Heading north to the Daqing Mountain, south to the Taibai Mountain, east across the Taihang Mountain, west over the Helan Mountain, from Haba Snow Mountain to the Four Girls Mountain, and then to the Yuzhu Peak — an amateur outdoor mountaineering team has achieved one remarkable feat after another. What kind of spirit drives them to conquer peak after peak? Several members of the Yulin Folk Outdoor Mountaineering Team, who have just returned from Yuzhu Peak, revealed their true feelings to reporters.
Successfully Reaching the Summit Boosts Confidence for Yuzhu Peak Ascent
On April 2, 2009, 18 male and female hikers from Yulin City spontaneously formed a mountaineering team and set off for Sichuan, preparing to challenge the Four Girls Mountain. As a non-professional mountaineering team, their move attracted attention from many hikers both within and outside the province. This was also the first organized and large-scale mountaineering team in Yulin.
Gao Fei, one of the members of this Kuafu Outdoor Mountaineering Team, was deeply impressed by their successful summit. He wrote in his climbing log: “I will always remember this meaningful day — an unforgettable and exciting day. The legendary Four Girls Mountain had long been a spiritual appointment and a dream in my heart. I had never participated in any climbing activities before, let alone scaling a 5,454-meter snow mountain at high altitude with thin oxygen. The future was uncertain, life and death unknown — how could I not feel panic?”
Located in Sichuan Province, the Four Girls Mountain consists of four contiguous snow-capped peaks, covered in white all year round, like four beautiful fairies in the mountains. They are known for their steep and towering presence, with their bodies pointing directly toward the blue sky, attracting climbers from around the world, earning them the title of “China’s Alps.” From south to north, the Four Girls Mountain is called Da Feng (Big Peak), Er Feng (Second Peak), San Feng (Third Peak), and Ya Feng (Youngest Peak), with heights of 5,300 meters, 5,400 meters, 5,600 meters, and over 6,200 meters respectively. The Second Peak, which this team climbed, is the one most often attempted by amateur climbing enthusiasts.
Gao Fei, who eventually successfully summited the Second Peak, said in an interview with reporters that every time he saw footage of people climbing Mount Everest on TV, he felt it was far removed from his own life. But after joining the Kuafu Club, everything became close at hand. According to the team leader Cao Pidong, the club had been planning this climb for a long time. The leaders spent days and nights discussing every detail of the climb — from selecting team members, mapping out the route, to individually inspecting each teammate’s gear before departure, hiring climbing guides to organize teams, covering everything meticulously and cautiously to prevent any mishaps during the climb. It was their hard work that laid a solid foundation for the successful summit of the Four Girls Mountain.
The successful summit of the Four Girls Mountain also laid a solid foundation for the team members’ future mountain climbs. Team leader Cao Pidong is determined to lead the team to conquer new heights this June, with their chosen destination being the Yuzhu Peak in Qinghai.
Yuzhu Peak — Please Kindly Accept Us
Red Tent Witnesses a Romantic Love Story on the Snow Mountain
On June 9, 2012, eight mountaineers gathered in front of the under-construction Zhongying Cultural Square in Yulin City, ready to depart. As this climbing mission garnered much attention, the number of well-wishers greatly exceeded the expectations of team member Liu Hui. Liu Hui, an ordinary official from the Yulin Agriculture Bureau and an amateur mountaineer, recalled to reporters: “I’ve been on many trips before, but nothing like this. It was overwhelming and made me a bit nervous.”
Li Weidong, deputy secretary-general of the Qinghai Mountaineering Association, told reporters that while the overall difficulty of climbing Yuzhu Peak in Qinghai isn’t extremely high, the extremely low oxygen levels make it hard for many to adapt to the high altitude. With an elevation of 6,178 meters, Yuzhu Peak is the highest peak in the eastern section of the Kunlun Mountains, with its summit permanently covered in snow and no exposed rock. For an amateur team like this one from Yulin, successfully reaching the summit is still no easy feat.
To help the team members acclimatize to the high altitude as quickly as possible, Captain Cao contacted staff from the Qinghai Mountaineering Association and arranged for everyone to spend a night at the 4,300-meter elevation of the Budongquan area. The rough road conditions and weather gave the team a new understanding of the challenges ahead. By two or three in the afternoon, upon arrival at Budongquan, some members began showing mild symptoms of altitude sickness, including Gao Fei, who had previously summited the Four Girls Mountain, who also experienced a headache.
The next day, the Qinghai Mountaineering Association assigned climbing assistants to each member. At the 5,200-meter glacier, the assistants provided technical training in high-altitude walking, ascending, descending, and self-arrest techniques. “We were all carrying professional gear such as ascenders, figure-eight descenders, harnesses, and ice axes — tools we barely used when climbing Haba Snow Mountain and the Four Girls Mountain before,” said team member Wang Xiaojun.
On June 14, the team arrived at the C1 advance camp at 5,600 meters. There, a red tent helped ease the tension among the team members after several days. They learned that the tent was the “new home” of two members of the China Agricultural University Mountaineering Team. The groom was Agui, the fourth torchbearer who carried the Olympic flame on Mount Everest in 2008. He met his bride on the northern slope of Yuzhu Peak, and five years later, out of gratitude to the snow mountain, they returned to Yuzhu and got married, witnessing their love. During the wedding, the team also had the honor of meeting Wang Yongfeng, director of the International Exchange Department of the China Mountaineering Association and captain of the Chinese Mountaineering Team. As the best man, he offered blessings to the couple and, upon learning about the amateur mountaineering team from northern Shaanxi’s Yulin, also gave the group heartfelt encouragement and good wishes.
Although he had the valuable experience of successfully summiting the Four Girls Mountain, this climb was especially tough for Gao Fei. During the ascent, his face began to peel unevenly due to UV burns. “Those were minor issues — the altitude sickness was the hardest part,” he said, still visibly shaken when recalling the climb. “The final push is divided into three stages. From 5,600 meters to 6,178 meters, during the first 100 meters, you’re exhausted after just a few dozen steps. You adjust your pace and breathing, walk ten to twenty steps, then rest. Before long, your breathing can’t keep up again, so you have to take a breath every few steps. Later on, you’re basically stopping every three steps, almost walking in slow motion just to recover some strength. In the last stage, you’re practically wiped out, relying only on willpower and breathing control. In the final 100 meters, even though the summit is in sight, you can’t move forward — you inch forward step by step, driven only by belief and determination. The last 100 meters have a slope of 45 to 60 degrees, where ice axes and ascenders are essential. Everyone is extremely cautious because one wrong step could mean falling into an abyss.”
Although all members of this climb were amateur enthusiasts, they passed the test of professionalism. “In the past, guides would require everyone to bring oxygen, but the Qinghai Mountaineering Association firmly forbade us from using oxygen. Because the process from 5,050 meters to 5,600 meters and then to 6,178 meters is extremely grueling. Relying on supplemental oxygen at high altitudes leads to dependency, and without it, your condition worsens. So we had to rely on strong willpower and excellent technique to overcome the challenges,” said Captain Cao.
Yuzhu Peak Has a Summit Success Rate of Less Than 40%
This Mountaineering Team Achieved a Success Rate of 75%
It is reported that only around 60 mountaineers in China successfully summit Yuzhu Peak each year, with the average success rate per team being about 40%. This team, however, achieved a success rate of 75%. What methods led to such a high success rate?
Captain Cao told reporters that the successful summit of Yuzhu Peak was especially thanks to the Qinghai Mountaineering Association staff, whose attentive care made the summit possible. “At around 11 a.m. on June 15, of our eight members, six successfully reached the summit. One member, Huo Shidong, suffered severe snow blindness, and another, Zhang Fei, resolutely gave up his chance to summit in order to accompany Huo down the mountain safely. That spirit of teamwork was truly moving.”
The mutual care among team members along the way was the main reason for their success. Female team member Liu Hui recalled that another female member, Liu Xiaoling, began experiencing hypothermia upon reaching the C1 camp. “I opened my sleeping bag and wrapped it all around her. Xiao Long brought her hot coffee, but even after drinking, her hands were still cold. I was anxious but didn’t want her to notice, so I held her hand tightly, hoping to share some warmth. Finally, seeing her recover, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.”
“This kind of professional outdoor sport often encounters various problems due to the high demands and harsh environment — some even life-threatening. So I’d like to remind local climbing enthusiasts that this kind of climbing is not the same as the usual hikes through the Qinling Mountains. Without professional training, sufficient experience, a strong physique, and specialized mountaineering knowledge, it’s impossible. Especially before climbing, it’s essential to register with the mountaineering association local to the mountain, find a qualified and capable guide, and be fully prepared. Then every mountain can be conquered,” said Da Mo, a renowned outdoor sports expert from Shaanxi Province, in an interview with reporters. He also suggested that those interested in outdoor sports should progress gradually — starting with lower-altitude mountains and working their way up step by step, rather than aiming to reach the summit in one leap.