According to the Tibet Mountaineering Management Center, a university mountaineering club team composed of teachers and students from China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) has recently arrived in Tibet. The team plans to climb Qizhi Peak, which stands at an altitude of 6,206 meters. The team has now reached the base camp of Qizhi Peak. This is the first university mountaineering team to arrive in Tibet and enter the mountains this summer vacation.
According to Li Yi, the person in charge of the mountaineering team and a junior at China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), the team consists of seven members, including four male students, two female students, and a 51-year-old female teacher. Some team members have previous experience climbing Mount Haba, Mount Siguniang, and Mount Que'er, while others are “rookies” to mountaineering but are passionate about outdoor sports and have considerable experience in that field.
Li Yi said that the mountaineering activity was organized by the Shanmingzhi Outdoor Sports Club of China University of Geosciences (Wuhan). This student organization was established in 2003 with the goal of widely promoting outdoor and mountaineering activities. The club has now become the reserve force for the university’s mountaineering team. This year marks the first time the club has independently organized a trip to climb in Tibet, as well as the highest-altitude mountain it has independently challenged to date.
“Tibet is a paradise for outdoor sports enthusiasts. Based on the physical condition and mountaineering experience of our team members, we selected Qizhi Peak, which is not very difficult. On one hand, it is for training and cultivating reserve talent, and on the other hand, it is to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the club,” Li Yi told reporters. The preparatory work for this mountaineering activity lasted nearly half a year, and the team underwent more than a month of closed training before heading to Tibet.
It is reported that the team arrived in Lhasa on July 22 to acclimatize to the high altitude and purchased necessary food and supplies. Afterward, the team arrived at the base camp at Galuo Monastery, which sits at an altitude of 4,800 meters, on July 28. Currently, the overall health condition of the team members is good, and on July 29, the entire team began transporting supplies to the advance camp at an altitude of 5,300 meters. The entire mountaineering period is expected to last 10 days, and two professional members of the Tibet Mountaineering Team will serve as high-altitude support to assist the team in reaching the summit.
Qizhi Peak is located in the western section of the Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains, 97 kilometers northwest of Lhasa. Surrounded by numerous snow-capped peaks, the climbing route is well-established and moderately challenging, making it an ideal peak for amateur beginner mountaineers.
Mountaineering has a strong tradition at China University of Geosciences. As early as 1958, the predecessor of the university, Beijing Institute of Geology, formed China’s first amateur mountaineering team. The school also sent Wang Fuzhou and others to the Soviet Union to study mountaineering techniques. Later, Wang Fuzhou became one of the first Chinese climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. From the 1980s to the 1990s, Li Zhixin and Wang Yongfeng, graduates of the university, successfully climbed the highest peaks of the world’s seven continents over an 11-year period, earning the nickname “twin stars” in the mountaineering community. Last year, the China University of Geosciences Everest Mountaineering Team successfully reached the summit of the “Roof of the World.”