The team of the 2020 measurement of the height of Mt. Everest formed by survey members and mountaineers reached the summit of the mountain at 11 a.m. on May 27. Then they set a beacon and a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver to conduct measurements.
YUAN Fudong is a coach of the alpine exploration department of the Chinese Mountaineering Association and a member and coach of the China Mountaineering Team.
YUAN was admitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the School of Mechanical Engineering and Electronic Information in 2005. In the next year, the national mountaineering team started to select new members from universities and colleges all over the country for the torch relay to the summit of Mount Everest. With little knowledge about mountaineering, YUAN still signed up for the selection and succeeded. On May 9, 2008, YUAN and 16 teammates put the Olympic flame on Mount Everest as torch bearers.
Having obtained his master’s degree at CUG, he began working for the Chinese Mountaineering Association as a coach. He is always grateful for mountaineering, which has changed his life and presented a wider world for him.
Mount Everest is “The Mountain So High No Bird Can Fly Over It”, and this ascent was not so smooth. The team planned to heading to the top on May 12, May 22, and May 24 but all failed because of bad weather until the final success on May 27.
12 CUG alumni participated in the measurement. They are: LI Zhixin (counselor), WANG Yongfeng (director-general), ZHANG Zhijian (deputy director-general), Tsring Norbu (captain of the mountaineering team), YUAN Fudong (captain of the climbing team), CHEN Gang (member), SONG Hong (member), LI Pu (member), ZHAO Yan (member), Dechen Udrup (logisticalserviceprovider), Tsring Danda (logistical service provider), and ZHAO Jiaming (logistical service provider).
Sources: Xinhua News Agency,People’s Daily,China Sports Daily,Changjiang Daily,Alpinist, etc.
