The 'invisible summit' and the blind Chinese climber who scaled it
Zhang Hong on his way up to the summit of Everest
The exhilarating moment of standing on the top of the world wasn't quite how climber Zhang Hong had envisioned it. Then again, as the first blind Asian to reach the summit of Mount Everest, he couldn't see it at all.
"I had imagined what I would do when the moment came," Zhang told Shanghai Daily in recounting the 2021 ascent. "I thought I might cheer or I might yell out something enlightening, but at that moment, I didn't know how much oxygen was left and I knew that most fatal accidents on Everest happened to climbers on the way down. So I told my Sherpa guide, 'Let's get out of here!'"
Despite the memories of standing there, with gales and snow swirling around him and fear in his heart, Zhang's experience whetted his appetite for adventure. He now nurtures plans to scale the highest peaks of every continent and trek to the north and south poles.
Zhang was born in Chongqing and grew up in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province. In 1996, when he was 21, he lost his eyesight to inherited glaucoma, which had earlier afflicted his father and uncle.
"I remember one night I could still figure out the headlines on a newspaper," he said. "And the next day, I woke up and asked my girlfriend, now wife, 'Is it still dark?' She replied, 'No, it's morning already.' I knew at that moment that I had completely lost my eyesight."
Zhang Hong reads Braille at a Xinhua Bookstore in Shanghai in April.
His wife Xia Qiong resisted pressure from her family to call off any marriage plans and she stuck by him.
The first couple of years of blindness were so miserable that Zhang wanted to give up. Xia refused to let him sink in self-pity. She became his "eyes on the world," managing his daily life and giving him encouragement.
"I love soccer, so she read me soccer news from newspapers to cheer me up, and when she couldn't be with me, she would record them on tapes," Zhang said. "She raised me up from the darkness."
Zhang, like so many visually impaired people in China, became a masseur, but he was restless.
"I had actually tried different jobs, even starting my own business," he said. "But I always felt that I wasn't doing what I wanted."
He found his calling in 2012 when he went to work at a masseur at a hospital in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Zhang Hong working as a masseur at a hospital in Lhasa
Three years later, he came across the story of American athlete and adventurer Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person in the world to conquer Everest, also known as the Qomolangma, in a 2001 expedition. That was a turning point in Zhang's life.
"If he could, why couldn't I?" he thought to himself.
However, age could be a complicating factor. Weihenmayer was 33 when he reached the top of Everest and had been an athlete since childhood. Zhang was over 40 and had never exercised. But that didn't deter him; he began training.
"To start off, training was simple and monotonous – climbing up and down the staircases of my apartment building," he said.
Weights were gradually added to the routine to improve Zhang's strength. He wore his training gear everywhere, even when picking up his son from school.
Zhang Hong trains at home.
Family and friends, some of whom harbored doubts about his Everest dream, pitched in to raise funds.
Eventually, Zhang left the city life of Chengdu and began mountain climbing. Guides would lead the way, telling him how to move – 30 centimeters to the left, 50 centimeters forward, halt, turn around – when even the smallest error could be fatal.
"It was really tough," he said. "I sustained many injuries and sometimes felt on the verge of a fatal accident. I often asked myself why I was doing what I was doing, but the goal of conquering Everest was overpowering."
After reaching the summits of several peaks of more than 6,000 meters high, he reckoned the time had come to take on 8,8848-meter-high Everest.
His family worried about the expedition. Before he embarked, Zhang and his wife went on a vacation to the sea, where Xia told him, "No matter if you reach the summit or not, you have to come home in one piece."
Zhang Hong at Camp IV, the last stop on the way to the summit.
After arriving in Nepal, Zhang and his team hiked for nine days to reach Everest Base Camp at altitude 5,364 meters. On the way, he met with climbers from all over the world, who encouraged his efforts.
"When they found out I was blind, they would help me along or sometimes protect me from behind," he said. "Their voices of support and encouragement, along with the far-off bells of yak caravans, gave me joy and comfort."
Zhang spent a month at the Base Camp preparing for the final ascent with his Sherpa guides.
"Base Camp was full of a cacophony of sounds," Zhang recalled. "The sounds of pressure cookers, and the sounds of sutra chanting, the sounds of water flowing. But the most terrible sound was from helicopters, which meant someone was sick or injured."
The mountaineers in Base Camp were waiting for the favorable weather forecasts that typically occur from mid to late May. On May 19, 2021, the forecasts said go.
Zhang's "eyes on the mountain" were a professional guide nicknamed Qiangzi and Sherpas. They helped him navigate the traps of ice cracks.
Four days later, they reached Camp IV at 7,906 meters high, the last camp before the summit.
"Invisible Summit," a documentary on Zhang Hong, will be released this year.
On May 23, the team set off at 7pm for the final push to the top. Ten hours later, however, Qiangzi had to quit the expedition because of a leak in his oxygen tank.
Zhang's heart was in his throat. He kept asking how far it was to the summit, and the Sherpas kept telling him, "just one-and-a-half hours away."
At around 11am on the second day, he finally heard a Sherpa tell him, "You summit."
The aftermath was a new challenge. Because of the COVID pandemic, Zhang found himself stranded in Nepal and then Thailand for almost a year before he was finally able to return to China.
Looking back, Zhang said mountain climbing changed him from an "unfortunate man with little confidence" to one with strength, pride and a zest for life.
"When you stand on Everest, you realize that nature is blind to those who would conquer her," he said.
A documentary on his remarkable achievement, entitled "Invisible Summit," will be released later this year.
