Climber conquers the world

Reasons to go

Xia, who was born in Chongqing in 1949, was chosen by the Chinese mountaineering team in 1974 when he was working at a foundry.

"I didn't know much about climbing at that time, but I was a basketball player and trained regularly. I thought I had the qualities that climbing requires, so I applied," he says.

That decision changed his whole life.

The first climb by a Chinese team to the summit of Qomolangma was in 1960. In 1975, the second expedition, which included Xia, set off. All his teammates eventually reached the top, but Xia suffered severe frostbite in his legs, which had to be amputated at the knees.

He heard the news of his teammates' success on the radio as he lay in bed awaiting the operation.

"It's beyond imagination how difficult it was to accept the fact that I would suddenly become a disabled person after being a national-level professional athlete," Xia recalls. "I could not imagine a future of sitting in a wheelchair, perhaps forever."

When a doctor told him that with artificial limbs he could live a normal life like anyone else, and he would even be able to do a lot of physical exercise, his hopes rose and he made up his mind to attempt an ascent of Qomolangma again.

"I had been preparing and exercising for climbing Qomolangma for decades," Xia says. "It was a target I had thought about a lot."

After his success, he says, "I got calls from strangers who wanted to climb the summit with me. However, they knew little about climbing and had no experience at all.

"A young guy told me that his highest mountain climbing experience was Mount Taishan in Shandong province, which has an altitude of 1,545 meters. He thought that if a disabled person like me could climb to the summit of Qomolangma, he could do it, too. He was younger and healthier."

The fact is, he could not, Xia says.

"People should not act on impulse. I'm physically strong and I have a high tolerance of cold. Climbing is a dangerous sport and you must prepare strictly for it."

Before retirement, Xia managed the archives of the Chinese Mountaineering Association.

To prepare for his fifth attempt on Qomolangma, he got up at five in the morning and completed 90 minutes of strength training at home, including 1,500 squats, 100 pullups and 360 pushups. Every day.

Then, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays he would ride a bike to Fragrant Hills, 30 kilometers from his home, hike to the top and then ride back home.

On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, he completed 10 km of speed walking instead of climbing Fragrant Hills.