――2015 KAILAS Four Girls Mountain Mountaineering Training Camp (Phase I)
Since 2011, to promote the development of amateur mountaineering and exploration, the KAILAS (凯乐石) brand has held beginner-level snow mountain climbing events during the National Day holiday for four consecutive years. From the “Four Girls Mountain Mountaineering Festival,” which offers a beginner’s snow mountain experience, to the “Gangshika Mountaineering Training Camp,” which provides advanced snow mountain climbing training, nearly 2,000 outdoor enthusiasts have successfully summited their first snow mountain under the guidance and support of professional teams.
Photo: Students listen attentively and take notes, their notebooks filled with valuable insights.
On the third day of the training camp, participants will learn some techniques for walking on snowy slopes and self-arresting in case of a slip. By this season, daytime temperatures on Four Girls Mountain are already quite high. To allow the students to truly experience snowy conditions, we moved the group to the Balang Mountain Pass and divided them into smaller teams to practice climbing skills.
Whether in any type of climbing, hands and feet are always the first and most important means of protecting our bodies, followed by ropes and other equipment. Making full use of and trusting your own limbs is the most critical aspect of climbing. It goes without saying—if your hands and feet can’t even protect you adequately...
...how can you expect your climbing gear to provide better assistance?
Self-arrest is also a self-assurance skill that we often overlook. Mastering the technique of self-arrest is an essential prerequisite for ensuring safety during rope-team travel. In the morning, we trekked around the large snowy slopes of Balang Mountain, and in the afternoon, we selected a slope with a gentle gradient to practice self-arrest.
The students became more and more enthusiastic. While practicing self-arrest, they began trying all sorts of creative moves in the snow—rolling, falling, eating snow, and even producing scenes worthy of a wuxia movie.
On the fourth day, we began the official mountaineering experience on Er Feng (Second Peak). The approach to the Er Feng base camp requires entering via Haizi Valley, with the journey taking about 6–7 hours. The weather remained clear blue skies with no clouds. For this Kailas (KAILAS) climb, we once again divided participants into Groups A and B to prevent crowding on the climbing route, with Group A departing one day earlier than Group B.
Once summer arrives on the plateau, a variety of alpine flowers bloom in competition. You may not be particularly fond of flowers and plants, but at this moment, if you lower your head enough, you’ll discover the tiny lives at your feet straining with all their might toward the sun. You’ll be amazed by the wonders of nature and the unique beauty of each flower and plant. They will calm you and make you more in awe of nature. At this moment, you may truly understand the meaning behind Jack Kerouac’s words in “The Dharma Bums”: “Ever young, ever weeping.”
The base camp is located at an altitude of around 4,300 meters. After a day of trekking, we arrived at the base camp around 5 p.m. The conscientious chef prepared a very rich dinner, which gave us a lot more confidence for the summit push the next morning. The starry night sky left everyone ample room to imagine their childhood dreams. What kind of mood did you fall asleep in? Were you still searching everywhere for the dreams your mother once spoke of?
What was the mood with which you fell asleep? Were you still searching everywhere for the dreams your mother talked about?
Kailas Group A set off for the summit of Er Feng at 4:00 a.m. on May 13, while Group B departed at 3:30 a.m. on May 14. Some participants were still not fully awake from the previous night’s sleep even after breakfast. For climbing a snow mountain, especially one with a well-established route, we always aim to summit in the early morning, hoping to complete the ascent and descent before the weather changes in the afternoon—or also to avoid the heat, which can alter the snow layers and cause dehydration.
The traditional route for climbing Er Feng with Kailas (KAILAS) provides rope-assisted protection on certain exposed sections for team members who are new to snow mountain climbing. It can be said with certainty that mountaineering is a physically demanding and dangerous sport. Perhaps it is precisely because of this that the sense of achievement mountaineers gain upon a successful summit and the strong friendships formed during the climb are unmatched by any other sport. The British mountaineer George Mallory once said: “We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.”
At 8:12 a.m. on May 13 and 7:23 a.m. on May 14, the first participants from Kailas (KAILAS) Groups A and B respectively stood at the same spot—the summit. One after another, the other participants also reached the top. At the summit, everyone took out various flags they had brought—company flags, shop banners, club emblems, and more. At this moment, their hearts were not only filled with the joy of reaching the summit but also with the desire to share this excitement with family, friends, colleagues, and loved ones.
Reaching the summit is always an emotional moment—whether it’s the breathtaking scenery before your eyes or the torrent of memories within your heart. After a brief moment of lingering, there’s more important work to be done: the descent, which demands even greater focus. After all, standing at the summit is only half the climb—we still need to get down safely.
At 3:00 p.m. on May 14, participants from both Kailas (KAILAS) Groups A and B reunited in Siguniang Town, marking the gradual conclusion of the Four Girls Mountain Mountaineering Training Camp (Phase I). This spring, we gathered and got to know each other here, discussing the outdoors and life together. For our shared passions and pursuits, we shared experiences and exchanged ideas. The memories this training activity leaves in each person’s heart are surely different—more or less—but we hope it has brought everyone some insights and rewards.
We believe that you, the reader of these words, have either already stood atop a mountain or will soon do so, proudly declaring: I’ve completed my first snow mountain climb!