On October 26, the Red Bull 24-Hour Plateau Challenge — China’s highest-altitude comprehensive mountain outdoor competition — concluded at the Jiaozi Snow Mountain Scenic Area in Kunming, which reaches an elevation of up to 4,223 meters. A team composed of undergraduate students from Zunyi Medical University’s Jianli Outdoor Team used a unique orienteering “skill” — identifying horse droppings to discern the correct path — to rally from being 9 minutes behind the pre-race favorite, the Kolon Adventure Team, to leading by 21 minutes and 54 seconds. They ultimately won the race with a time of 17 hours, 46 minutes, and 21 seconds. Traditional domestic outdoor powerhouses Kolon Adventure Team and Kunming Hummingbird Team took second and third place, respectively.
At 8:46 a.m. on the 26th, the four members of the Zunyi Medical University Jianli Outdoor Team crossed the finish line together in celebration. Just 24 hours earlier, no one — not even the team members themselves — thought this young squad could take the title. Team member Zhou Qingpeng said, “We’ve never beaten traditional strong teams like Kolon Adventure Team or Kusei Team before. They’re all very strong, and our goal before the race was just to finish third.”
During the more than 17-hour race, apart from Tibetan youngster Jia Erenjia from Menyuan, Qinghai Province, who experienced no altitude sickness, the other members of the Zunyi Medical University Jianli Outdoor Team were affected by high-altitude reactions. Starting at 2:50 p.m. on October 25 when the race began, the team closely trailed the Kolon Adventure Team, holding second place and at one point falling as much as 9 minutes behind. When they reached the campsite Sifangjing at 10 p.m. that day, female team member Xiang Fuzhao collapsed exhausted onto her backpack on the ground and needed over half an hour to recover. “Today’s course was extremely intense. To chase the first-place team, we pushed ourselves to the limit,” she said. To avoid holding back her teammates, Xiang Fuzhao endured until they reached the campsite. Core team member Zhou Qingpeng remarked, “Yesterday we suffered badly from altitude sickness. We felt dizzy — we’d never experienced that before. This was our first time competing in such conditions.”
The high-altitude-induced altitude sickness troubled not only the Zunyi Medical University Jianli Outdoor Team but also the seasoned Kolon Adventure Team, which has competed in the Red Bull 24-Hour Plateau Challenge multiple times. Climbing from 2,000 meters to 4,223 meters posed the same challenge to all participants. As the pre-race favorites, the Kolon Adventure Team made a mistake during the orienteering event on the 26th. After initially leading by 9 minutes, they were overtaken and ultimately finished in second place with a time of 18 hours, 8 minutes, and 15 seconds.
“If this race had been split over two days, it might have been a bit easier. But because it’s a continuous 24-hour event, the difficulty is immense and there’s a lot more unpredictability. We set out at 4 a.m. this morning. It was still pitch black, and with only one coordinate, we couldn’t see the trail markers, so we took the wrong path and lost over two hours,” said Yang Jiagen of the Kolon Adventure Team. For the battle-hardened Kolon Adventure Team, encountering such issues during the race is quite rare. The same wrong turn also happened to the Kusei Team, which had just taken third place in the 2014 China Weng’an National Mountain Outdoor Sports Championship. They didn’t even make it into the top three. In contrast, the young Zunyi Medical University Jianli Outdoor Team performed better. Xiang Fuzhao explained, “We chose a small mountain path right at the start, while Kolon opted for the road. Initially, everyone thought Kolon’s route was the quicker one, and ours was the harder path. Along the way, we looked for horse droppings on the small path to guide us, because if there are horse droppings, it means the path is used and passable.”
Competing continuously for 24 hours presented challenges not only in terms of high intensity but also in enduring freezing temperatures, which was another widely acknowledged difficulty of the Red Bull 24-Hour Plateau Challenge. With an elevation drop of 2,200 meters across the course, the natural scenery and climate conditions varied drastically from the start to the finish. Due to abundant rainfall, lower-altitude areas featured dense vegetation and natural small waterfalls, while higher-altitude zones offered views of snow-capped mountains and nighttime temperatures that dropped to zero degrees. Even wearing down jackets, people in the scenic area still felt cold, and the team campsites were entirely in the wilderness. The immense pressure of the race, combined with sub-zero temperatures, prevented many athletes from getting proper sleep on the night of the 25th.
The 11th checkpoint of the race was located in a small wooden cabin halfway up the mountain between the finish line and the summit. According to staff from the Kunming Mountaineering Association who managed the point, “The temperature here at night is minus 5 degrees, and even inside the cabin it’s only minus 3 degrees.” At 8 a.m., ice still covered the wooden floor of the cabin — a testament to just how cold it was.
To enhance both the spectacle and difficulty of the race, the Red Bull 24-Hour Plateau Challenge featured five stages and nine events, including 19 km of run-bike alternation, 28 km of mountain biking, 17 km of trekking, 16 km of mountain hiking, 20 km of orienteering, as well as skill-based events like rappelling, zip-lining, and camping. The total race distance was extended from 80 km last year to 100 km. Out of the 30 participating teams, six withdrew midway, and four failed to reach the finish line within the 24-hour cutoff time, resulting in a 66% completion rate.
“The longer course demands higher physical endurance, technical skill, and teamwork from participants, which helps attract stronger teams,” said Luo Zhouquan, Technical Director of the Kunming Mountaineering and Exploration Association and Deputy Chief Judge of the event. “Our ultimate goal is to make this an international competition.”