The Soul of China.

                                                                        

                                          That is Mt. Everest.

It's hard to climb Mt. Everest. Lots and lots of people have died climbing Mt. Everest. 

A Chinese was not the first to climb Mt. Everest. A New Zealander, (Sir) Edmund Hillary (and a Tibetan, Tenzing Norgay) were. However, if we conceive of climbing Mt. Everest as an Olympic sport then the Chinese team in 1960 wins the gold medal for degree of difficulty:

"The Second Step is about 30 metres (100 feet) high, with an average slope of 60 to 70 degrees...Liu [Lien-man] took the lead and made four determined attempts on the top section: each time he fell from the steep, rotten rock, exhausted. After his last try, he was so debilitated that he could barely stand."

"Why climb Everest? Because it's there."

                                 -George Mallory (who died trying).

"Why climb Everest? Because your mother got too close to a nuclear reactor when you were in utero, causing you permanent, and profound, brain damage."

                                  -Benjamin Harris.

But wait:

"A second climber, Chu Yin-hua, impatiently took over the lead and removed his heavy boots, crampons and thick woolen socks to try the rock section bare-footed."

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.  

Let's back up here. The dude took off his boots...

and crampons, whatever they are.

And he took off his socks.

And he climbed bare-footed.

Mt. Everest. Bare-footed.

Oh no, we're not done: 

"...he fell-twice...In one final, drastic attempt, Liu Lien-man (now partially recovered from his previous attempts) made use of his training as a fireman..."

Okay, now where could this be going?  What possible training could one get as a fireman that could assist in climbing Mt. Everest?

"...and crouched down to allow Chu to stand on his shoulders."

He crouched down and had Chu stand on his shoulders. J

“With a great effort,* he was able to stand up and allow Chu to reach the top of the slab and haul himself to the top.”

That was the Second Step. That was not the summit.

It was 7 p.m. when the Chinese conquered the Second Step. Liu’s training as a fireman did not speak to him about climbing Mt. Everest in the dark. Oh, and “[t]heir oxygen supplies were also running low…”

“’What was to be done?’”

What was to be done? How about “A” for effort, live to climb another day, and call a helicopter.

No.

“'Turn back like the British climbers had done before? No!'”

See, I told you no.

“'Certainly not! The whole Chinese people and the Party were watching us.'”

So, what was to be done?

“Amazingly, the climbers decided to have a political powwow at 8595 metres (28,200 feet) to decide what to do.”

They had a political powwow at 8595 metres (28,200 feet). J

“’The three Communist Party members…then held a brief Party group meeting. It was decided that the assault group should advance to the summit as quickly as possible…Literally crawling on all fours in the final stage of the climb, the three remaining climbers reached the summit just before dawn.”

They crawled Mt. Everest at night.

“They stayed on the summit for 15 minutes, leaving a small plaster bust of Mao Tse-tung and a Chinese flag as evidence of their achievement. They picked up nine pieces of rock to present to Mao on their return…”**

*??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

** All quotes from The Search for Mallory & Irvine. Peter Firstbrook (1999), pp. 156-57.