In 1921, humans first attempted to climb Mount Everest, which is now a full 100th anniversary.
100 years ago, the British explorer George Mallory passed through the Kada Valley and confirmed the north slope summit route on the Kada Glacier that is still in use today. After that, the valley was silent for 100 years, and no one was heard of coming there again.
In order to commemorate the 100th anniversary of climbing Mount Everest, two young men born in the 1990s, Ma Chunlin and Dong Shuchang, went through untold hardships and came to this secret place that is almost impossible to find on the map. The "goddess" of Everest may have been moved by them, revealing her true appearance for two hours, and also put on an extremely rare "wedding dress."
They saw the century-old vicissitudes of Everest and took many precious photos from a new perspective, which were recently released to the public. This is the second time humans have come here to take photos of Mount Everest, after the Mallory expedition.
■ Hit it off
The mysterious valley was found on the map
The Kada Valley is 5,700 meters above sea level and is located on the east side of Mount Everest. It is not in the same direction as the well-known Everest Base Camp and can hardly be found on the map. However, Mount Everest shows a pyramid-like appearance from this angle, which is particularly majestic and magnificent. Moreover, the Kada Valley has great historical significance.
Ma Chunlin, a young man from Chengdu who was born in 1995, likes snowy mountains. He shoots in Tibet all year round and often cooperates with some professional research institutions. Because he often photographed these subjects, he learned a lot from some experts, and he also often conducted research himself, and discovered this valley by accident. "In May 2020, China measured the height of Mount Everest again, and I also participated in that operation. Considering that I might go to a place relatively close to Mount Everest during the measurement, I re-studied the route. The more I looked at it, the more I felt that Mount Everest was beautiful from this angle. However, 2 I didn’t make it in 2020.”
Hard work pays off. This year, he received a scientific research project from China National Geographic to do a 100-year visit to Mount Everest. This wish finally came true and he found Dong Shuchang as his companion. Dong Shuchang, a young man from Yinchuan, was born in 1998. He is a starry sky photographer. This year he won the Greenwich Observatory 2021 Astronomy Photographer of the Year championship and the solar category championship, and won the title of Astronomy Photographer of the Year (Ziniu News has reported on him. For details, see the Yangtze Evening News' A3 page on September 25, 2021 "The Best Astronomy Photography Contest, the Chinese Guy is Really Awesome"). In addition to photographing the stars, he started studying natural geography photography this year. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a holy land for natural geography photography. Dong Shuchang participated in Ma Chunlin's travel photography route. When they talked about the Kada Valley shooting plan, the two hit it off.
■Accidental discovery
Humans discovered the Everest climbing route from here
While studying the shooting plan, they accidentally discovered that this route coincided with the first search for the summit route by British explorer George Mallory 100 years ago. In 1921, Mallory led an expedition to explore the route to the summit from the north slope of Mount Everest. They walked from the Kada Valley, passed the Kada Glacier, and then crossed the Labala Pass.
This road cannot directly climb Mount Everest, but because of the good viewing angle, you can clearly see the famous "Three Steps" of Mount Everest. This is the only way to reach the top from the north slope. It was here that Mallory's expedition discovered the route to the summit and drew precise maps of the Everest region. The route they determined to reach the summit is still used today.
■ Marching Hardly
Trekking in No Man’s Land for Several Days
100 years ago, Mallory walked here to explore the route to climb Mount Everest. He never came again, and no other explorers set foot there, so the place remained silent for 100 years. Ma Chunlin and Dong Shuchang studied more than 400 pages of English expedition records written by the Mallory expedition that year. Dong Shuchang said: "We prepared from June to September. During these three months, I learned a lot about the Himalayas, including the history of expeditions to Mount Everest. We started to prepare maps, make glacier guides, and find professional hikers to help... We really made a lot of preparations before we could finally go there to shoot."The actual operation was also full of twists and turns. They set out from Kadap Village, Qudang Township, Tingri County, which is more than 4,300 meters above sea level, and went through a lot of hardships along the way.
There were no existing roads and there was no mobile phone signal. They walked for several days. Although there were guides to help and yaks to carry things, the journey was very difficult. The weather was not good along the way. It was very uncomfortable to walk in the wind, frost, rain, snow and hail, and they also encountered large animals such as wolves and bears. Fortunately, there was no danger to the wild animals, and they finally reached the Kada Valley at an altitude of 5,700 meters.
After arriving at the destination, although the rain stopped, the weather was gloomy and Mount Everest was hidden in the clouds and mist. Seeing that they couldn't take pictures, they were worried. Unexpectedly, the opportunity came in an instant, and Mount Everest was unveiled to them for two hours. In the early morning of September 26, before Ma Chunlin and Dong Shuchang got up, they suddenly heard the guide shouting to them: "Qomolangma! Everest! "
They grabbed their equipment, put on their cotton clothes and started climbing. They climbed over the terminal moraine on the edge of the Kada Glacier and saw the pyramid-like Mount Everest and Lhotse completely unfolding before their eyes. When Dong Shuchang recalled the scene at that time, he said: "No words can describe the feeling of seeing Mount Everest for the first time. This is the unique white and pink color of the 8,000-meter peak. With the arrival of sunrise, the first ray of sunshine also greeted us on the top of the world. We shouted excitedly: Everest is lit! Everest is on! "
The water vapor from the Indian Ocean was rising and falling on the Kada Glacier, and the fairyland-like sunrise of Mount Everest appeared before their eyes. They will never forget it. They clearly saw the climbing route on the north side of Mount Everest, including the famous "Three Steps." They set up their cameras and flew drones to take pictures starting from sunrise. They took pictures for two hours in total. This beautiful picture was perfectly recorded until the batteries of the camera and drone were exhausted.
■Lucky Comes
The "wedding dress" only floated for 30 seconds
Someone once asked George Mallory why he wanted to climb a mountain. He replied: "Because the mountain is there. "Ma Chunlin and Dong Shuchang found it particularly meaningful to retrace the route taken by humans to explore Mount Everest a hundred years ago. They also saw the changes left by a century of vicissitudes here.
In 1921, the Mallory expedition took a photo of Mount Everest from a distance in the Kada Valley. At the same location, Ma Chunlin Lin and Dong Shuchang also took a photo. Fortunately, the "goddess" of Mount Everest not only showed her true face, but also put on a "wedding dress". It was a thin white cloud floating on the top of Mount Everest. This kind of cloud is a subtype of lenticular cloud, which belongs to hat cloud and is pod-shaped. Clouds can only form if they are directly above the top of a mountain.
When the wedding-gown-like hat cloud appeared, Ma Chunlin was filming a video. He noticed something was wrong with the cloud, so he stopped the video, grabbed Dong Shuchang's camera, and took a snapshot of Mount Everest. This kind of cloud forms and dissipates very quickly. The time window for this photo is no more than 30 seconds, which is exactly what it was captured.
Dong Shuchang said that many people can’t imagine how much effort goes into a simple photo, but all the preparations were not in vain.
text/Song Shifeng
source: Yangtze Evening News
