Chinese ‘Spider’ Climbers Use No Ropes or Tools to Scale Cliffs

Nestled in the Ziyun County of Guizhou Province is a small village with a death-defying ancestral practice: free-climbing massive cave walls. Even though some of these walls tower 100 meters in height, the climbers attack them with only their courage for protection. Today, a handful of these self-proclaimed “Spider-Men” continue this custom for an altruistic purpose: to procure rare medicinal herbs for their village.