Ok based on recommendations made by some helpful people on the Xi'an forum, I took the easy way up to Huashan and had an enjoyable time. I took the earliest bullet train to Huashan North station, took a taxi for 20 rmb and by 8.40 am was on the shuttle bus to the west peak cable car station. This shuttle costs 40 rmb, twice that of the one to the north peak cable car, but once you take it you will understand it is worth it. Essentially, the bus makes the ascend up the mountain as the west peak cable car station is itself at a higher altitude. After a forty minutes ride, I reached the cable car but was shocked to know that the service had been stopped temporarily due to strong wind. The apologetic staff started handing out bottles of water but in the end the service started again after an hour's delay. The ascend, again at a much steeper price than the older north peak cable car (140 rmb), was worth it. The view was astounding. At the west peak, even though I was short of time as I had a train to catch that evening, I still managed to do the east and the central peaks plus all the nearby scenic spots, leaving out only the south peak. Then it was downhill all the way as I made my way down to the Jin Suo Guan (golden lock pass), passing exhausted climbers who came via the North peak. I then went up the North peak before coming down to the North peak cable car and took the cable car down. Going up the west peak via the cable car and down from the North peak cable car is a good way for older people or those with some injuries like me. In fact, if I were not rushing for time I think it was possible to skip the North peak cable car and just walk down (1.5 hrs according to a sign). From the west peak cable car station, you can decide whether you want to climb any of the other peaks or just go down straight to the North peak cable car station or even walk all the way down to the east entrance. I will certainly want to come back to do the parts that I missed.

Our family spent excellent day on Hua Shan. Lovely scenery, spring blossoms, dramatically steep in parts, - but believe it or not, still polluted / hazy even up here!! We climbed HS on the 2nd of April...cool but not cold. In fact we were down to our tee's coz of all the climbing!

You don't have to stay in HS town. You can climb all 4 peaks of HS in a 4-6 hours if you take the cable car up and down and also if take early train to Huashan from Xian and then the late train on to Luoyang or back to Xian.

We took early fast train G652 from Xian north station at 7:50am and arrived at HS bei at around 8:20am. By the time we sorted our luggage and arranged transport up to the HS ticket office it was around 8:30am. B4 u leave train station building there is a desk with some Chinese ladies who will call out to all people coming off the train. They offer transport to HS ticket office (10rmb pp), light gloves for 2 rmb and map (in Chinese) for 2 rmb. They will also look after yr luggage for the day for 10-20 RMB per bag. They will give you a name card with some writing on for you to pick up yr luggage and send your luggage to Cha Can Ting Ia small coffee shop) , which you can pick yr luggage up from at the end of the day if you are travelling on by train. Cha Can Ting's entrance is on the outside of the station beside the departures entry area of the train station (to the left if facing the station). When you come back from climbing HS, go in and show the card to the staff and they will give you yr luggage. You can also just go outside to catch a cab or tuk tuk up to the ticket office. There are plenty waiting but not sure of price.

It took about 15 mins to get from HS bei station to the HS ticket office. By the time we brought tickets, water, toilet, took the shuttle up to the north cable car and then got the cable car up to the top close to the North Peak, it was about 10:00am. Make sure you specify which area of HS you wish to go to when buying the tickets (north or west). Get waters and snacks for your trip at the train station or in HS city as they are expensive in HS or at the ticket office.

180 rmb for entry tickets to HS, half price for kids under 150 cm, free for under 120 cm
20 rmb for shuttle bus from ticket office to north cable car
150 rmb for cable car return, 75 for children between 120-150cm

You can climb all 4 peaks (north, south, east, west) and even central peak if you wish in around 4-6 hours depending on how many pictures you take and how fast you walk. Make sure u walk up the north peak first which is closest to the cable car as you won't want to do this when you return and the views are good. Then make your way towards Jinsuo guan (pass) which you need to go through to access the remaining 3 peaks. This is quite a long walk, all up hill, and very steep in parts. It takes about 1.5 hours. Then I think it is best to head towards the east peak first, then south and then west, this is the slightly easier route. This also takes about 1.5 hours allowing for photos. Then it takes about 1 - 1.5 hrs to get back to the cable car. mostly this is downwards but your legs are very tired and shaky at this point and it is very steep and the steps are small, so hang on to the chain rails. Our 9 and 11 year old boys managed to complete the walk with us in 5.5 hours including a half hour lunch stop. At around 3:30pm we then took the cable car back down, purchased tickets for the shuttle bus to return to the ticket office area and then took a car back to the HS bei station (around 30 to 40 rmb) picked up our luggage there and waited in the waiting area from 4:45pm ready to take our prebooked 5:15 train G2012 to Luoyang which took about 1 hr. A great day in all.

Hope all this info helps!