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)
