Red Everest

As Nepal closed its borders to foreign mountaineers, the conquest of Everest began first in the North and on the Tibetan side of the mountain. The English, led by Georges Mallory, made some notable attempts in the 1920s before Bill Tilman, Eric Shipton and Frank Smythe took up the torch again in the 1930s, without success. While Edmund Hillary and the British finally found the key to success in 1953 on the finally accessible Nepalese side, the first ascent of the North Ridge was still to be made and, by the end of the 1950s, Mao Zedong saw a good opportunity to prove to the world the people's Republic's ability to " move the mountains ". In the spring of 1960, an army of 214 climbers landed on the Rongbuk glacier.

1960: the shadow of a doubt

On March 25 at noon, under a bright sun, all team members gather at base camp to see their national flag raised to the Chinese anthem, with one slogan: "We will not give up until Mt.Everest is conquered." On May 24, after a failed first attempt due to the weather, four climbers reached the foot of the second ski lift, a key passage of the route, at 8,600 meters. Liu Lien-man then decides to sacrifice his chances at the top to play the role of human scale and to allow his comrades to overcome the uphill climb that will require three hours of sustained efforts that will have emptied their oxygen reserves. At 4: 20 AM, Beijing time, Wang Fu-chou, Chu-Yin-Hua, and Tibetan Konbu finally put on top the bust of Mao that they had been dragging, like an anvil, since their departure from the north pass 19 hours earlier. They pick up some stones to give to the Great Helmsman but it is unfortunately too dark to take pictures. On May 30, everyone returned safely to base camp, where heroes are celebrated in the glory of the party.

At the end of the account of this expedition published in 1961 in the Alpine Journal under the pen of Shih Chan-Chun (member of the expedition), we find a rather complete note from the publisher, which seriously questions this ascension. In addition to the lack of evidence, the Alpine Journal raises the fact that in "people's democracies" the propaganda organs often censor the authors and thus doubt the full veracity of the story. He then points out the lack of topographical details in the account of the end of the ascension, some contradictions in the various accounts published and then adds that with the darkness, the fatigue and the lack of oxygen, it is easy to confuse a small bump with the summit. The note concludes with a comprehensive study by T. S. Blakeney, photos brought back by the Chinese. After comparing it with clichés from other expeditions, Blakeney concluded that there were serious ambiguities between the account and the photos of the Chinese and that their ascent, although possible, should be considered as unproven.

1975: a ladder to the second rises and a tripod to the top

Fifteen years after the first dispute, 300 Chinese mountaineers set off again for the North Face of Everest with this time in their luggage, in addition to the love of the party, enough to prove their ascent in an indisputable way. On May 17, fifteen men and three women left the base camp in the direction of the summit. On May 25, a first rope team arrived at the foot of the second jump, which they equipped with a metal ladder to allow the second group to cross it easily. On May 27, the assault line consisting of eight men and a woman set out from the last camp, crossed the river with the ladder and reached the summit at 2: 30 pm.

At this moment, the Tibetan Phantom (Pandouo of her Tibetan name) thinks she is the first woman on the roof of the world since she does not know that she was overtaken a few days before by the Japanese Junko Tabei. Never mind , " this extraordinary feat by Valiant Mountaineers proves beyond any doubt that under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and guided by the revolutionary line of President Mao, there is no difficulty that can stop the victorious march of the Chinese people, it is not a high summit that it cannot win. "can one read in the daily newspaper of the people, an organ of propaganda if it is so, on June 6, 1975.

This time, it is high light and while the cameras are activating to provide proof to everything, a metal tripod is firmly installed that allows fixing the Red Star flag. While the 1960 Mao bust was never found, the following autumn Bonington expedition, victorious on the Southwest Side, was able to use the tripod to prove its success along with that of the Chinese. The ladder of the second step is still in place today and does many services to those who prefer to avoid the scabrous technique of the short-run. It is only to be regretted that the most prominent members of the party did not think of renaming the north pass as " Mao pass ". At the same time, they weren't there to laugh...

(1) " I believe in the rope, there are men and women who succeed because they have talents, I want that they are celebrated [ ... ] if we begin to throw stones on the first of the rope it is all the rope that falls ". Television Interview on 15 October 2017.
(2) The conquest of Mount Everest by the Chinese mountaineering team
(3) in his Tibetan Chronicle published in the journal Cimes in 2001, Claude Deck states that " the peak is reached during the day and not during the night as is often said. The published photographs of the exploit were not taken from the top as had been indicated by the Chinese authorities, but from the North Ridge, which has raised doubts about the reality of the performance, a doubt relayed and widely nurtured in the West. Direct testimony of one of the Ascenders, Yu Yin Hua, was collected by the leader of a French expedition in the early eighties. »