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The US Consulate General in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, is offering a 30,000-yuan (US$3,750) reward to anyone who can provide information leading to the discovery of two American mountaineers missing in the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province.

Charles Fowler, 52, and Christine Feld-Boskoff, 39, were last heard from on November 7 when Fowler wrote in an email to a friend in the US that the two were planning to stay in Litang County in Ganzi for several days to climb a mountain. He didn't mention the name of the mountain or when or how they would climb it.

"The search and rescue operation is difficult for we don't have any detailed information on them since they didn't apply for a permit from the Sichuan Provincial Mountain Climbers' Association to climb in Sichuan in line with the Chinese government's regulations for foreign climbers," said Lin Li, secretary general of the Sichuan Provincial Mountain Climbers' Association.

"But in the spirit of humanitarianism the association has made an effort to search for and rescue them since we learned they were missing in early December," he told China Daily.

On December 9 people familiar with climbing in Ganzi informed Lin's association that the two Americans may have gone missing while climbing the Genie Mountain or some other nearby peak in early November.

"The association asked the local sports bureau and mountain climbers' association in Ganzi to verify the report," Lin explained. "On December 15 the US Consulate General in Chengdu sent a formal letter to the association asking for its assistance in looking for the two American citizens. We immediately started the search-and-rescue operation."

Rescue workers have interviewed villagers in Litang's Genie Mountain region as well as employees of the county's 43 hotels but have uncovered no information about the missing couple. Rescue workers have also asked the local government in nearby Batang County for help.

"Officials from the Dangba Township Government, which administers the Yangmolong Mountain in Batang, said one foreign man and one woman had stayed in the Yangmolong Mountain region. But nobody knows if they were the two missing people," Lin said.

Liu Feng, liaison officer of the Sichuan Provincial Mountain Climbers' Association, said there'd never been a climbing accident on Genie Mountain. The summit is 6,240 meters above sea level. "But it's warmer this winter and the snow is not as hard as in the past. It could easily result in an avalanche," Liu said.

Kuang Peijun, an information assistant with the Public Affairs Section of the US Consulate General in Chengdu, said relatives of the two missing people as well as a team of professional alpine rescuers from the US would arrive in Sichuan to coordinate search and rescue operations with the Chinese. The timing of their arrival wasn't yet known, she said.

Statistics from the Sichuan Provincial Mountain Climbers' Association show that the province's mountains have attracted more than 300 foreigners this year. "In Ganzi alone there are more than 200 mountains whose peaks are 5,000 meters above sea level," Liu said.

According to information provided by the China Mountain Climbers' Association between November 2005 and August 2006 seven people died in Sichuan while climbing. Six of them had not applied for permits. "About 30 percent of all Chinese and foreign climbers climbing mountains in China have no permits," Liu said.

According to the US Consulate General in Chengdu both Fowler and Feld-Boskoff are internationally famous climbers. Feld-Boskoff, who has organized trips for climbers to Tibet and Sichuan, has climbed six peaks of more than 8,000 meters.

(China Daily December 22, 2006)