Rush to the top

[Photo provided to China Daily]

This year marks the second session of the Yading event organized by the Chinese company Migu Run and Switzerland-based International Skyrunning Federation, an organization that promotes cross-country running events around the world.

The federation places a premium on putting runners in touch with nature. Yading was regarded as an ideal venue for the event, given its superb mountain tracks.

"Yading is uniquely beautiful and relatively undeveloped. It's very innocent in that sense," says Etienne Rodriguez, the race director.

"The principal reason (we chose Yading) is its inescapable natural beauty and peaks".

The place has the world's highest civilian airport, 4,411 meters above sea level, and three holy peaks, Chenresig (Xiannairi), Jambeyang (Yangmaiyong) and Chanadorje (Xianuo Duoji), each about 6,000 meters high.

The peaks are all blanketed by dazzling snow all year round and worshipped by the locals.

"Having said that, it also has the infrastructure in place," Rodriguez says.

For this event, nearly 800 runners from 25 countries and regions had flown in to savor what this out-of-the-way venue had to offer: a 46-km race, a 29-km race, a 7-km vertical climbing and a 10-km hiking experience. Runners faced challenging courses that range from 2,900 meters to 5,000 meters above sea level.