The team of the 2020 measurement of the height of Mt. Everest formed by survey members and mountaineers reached the summit of the mountain at 11 a.m. on May 27. Then they set a beacon and a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver to conduct measurements. On the same date 45 years ago, Chinese brought a beacon to the summit of Mount Everest for the first time.
CUG alumni Tsring Norbu and YUAN Fudong reached the top of Mount Everest as the captains of the mountaineering team and the climbing team respectively. This was the fourth ascent for Tsring Norbu and the second for YUAN after his first one in 2008.
Tsring Norbu graduated from CUG in 1999. He is the director of the alpine exploration department of the Chinese Mountaineering Association and the vice captain of the China Mountaineering Team.
When he was a junior studentmajoring in Geophysical Prospecting, he participated in the joint mountaineering team from China and Slovakia and reached the summit on May 19, 1998, becoming the first Chinese university student standing on the peak of Mount Everest.
After graduation, he grew into a coach and guide from anamateur mountaineer, and he become more devoted to mountaineering.
For most people, mountaineering is a way of having fun and exercising, but to him it is a lifetime career and a symbol of Chinese sports spirit. He once said that he would keep climbing until his sixties.
YUAN Fudong is a coach of the alpine exploration department of the Chinese Mountaineering Association and a member and coach of the China Mountaineering Team.
YUAN was admitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the School of Mechanical Engineering and Electronic Information in 2005. In the next year, the national mountaineering team started to select new members from universities and colleges all over the country for the torch relay to the summit of Mount Everest. With little knowledge about mountaineering, YUAN still signed up for the selection and succeeded. On May 9, 2008, YUAN and 16 teammates put the Olympic flame on Mount Everest as torch bearers.
Having obtained his master’s degree at CUG, he began working for the Chinese Mountaineering Association as a coach. He is always grateful for mountaineering, which has changed his life and presented a wider world for him.
Mount Everest is “The Mountain So High No Bird Can Fly Over It”, and this ascent was not so smooth. The team planned to heading to the top on May 12, May 22, and May 24 but all failed because of bad weather until the final success on May 27.
12 CUG alumni participated in the measurement. They are: LI Zhixin (counselor), WANG Yongfeng (director-general), ZHANG Zhijian (deputy director-general), Tsring Norbu (captain of the mountaineering team), YUAN Fudong (captain of the climbing team), CHEN Gang (member), SONG Hong (member), LI Pu (member), ZHAO Yan (member), Dechen Udrup (logisticalserviceprovider), Tsring Danda (logistical service provider), and ZHAO Jiaming (logistical service provider).
Sources: Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, China Sports Daily, Changjiang Daily, Alpinist, etc.
(Edited and translated from the Chinese version)
