Wang Tienan is president of Urumqi Association of Mountaineering and Exploration (with approximately 80 members) since the death of the former president who occupied the post only one year. This is how his passing happened. In 2001, Dong Wuxin, a good friend of Wang, took part in an expedition on the Silk Road at the south of the Tianshan Mountains. When he saw a stone that reminded him the shape of a funerary stele, Dong wrote on the smooth surface Wu Ming Mu (Tomb of the Unknown). Beside the stone Dong placed a horse skull bleached by the wind on which he traced: Dong Xia (Dong the Strong). Two days later, at the crossing of a fast water stream, Dong fell in the water. With cables, his companions could have saved him, perhaps, but they had left the cables in the vehicle. They all saw him losing his balance, then struggling, and finally being swallowed by the floods. Impossible to catch Dong physically, Wang captured him on film by photographing his drifting body. It was only three months later that the second research team, in which Wang Tienan took part, could find Dong's remains. In the summer of 2002, Wang went back to spread Dong's ashes among his beloved mountains. He will never forget this scene.
At Wang Tienan's place, the environment was warm and the house was always full of friends. In fact, during this interview, three people, mountaineers, came. His son also telephoned. He was 21 years old and a sophomore in Kazakhstan where he studied Russian. Back in China for the holidays, he was climbing the Mustaghata, heading a group of 38, including two Tibetans. On the phone, his father advised him to slow down. He was young and in good health, but the climbing of 4,000 m from Kashgar had been much too fast, according to the expert. "One should spend 20 days to reach this top, though it is possible to make it in 10 days," explained Wang Tienan, hanging up the phone and returning to our conversation as if nothing had interrupted it. He didn't worry about his son, whom he had trained from his childhood. At the age of 13, the young man, who was 1.80 m, accompanied his father to the top of the Bogda.
As for Wang's wife, she doesn't worry either when her husband leaves for an expedition. The short wave radio keeps them in contact. But when news comes after two or three days of silence, she feels relieved.
"The Chinese started mountaineering rather late," said Wang, "and the first groups came mainly from Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. But in the last two years, there are people from Zhejiang and Fujian who come to climb our mountains in Xinjiang."
Wang Tienan would like to climb the Alps and other famous peaks of the world, but it is very expensive, taking into account permits, local guides, and carriers; in short, two dozen people, and animals. The equipment is heavy and numerous. Each mountaineer requires four bottles of oxygen. And tents. And food. A cook is needed, too. All these people must be paid. The Qomolangma is also expensive: 200,000 yuan per team. Five members of the Urumqi Association of Mountaineering and Exploration went there in May after preparing for two months. Wang was not part of it, but he went to Tibet to encourage the climbers. Bad luck for him: his motorcycle slipped and his right knee was seriously wounded. He would undergo the second surgery in a few days.
What do people do with the empty bottles of oxygen? My question made Wang smile; he shook his head. "Pollution. You want to talk about pollution of Qomolangma? We leave everything on the spot, including the old tents that we will not use anymore. Teams of volunteers are required to collect waste, an unimaginable quantity! Mountaineers are very numerous now; they have to queue up for their turn to go up."
To satisfy an old curiosity, I enquired: "How can the team leader climb as there are not yet cables in position?"
"The leader uses a peak and nails to open the way. He is the one who installs the cables for the following climbers. Certain peaks are very high but do not require cables; sometimes one needs 3,500 m of cord; one pulls up the cable and starts again and again, five or six times."
At home, Wang likes to read, especially in the data processing field. He has written four books on alpinism and a great number of articles.
According to Wang, there are two kinds of mountain lovers: those who climb until old age comes to remove their means; and those who die in the mountains. "Alpinism is not a hobby, it is a way of life," Wang said. Sometimes Wang is very busy and feels the pressure of life, but he knows that a mountain is awaiting him, and this is enough to endure anything.
(Source: Foreign Languages Press)
