More than 20 people have gone missing on Sichuan’s highest mountain between 1957 and 1999. Photo: CFP

By Wang Weilan

A public memorial service was held in Boulder, Colorado of the United States for three local alpinists last month.

Two died, one was left missing on Mount Edgar of Sichuan Province, Southwest China in late May.

“Holy Minya Konka, holy Mount Edgar, you are the symbol of sanctity and beauty and we admire you so much.”

“The inadvertent offense made you furious incidentally. But the climbers meant no offense to you. All we have toward you is awe and worship.”

“We hope you treat succeeding climbers with kindness and generosity, just the way you treat everything on the mountain.”

The words were uttered in Chinese by a member of the Sichuan Mountaineering Association, representing all the Chinese and American rescuers in a simple but solemn farewell ceremony on Mount Edgar before the bodies were moved and transported down the mountain to be cremated.

Minya Konka is a renowned mountain in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Some say it belongs to the Great Snowy Mountain Range.

The bodies of Jonathan Copp, 35, and Wade Johnson, 24, were found and identified under an avalanche on Mount Edgar (6,610 meters) on June 6 and 8. The search for the other climber, Micah Dash, 32, was called off and delayed probably until September because of bad weather.

All were experienced alpinists from the US. Copp and Dash were on the expedition to ascend to the peak, but Johnson was to film the adventure. For each of them, it was their first climbing attempt in China, under the sponsorship of the American Alpine Club.

They were registered to stay in the mountainous area from May 1 to 28, and started climbing from the base camp on May 20, but lost contact.

“Most probably they met a severe avalanche,” said Lin Li, head of the association and responsible for the rescue effort that began June 4.

The two climbers were found at an altitude of 4,000 meters, about three hours’ walk from the base camp. “The bodies stretched out and lay on the sides on the snowfield, with no trace of struggle.

“So we can guess that they were killed suddenly,” said one of the rescuers.

According to Lin, there was nothing in the video or photographs after May 20 in the filming equipment carried by Johnson and later recovered by the rescue team.

It is possible the avalanche roared down right after they started off from the base camp.

Expressing awe toward nature and blessings toward the climbers, the rescuers couldn’t help breaking into tears.

“The spirit of the mountain does not want to be disturbed,” said a local villager named Song Qiang. Legend has it that five fairies have lived in Mount Qomolangma (Mount Everest) for thousands of years, while their beautiful aunt is the goddess of Minya Konka.

A rescue team transports the bodies of Jonathan Copp and Wade Johnson down Mount Edgar in June. Photo: West China City Daily

Fairy curse

The fairy legend is dismissed by Ma Demin, chief editor of Chinese climbing magazine Outdoor Exploration. There is only one mountain in China off-limits to climbers for religious reasons: Mount Kaliash, a holy mountain in Tibet, Ma said.

Mount Kaliash is a sacred place to Buddhist and Hindu beliefs and the most significant peak in the world that has not seen any known climbing attempts.

Another mountain held so holy that setting foot on its slopes would be seen as a dire sin is Meri Snow Mountain in Yunnan.
 
In temples and hotels at the foot of the Meri Snow Mountain, pamphlets written by local Tibetans calling on people not to climb the mountain are everywhere. So far all known attempts to ascend the mountain have failed, leaving many climbers dead or missing, and the mountain still a virgin peak.

The death rate of climbing Minya Konka is only lower than that of Meri Snow Mountain, said vice director of the association Gao Min.

Minya Konka is in the same Ganzi Prefecture with Mount Edgar and 60 miles from it.

It is not uncommon for Gao to witness death and hear prayers to gods of mountains. Once an army doctor, Gao has worked for the association for more than a decade and has often been involved in rescuing climbers off the high mountains of Sichuan.

To look at Minya Konka, the highest mountain in Sichuan, it is sometimes hard to believe that it is a mountain with one of the highest death rates in China. China National Geography has selected it as the second-most beautiful mountain in the country. With an altitude of 7,556 meters, the mountain derived its name from the Tibetan meaning “highest snow-capped mountain,” and attracts many mountaineers with its thrilling beauty.

The most famous scenic view in Minya Konka was depicted in a travel website as the following: “A streak of scarlet light pierced the dark clouds, revealing over 50 steep snowcapped summits, shining, dazzling and thrusting into the clouds like golden swords.”

In contrast to its beauty, it is also recognized as one of the most difficult and dangerous mountains to climb.

According to Gao Min, eight teams comprising a total of 24 climbers have made successful ascents of the mount between 1957 and 1999. But more than 20 people, including four Chinese, 14 Japanese, one French, one American, one Swiss and one Korean, have gone missing on the unforgiving peak.

“The death rate is definitely higher than climbing the highest mountain in the world Everest, and the notorious K2,” Gao said. The severest accident occurred in 1981, when eight Japanese climbers went missing after ascending the mountaintop.

A typical climbing approach to Mount Edgar. Photo: Colorado Daily

Eight dead Japanese

Gao remembered when rescuers in Minya Kongka were trying to find the missing Lonely Planet travel writer Australian Clem Lindenmayer in June 2007 they found two other bodies, later identified as two of the eight Japanese climbers who died in 1981. Lindenmayer was also found dead in July 2007, three months after he was reported missing.

The 12-mountaineer team from Hokkaido, Japan, had made a successful ascent of Mount Kongka in May 1981.

But when the climbers were at 7,400 meters descending, eight members suddenly fell because of the bad weather.

Gao was involved in searching for the Japanese climbers in 1995, when he had just joined the association and was a young man in his 20s. The task was not over until he reached middle age.

Every one or two years, the Hokkaido Mountaineering Association sent people to join a Chinese team in searching for the bodies and belongings of the missing Japanese climbers.

Remains of the last two were found 26 years later: one was left only with a torso, the other only some parts of the pelvis and spine wrapped in rags.

“From the gloves, belts and names on the clothes, we identified they were the remains of climbers in 1981,” Gao said.

The charm of mountaineering

“The cliff was 2,000 meters high. We could do nothing but saw them falling down the cliff without a sound.

“The scene almost made us faint… but we had to bear the bitterness to shoulder bigger responsibilities,” wrote climber Shi Zhanchun, in his Chinese book We Ascended the World-renowned Summit, recording the climbing experience of the Chinese team in 1957.

The Chinese team made a successful ascent in 1957, the nation’s first successful independent climb of a mountain higher than 6,000 meters. Four climbers lost their lives and three survived.

“During the climb, I slipped and fell down the mountain three times. Each time I tumbled several hundred meters.

“We. experienced every terrible situation: avalanche, crevasse, blizzard and lightning,” said Liu Lianman, another survivor of the 1957 climb.

The team had spent three hours scaling a strategic cliff at 4,400 meters, only for an avalanche to return them to their starting point inside 10 seconds, Liu said.

Later when three climbers fell, Liu’s instinctive response was to try and catch them.

“I moved to try and stop them, but the rope pulled me back, so I couldn’t reach them,” he said.

“I didn’t put much thought into my action at that time. But if I had reached them, most probably all of us would have fallen down.”

In 2004, Liu Lianman, Liu Dayi and Yang Jianguo, son of Shi Xiuzheng – one of the climbers who died in 1957 – burned incense in the Minya Konka temple to commemorate the climbers who died in Minya Konka.

Five years later, the friends and families of the three American climbers were celebrating their lives.

“There is no place in the world I would have rather seen Wade spend the last months of his life.

“He had the greatest time and was so incredibly happy. He died as all should live – with joy, purpose and meaning,” said Johnson’s parents.

“People are killed while adventuring in high mountains, but that does not intimidate them or make them give up mountain climbing,” Gao said.

“Instead, they are more inspired to explore the mountain. This is exactly the charm of mountaineering.”