As climbers from around the world competed in the 2024 Guizhou Rocktrip Rock Climbing Carnival at Getu River Scenic Area in Ziyun county, 120 kilometers southwest of Guiyang, 58-year-old Luo Xiaoguo, a Miao ethnic goro and traditional climber, performed a solo free climb on a 100-meter-high sheer cliff in a karst cave.

In the Miao language, goro refers to a type of climber that locals have also vividly nicknamed "spidermen". In Ziyun county, where karst landscapes dominate, the techniques for traversing the steep, local topography have been passed down for centuries and predate the sport of modern rock climbing that emerged in the Alps in the 18th century.

The earliest goro were the mysterious coffin artisans who hung caskets on cliffs. Later, the term came to describe workers who collected swallows' nests and guano from these heights.

About 20 years ago, the Getu River Scenic Area was established, and spidermen like Wang Xiaoguo became part of the tourist experience, employed by the park.

Entering the Getu River area, visitors are immediately struck by the dramatic limestone caves formed by collapsed karst systems. The most spectacular among them is a pierced cave where morning sunlight often creates ethereal beams through the ceiling. There are also a lot of knife-edged karst cliffs, towering upward for hundreds of meters.

They were all once the workplaces of the goro.

To modern rock climbers, these landscapes represent ideal big-wall routes and dream challenges. French mountaineering guide Olivier Balma visited the Getu River in 2007 and was immediately captivated by the cliffs and caves, recognizing their immense potential as new climbing routes.