On July 5 and 6, 11 members of CUG mountaineering team “Jingfengzhe” reached the summit of Muztagh Ata (7546 metres), the third highest of the Kunlun Mountains.
Muztagh Ata, literally “ice-mountain-father”, stands in southwestern Xinjiang. Kongur, Kongur Jiubie, and Muatagh Ata are the three highest mountains in the Eastern Pamirs.
The plan of climbing Muatagh Ata started one year ago. As most of the team members were postgraduates, they withstood combined pressure of learning, working, and living during the six-month training.
On June 21, having gone through incidents like flight cancellation and delay, the team finally arrrived at the foot of Muatagh Ata. The climbing was intended to last 19 days and divided into three stages. On the first stage, two members had to withdraw because of altitude sickness; on the second stage, the weather anomalies stopped the team; at last, 2 teachers and 9 postgraduates, divided into Group A and Group B, reached the summit of Muatagh Ata at 9:45 on July 5 and at 9:32 on July 6 respectively. All the members backed to the camp safely on their summit days.
(Edited and translated from the Chinese version)
