Ancient art: "spider woman" conquered a 108-meter cliff without insurance (2 photos + 1 video)

Luo Dengping, who started rock climbing at the age of 15 under the mentorship of her father, has earned a living from the sport.





Luo Dengping, a 43-year-old Chinese woman from Jun Miao and Buei in Guizhou Province, is known as the "spider woman" and has amazed people with her incredible ability to climb cliffs over 100 meters high without gloves or safety equipment.

She is the only woman in the world who practices the ancient art of Miao - rock climbing with her bare hands.

The woman easily scaled a 108-meter cliff, equivalent to a 30-story building, deftly maneuvering along the nearly vertical walls. Luo's unique skill is linked to an ancient tradition of cliff burials. The Miao people, who live in remote mountainous areas, believed that burial at high altitude allowed the deceased to "look toward the ancestral homeland." Over time, the Miao people continued to hone their bare-handed climbing skills, a tradition passed down from generation to generation.



So far, Luo is the only female "spider-people" in her region. She started rock climbing at the age of 15, under the tutelage of her father. At first, she was motivated by the desire to compete with boys, and by the opportunity to earn a living by collecting medicinal herbs and bird droppings from swallow nests on the cliffs, which were used as fertilizer.

"They said it was only for boys, but I believed that men and women are equal, so I learned. That was the beginning of my spider journey. Before the area was built up, I climbed up every day to collect swallow droppings. We climbed up to 108 meters. Foreigners were often scared by our bare-handed climbing, but I got used to it. After doing it many times, my hands became calloused," Luo said.