원정 개요

Xinhua News Agency, Lhasa, April 16 - Chinese university students arrived in Lhasa today. The team formally team began its adaptation training in Lhasa, and is expected by the end of May to early June to climb the world's highest peak, Mount Everest.

Joint-team captain from the Tibetan climbers and serving as leader is Wangyal; the Tibetan climbers are under the command of Gaya. Five are university students of Beijing University: Chen Yi, Chen Guang, Lin Chi-kin and two are from Tibet University: Sonam Sambie and Gesang; they all are in school students.

To help students with climbing, the Tibet Mountaineering Association also is sending a five-Tibetan mountaineering team, including Chimi and Tenzing Dorje, world-class mountain sports masters; Qimi has summited Mount Everest twice, Tenzing Dorje has summited once. The other members are the Gaya, Gyalbu, and Duobujie, all national-level sports climbing masters.

According to reports, the Chinese college students will be with the joint team in Lhasa for 10 days for the adaptation training and preparation for mountaineering; by the end of April they will stationed in the base camp of Mount Qomolangma.


Expedition termination notes:

On May 25 at 9:00 am, the team started from 7028m to go to 7900m according to plan with intent to go to 8300m on May 26 and to summit on May 27. There had been good weather for several days.

At 2:00 pm when the team was at 7500m, the team was suddenly ordered down by walkie-talkie call from ABC at 6500m.


Termination summary paraphrased from various Chinese web sites:

The expedition was terminated for two official reasons:

(1) The Chinese government and General Administration of Sport of China had just issued a directive to avoid fatalities in mountaineering, due to the recent death of Yan-Geng-Hua on 21 May (4 days earlier).

(2) The monsoon season in Tibet was coming and the timing was poor for the safety of the team members. The leaders of the Tibetan Mountaineering Association said that the General Administration of Sport had requested the termination of this climb.

Web Site translator's observations:

This shows the degree of government's control on sport activities in China. Since most mountaineering activities are controlled by the Chinese government, the government can stop an ongoing expedition even when the members were about to summit and there was sufficient sponsorship from a private company (the internet company Chinaren.com in this case).

It is also understandable why the Chinese government wanted to stop this climb. My personal interpretation is it was because the Beijing University Mountaineering team is an amateur team and the government officials did not want any high-profile fatalities from this team, given the special prestige attached to this university in China and the fact that there had been several previous deaths during other expeditions by this team.