【Latest News】
Heavy snow and difficult roads; -30°C; one person went missing at North Summit
Latest News: Two people descended the mountain, one injured person rescued; multiple recent accidents on Mount Wutai
At this altitude, don’t go without proper gear, experience, stamina, and fitness
【Incident Recap】
(Beijing Times) On January 5, three university students reported being lost while hiking on Mount Wutai. They were trapped at the North Summit, with one even suffering a fall. It is understood that there was heavy snow and very low temperatures on the North Summit. Upon receiving the report, the Wutai County Fire Brigade in Shanxi Province learned that the trapped individuals were students from Tsinghua University. The Shanxi Blue Sky Rescue Team, along with police officers and firefighters from the scenic area, subsequently entered the site to carry out rescue operations. As of press time last night, the rescue efforts were still ongoing. Tsinghua University stated that they were confirming whether the trapped individuals were indeed their students.
“Hikers have encountered danger on Shanxi’s Great Wutai,” around 12 noon yesterday, Zhang Qingchen, a board member of the public welfare rescue organization Blue Sky Rescue Team, posted on Weibo that three university students were in danger near the Zaoyu Pool scenic area on Great Wutai. The reporter contacted an informed source, Mr. Li, using the contact number left in the help-seeking Weibo post. He said that Monk Tan from Mount Wutai had rescued two students, while another student had fallen. According to Mr. Li, quoting Monk Tan, it was confirmed from conversations with the rescued pair that at least one of them was a Tsinghua University student.
Yesterday afternoon, the reporter contacted the rear commander of the Blue Sky Rescue Team for this rescue operation. He said that yesterday morning, the team learned that three university students were trapped while hiking on foot at Zaoyu Pool on Mount Wutai due to getting lost, and one of them had fallen. “Monk Tan’s phone is turned off—we’ll need to go to the scene to understand the details.”
At 8:30 PM last night, a member of the Blue Sky Rescue Team said that 12 members of the Shanxi Blue Sky Rescue Team and several volunteer rescuers had arrived near Zaoyu Pool. However, as they could not locate the trapped students on site, they began searching the surrounding areas with Zaoyu Pool as the center. Half an hour later, the Shanxi Blue Sky Rescue Team announced on their official Weibo account that during the search from Miaoding Temple to Zaoyu Pool, the rescuers found a hiking backpack halfway up the mountain. It was fully equipped with outdoor gear and included a GPS device, but no personal information was found.
A Tsinghua University student told reporters that starting from 3 PM yesterday, almost all students received text messages from the school asking if they were on campus. It has been learned that among the two rescued students, one is a Tsinghua University student, as is the student who fell and is awaiting rescue. A staff member from the Publicity Department of Tsinghua University said that they had verified the students’ information through their departments, but it was still being further confirmed whether they are indeed Tsinghua students.
As of 11 PM last night, press time, rescuers had not yet found the trapped students.
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China National Radio Taiyuan, January 5 (Reporter Yue Xuhui) As of 10:30 PM on the 5th, search and rescue efforts for the three missing Tsinghua University students near the North Summit of Mount Wutai are in full swing. After more than three hours of searching, firefighters, armed police, and the Red Cross Blue Sky Rescue Team discovered a backpack at the mountainside of the North Summit. Inside were batteries, a camera, a water bottle, instant noodles, and other items, believed to have been left behind by the missing persons. Later, an abandoned walking stick was also found.
Currently, rescuers are divided into two groups: one group is conducting a grid search around the abandoned backpack, and the other is continuing toward Zaoyu Pool at the North Summit. There is still over an hour’s journey remaining to reach the North Summit.
It is understood that the three students were in danger while hiking along a 70-kilometer winter trekking route known as the Great Pilgrimage Around the Five Terraces.