and everybody greeting
each other.
They told us that the alternative access road was much better, we would definitely drive
back down that way!
We next continued to the trailhead. The local guide took along another younger family
member and one of our motorcycle drivers would also join. Thus, we were a party of 5 starting out.
My party needed a few breaks and
I quickly got ahead. Above the small crux section, I took the
left fork which was wrong. I realized this when I sort of
got to what looked like a dead end.
We made good progress, the biggest surprise of the hike
was a small wooden hut with 2 doors, the trail
went straight through it.
Two people, a young couple actually lived there.
One mattress and a small fireplace
for cooking. They grew some crops and the man
would go hunting with the strangest gun I have ever seen,
about 2 meter long barrel.
They must be among the more remote living people in Vietnam.
The man joined our party to locate the summit, now only 700 meter away.
I first walked past the summit, thinking that the next hump would be higher.
This summit point had no signs
and seemed a little low on my gps app.
I first walked a little more along the ridge just to verify that it would now
start descending, then returned to the first hump.
Ascending, it quickly seemed higher.
Finally on top, the closest
tree had been marked with a cross.
There is pretty dense vegetation and no views. Impossible to compare
elevation by sight.
We took a good break, first in order to get everybody up on this summit. Next, everybody
descended back down to the local col between the two humps. The group
wanted a meal and made
a fire in order to boil water.
We left after about one hour. It is interesting how much easier it seemed
to walk back. A path was now at least partially there and some vegetation
cleared away. I walked back to the hut with the guy living there, he tried to
explain how he would use the gun for hunting small animals.
We were back down by the trailhead in 3 hours including a few brief stops.
Next, back down to the guide's house. Everybody seemed very happy that the
mission had been successful. It was time to shake hands and say goodbye.
We took the alternative road back down to the paved road. This was indeed much
better with a 50 centimeter wide paved surface in the middle. We even met a couple
of trucks going uphill, the road being wide enough for 4WD vehicles. The taxi
had been called, directed to the new location. All that remained was driving back
to Si Thau Chai village, arriving there by 1800. Overall, about 11 hours from here.
A cold beer followed by a nice dinner
completed what had been a very
interesting day.
