The first college student to summit Mount Everest. Now, at the age of 51, he is once again challenging himself to conquer the world’s highest peak.
Chen Chen, a lively and pretty Wuhan native, is the pride of her mentor Dong Fan and a first-year graduate student in the outdoor sports program at China University of Geosciences (CUG). Though she started climbing later than most, her natural talent is widely acknowledged among the expedition team. At just 25 years old, her earliest mountaineering experience was climbing Cho Oyu (8,201m) in 2008. Although she only reached 7,600m due to equipment issues, her strong adaptability and excellent teamwork during the climb quickly made her a key trainee on the team.
Dechen Ngodup and Tsering Dorje, often referred to as the “twin stars of mountaineering,” were both born in Tingri at the foot of Everest; both are top students of Nyima Tenzing, principal of the Tibet Mountaineering School; both participated in the 2008 Olympic torch relay to Everest, and entered China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) the same year. In 2009, they successfully summited the unclimbed Ruoni II Peak together, leaving humanity’s first footprints on that mountain. To date, each has reached the summit of Everest three times. Dechen Ngodup set the record as the youngest person in China to summit Everest at the age of 18. (Sent from our Everest Base Camp on the 17th)