Everest | 1960 N Col-NE Ridge

A China expedition to Everest in 1960 via N Col-NE Ridge, led by Shi Zhang-Chun. Summit reached on 25th May 1960. 23 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 2754
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID EVER60102
Peak ID EVER
Year 1960
Season 1
Host Country 2
Route 1 N Col-NE Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality China
Leaders Shi Zhang-Chun
Sponsor -
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 4th
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach -
Basecamp Date 1960-03-19
Summit Date 1960-05-25
Summit Time 0205
Summit Days 67
Total Days 0
Termination Date -
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8849
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 8
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 29
Summit Members 3
Member Deaths 1
Total Hired 99
Summit Hired 0
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired False
O2 Used True
O2 None False
O2 Climb True
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(19/03,5120m),C1(25/03,5400m),C2(26/03,5900m),C3(27/03,6400m),C4(27/03,6600m),C5(7000m),C6(29/04,7400m),C7(02/05,8100m),C8(03/05,8500m),Smt(25/05)
Route Notes Everest - 22 October 2008 (See Li Zhi-Xin summmary below at end of this section.) Everest - 12 Nov 1996 Spring 1960 - This summit claim is now gravely doubted by Reinhold Messner. Messner told me in September this year that after a long talk at Zangmu with a Tibetan Everest veteran of two later expeditions, it became clear that the 1960 summit party unsurmountable without the ladder (which his Tibetan helped to put in place in spring 1975 and thereby lost parts to six fingers to frostbite). The Chinese claim that the Second Step was surmounted by men standing on each other's shoulders is not credible, Messner says. His Tibetan did not state flatly that the 1960 team did not summit, he clearly did not credit their claim. Reinhold Messner - 17 Sept 1996 Re: Chinese Everest 1960 Rinzing Pingcho (at Zangmu) - Sep 1996 After 1 hour talk by Messner in broken English, signs, etc, Messner who understands Tibetan says in 1960 Chinese turned back at 2nd Step, which is unsummitable without ladder. Chinese story of men on each others shoulders not credible. A fine ascent as first to reach this point after Mallory but surely not a successful ascent. This Tibetan lost 6 fingers from frostbite in 1975 helping to put in ladder and summited on Japan-China-Nepal traverse? Rinzing came to Zangmu to meet Messner because he had heard of him and wanted to meet him - did not flatly say 1960 climb not successful but clearly did not credit it. For Chinese to do Messner's route would have been very long and they didn't say they went that way. Samdrup, Wangjia & letter from TMA - March 1993 Wang Ji, an assistant at Lan Zhou University, in April 1960 climbed to the top of the North Col, slightly over 7000m, and then developed pulmonary edema. He was sent down to advanced base at 6500m, but attempts to save him failed. He died in his tent and was cremated near the camp. Isono, 3 nation Everest - 27 Feb 1988 Re: Chinese Everest 1960 About 500 members including over 200 soldiers for transport from BC to ABC (from 5000m to 6500m), and including BC staff, doctors, communications personnel, journalists. Climbers: 150 total 70 - above North Col (7000m) 35 - above 7600m Was really a military exercise - Chinese sports committees are for military fitness. Naomi Uemura - 20 Jan 80 Uemura believes Chinese reached Everest summit in 1960. Last summer he was in Peking and Lhasa regarding his own bid to bring expedition to Everest on north side and he met and talked with 1960 summiter. Their description of final climb fits his knowledge of top of Everest and rings true. 1960 - Mr. Chu lost part index fingers 2nd finger right hand. 1. 214 including supply groups - reached up to 8000m 35 climbers 2. NE Ridge route - sometimes a little bit off ridge but only a little 3. not summit party - scouting party to find route 4. Yes 5. after reached 2nd Step no one's previous experiment to go by planned to make it to top and return to C8 in 8 hours but took 36 hours. assault camp below 1st Step of 20 m and lost 5 m very difficult vertical. Had had no idea how difficult 2nd Step would be - did not take ladder with then (so made human ladder because no written material to tell them they needed it). 6. sky was clear that night with light breeze. Not possible take photos by starlight because had only cine camera with color film. 7. Not true they could not find C8 on descent. Reached C8 at about 9:00 pm 25 May Peking time. 8. from 2nd Step to C8 10 am to 9 pm wind heavy snowfall and bad visibility by cloud (fog) - slow to reach lower camps also delayed - at 7900m stayed without camp on 26/27 May; reached there at nearly midnight and unable to continue to C6 because of fog, frostbite, very late, tired. 9. Chu lost all toes and parts both feet and parts 2 fingers from frost bite - toes because he took off boots. At 7900m wished to fire pistol to ask for rescue but finger stuck and could not fire it - no rescue. 3 summiters Wang - frostbite finger and 1 toe Gonpa - slight frostbite finger 10. No serious accidents and no death 1960 1975 11. North Col 7007 7050 Camp 6 7600 7790 Assault camp 8300 C5 7790 12. No revision Chinese expedition leader - 29 May 78 In ascent of Everest in 1960 Chinese from whom modern mountaineering barely 4 years old, benefited greatly by assistance of others especially information of British. At 7600m found British oxygen, tents and new nylon rope - not sure whether Mallory and Irvine's or others - no bones. In 1960 body found at about 6000m - clothing on body - if touched, body fell apart, was buried by Chinese in snow - fix position of body with knees drawn up it appeared he died of cold. Summit time was 4:20 CST (2:05 NST) Li Zhi-Xin Summary - paraphrased from account on Chinese web site in October 2008 1960 Chinese Everest Expedition On March 3, prior to the arrival of the main expedition, a large 192-member Chinese advance reconnaissance team arrived at base camp at 5120m. They explored the route up the East Rongbuk Glacier and established small depots at 5400m, 5900m, and 6400m, and also ferried up several kilograms of alpine equipment, food, and fuel that reduced the amount of transport needed to be done later by the main climbing team. On March 19, the primary expedition team members arrived at base camp at 5120m. The following week, with good weather forecasted by the meteorlogical team, the mountaineering team began their first acclimatization marches. On March 25, they went to the first camp at 5400m, a six-hour walk. At their campsite they discovered an abandoned cache of oxygen bottles, canned goods, and many used batteries with English letters on them. They speculated that they were from earlier British attempts. The next day, March 26, they continued on to the second camp at 5900m. On the following morning, they parted camp in fine weather, but reached the third camp at 6400m in cold windy weather. That same day a small reconnaissance team continued on to 6600m and spent the night there. During this period, the advance group completed the installation of a large tent city (ABC) at 6400m complete with a weather station and radio communications. Near ABC, Wang Zhenhua found the body of a dead mountaineer at the edge of the glacier lying in the remnants of a tattered tent. This was later determined to be the body of Maurice Wilson who disappeared on Everest in 1934. A reconnaissance team that included Wang Zhenhua, Liu Lianman, Peng Shuli, Xu Jing, and Wang Fengxiang began pushing a route up to the North Col. By March 31, they had climbed up to 6950m along a 30-degree, 200-meter long ice-alley just below the rim of the North Col. But due to inclement weather, they returned to the 6600m transit camp. During the next six weeks, the expedition set up camps at 7000m (North Col), 7400m, 7600m, 8100m and 8500m and stocked them with food and oxygen for the summit attempt. On May 13, the meteorlogical group reported a high-pressure air mass moving in and thus they forecast a period of several days of good weather before the onset of monsoon weather in early June. Thus the team decided to mount their summit attempt on May 15 with the goal of summiting on May 20. But due to a sudden change in weather, they postponed their start by two days. The summit team arrived in ABC at 6400m on May 17, and then moved up to the North Col the next day. On May 19, they proceeded to 7400m and on May 21 arrived at the 7600m camp. The next day on May 22, team members and 27 transport staff carried 250 kg of supplies up to the 8100m camp. On the afternoon of May 23, the final assault team of Xu Jing, Wang Fuchou, Liu Lianman, Gombu, and Qu Yinhua along with 9 support members (Guo Zhongyue, Qunze Jianbi, Dorje, Sonam Dorje, Mingma, Yunden, Tsering, Choegyal, and Mingma Tashi) reached the last camp at 8500m. Qu Yinhua was accompanying the assault team for filming. After depositing their loads, the 9 support members returned to 8100m. At 9:00 in the morning of May 24, while Xu Jing, Wang Fuchou, Liu Lianman and Gombu were climbing out of their tents in preparation to start, Xu Jing was injured by a sudden slip and was unable to continue. Qu Yinhua took his spot on the rope team. The assault team advanced along the mountain ridge. They each carried to two oxygen tanks with a regulator and mask in their backpack. In addition each carried an ice axe, several steel pitons, while Wang also brought a movie camera and Gombu brought a red flag with a wrapped statue of Chairman Mao and some movie film. Each packed weighed about 14 kg. At 12:00 they arrived at the Second Step at the foot of the cracks. Two hours later they came to a crack on the end of a large rock. This was where Shi Zhanchun and Wang Fengxiang had dug a hole and stayed overnight. On their right, there was a vertical rock wall four meters high. They saw no support points on the wall, only a small number of edges and corners that were unclimbable. Although there were a few small cracks on the wall about the width of a thumb, they were 1.5 meters apart and not conducive for climbing. Liu, fully protected by two pitons on the wall, tried three times to scale the wall, but stumbled down each time. Gombu and Qu tried twice, but both times came crashing down. Finally, Qu stood on the shoulders of Liu and placed several more pitons on the wall. More than an hour later, Qu climbed to the top of the wall and threw down a rope on which Gombu, Wang, and Liu scrambled up. By this time it was 17:00. They had spent seven hours to get to the top of the Second Step, three of those hours on just this four-meter high wall. After a short rest, they continued to move forward. Now above the Second Step, they crossed onto a snow slope at 8700m. At this time Liu became physically too ill to continue, slipping several times. The others set Liu down next to a large rock as a windbreak where there was no danger of falling rock. They also discovered that their oxygen supply was running out. They wrote in their memo: "After we climbed from 8500m to 8600m just below the Second Step, the oxygen level in each of the oxygen tanks we were using was only 40-50 units (160-200 liters). Because it would take us too much energy to carry two oxygen tanks up and we might use some oxygen when coming down, we decided to leave our used oxygen tanks below the Second Step and use the remaining one. When we arrived at 8700m at 19:00 on the 24th, our remaining oxygen was again just 40-50 units. Liu Lianman was too weak to continue. So we decided to leave him there with his oxygen tank. The three remaining team members then continued upwards." Now the time was 19:00 and to continue onward meant climbing in the dark for which there was no precedent. After a brief conference, they decided to continue on since the sky was clear, the winds low, and the original forecast was for deteriorating weather after May 25. More importantly, they felt that Communist Party and 600 million Chinese people were hoping for their success, so they could not pass up this opportunity when they were so close to the top. When they reached about 8750m, the sun had completely disappeared and they were now climbing in the dark, groping forward on their hands and feet trying to find proper footholds and avoiding loose, rolling stones. It was a very precarious situation. When they arrived at 8800m, they were basically out of oxygen. With each tank containing very little or no oxygen, they became very fatiqued. On the high, dangerous terrain, the team had to rely mostly on the oxygen in thin air to maintain their activities. At this moment of success or failure, the had to withstand the test of life or death. Their common belief was: "only forward, not backward." On their advance to the summit, the same to a small false summit. Only after seeing the nearby main summit, did they continue to move forward. The climbed up the summit on the west side of a rock pile, the final section of their journey. At 4:20, Wang Fuchou, Qu Yinhua, and Gombu stood on the summit of Mount Everest. Gombu took out from his backpack a five-star red flag and a statue of Mao Zedong, and using the flag as a wrap placed the bust of Mao on the summit. Although they had cameras with them, they could not take a summit photo due to the darkness of the night. After 15 minutes on top, the headed back downhill. When they reached the summit, a close examination of their oxygen tanks that two of them were running empty and the third was down to very low pressure. By the time they returned down to 8800m at 6:00 on May 25, they were completely out of oxygen. Then gradually daylight appeared and Qu who had been carrying a small film camera was able to photograph their footprints on the way to the summit. Then they climbed down to 8700m and rejoined Liu. Earlier when the three others left him on their way to the summit, he thought that there was no possibility of him surviving. So he spent a half-hour writing a short message to Wang: "Wang Fuchou: I know I cannot make it. I have some oxygen left in my tank. Maybe you can use it when you come back down. Farewell, comrades! Liu Lianman for your comrades. May 24" After writing the letter, Liu went to sleep. But with his good quality of training, he had acquired a strong physique that had adapted well to the high mountain altitude. With his strong will and the usefulness of the sleeping bag, he escaped death. After some sleep, he stood up again. Later when he saw Wang, Qu and Gombu, the first words came out of his mouth was to ask them to use the oxygen he saved. Touched by his acts. The three team members came into tears. The three team members shared the oxygen Liu saved for them. When the four returned to the Second Step, the weather had changed to heavy snow with low visibility that made the walking much more difficult. They found the four oxygen tanks they had left earlier and started using them. Soon they emptied two tanks and carried the remaining two with them in case of emergency. Around 9:00 that evening they returned to the high camp at 8500m. At the 8500 meter camp, they had some discussions and decided to descend in groups. Gombu and Liu Lianman, who were physically stronger, were to descend within one day to ask for support and carry the good news of their summit. These two stopped only at 8100m to eat and went straight down to the North Col. Wang and Qu later descended to North Col on May 27th and arrived at 6400m camp on the 28th. Wang and Qu returned to the North Col (7000m) on May 27 and to ABC (6400m) on May 28. On May 30 at 13:30 they all returned to base camp. Wang, Gombu, and Qu were warmly welcomed. On June 1 at base camp, Xu Jing announced the final results on the mountain: in their mountaineering activities, a total of 53 climbers went to 7500m of which 28 climbers reached 8100m. This number amounts to 42.2% of all 69 times that climbers had arrived at this altitude from expedition teams from all over the world in the past 178 years. It was the first time in the world mountaineering history that so many people had arrived at this altitude (8100m) in one expedition. In the celebration ceremony, Xu Jing said, "The success in summiting Mt. Everest means the young Chinese mountaineering team, having just started 5 years earlier, has surpassed foreign mountaineering teams with over a 100-year history. It is the first success a Chinese mountaineering team has had to become among the world-class level teams." He added that the Chinese mountaineering had received numerous help from many countries. Especially in 1960, when China was only with her 4th year history in mountaineering and started expedition to Mt. Everest from the north side, we studied and learned from experiences of the British mountaineering teams. That later proved very helpful for this expedition. Each success is built on top of the efforts and failures from earlier forerunners and encourages new breakthroughs. These successes represent the breakthrough by the whole mankind. Later Guo added to the script of a speech given by Shi, "All members of our expedition team would like to dedicate our successful summit of Mt Everest to all people in the world who love peace. We wish world peace proves as invincible as Mt. Everest and wish the friendship among all people in the world prove as long-lasting and pure as Mt. Everest."
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency -
Commercial Route True
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference -
Primary ID -
Checksum 2439130
Year 1960
Summit Success True
O2 Summary Used
Route (lowercase) n col-ne ridge

Members

23 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Zhang-Chun Shi M - China Leader - - Details Other expeditions
Fu-Chou Wang M 1935 China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Gombu (Konbu) M 1935 China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Ying-Hua Qu M 1935 China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Lian-Man Liu M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Ta-Yi Liu M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Shou-Li Peng M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Lhakpa Tsering M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Mingma M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Feng-Xiang Wang M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Ching Shih M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Ji Wang M - China Scientific Team - Assistant at Lan Zhou University Details Other expeditions
Zong-Yue Guo M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Jing Xu M 1927 China Deputy Leader - - Details Other expeditions
Zhen-Hua Wang M 1936 China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Ronh-Chang Chen M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Chao-Ren Guo M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Jianbi Qunze M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Yonden M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Choegyal M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Dorje M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Sonam Dorje M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Mingma Tashi M - China Climber - - Details Other expeditions

References

17 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
EVER60102 AJ Shih Chan-Chun The Conquest of Everest by the Chinese Mountaineering Team - 66:28-41 (May 1961) -
EVER60102 AJ Goodfellow, B. R. Chinese Everest Expedition, 1960: A Further Commentary - 66:313-315 (Nov 1961) -
EVER60102 HJ Shih Chan-Chun The Conquest of Everest by the Chinese Mountaineering Team - 23:151-166 (1961) -
EVER60102 HJ Goodfellow, B. R. Chinese Everest Expedition, 1960: A Further Commentary - 23:166-168 (1961) -
EVER60102 AAJ Dyhrenfurth, G. O. - - 36:270-271 (1962) -
EVER60102 AJ Merrick, Hugh Everest: The Chinese Photograph - 67:310-312 (Nov 1962) -
EVER60102 AJ Merrick, Hugh & Wager, L. R. Mount Everest: The Chinese Photograph - 68:48-51 (May 1963) -
EVER60102 - Zhou Zheng Footprints on the Peaks Cloudcap, Seattle - -
EVER60102 MM - - - 101:40-43 (Jan 1985) -
EVER60102 - China Mountaineering in China Foreign Language Press, Peking - C188
EVER60102 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12196227004/Asia-Nepal-Observations-on-the-Chinese-Everest-Expedition-1960 - - -
EVER60102 - - https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/23/16/the-conquest-of-mount-everest-by-the-chinese-mountaineering-team/ - - -
EVER60102 - - https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1963_files/AJ%201963%2048-51%20Merrick%20&%20Wager%20Chinese%20Photograph.pdf - - -
EVER60102 - - https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1962_files/AJ%201962%20310-312%20Merrick%20Chinese%20Photograph.pdf - - -
EVER60102 - - https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1961_files/AJ%201961%2028-41%20Chan-Chun%20Chinese%20on%20Everest.pdf - - -
EVER60102 - - https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1961_files/AJ%201961%20313-315%20Goodfellow%20Chinese%20Everest.pdf - - -
EVER60102 IM - New Information on Chinese Ascents of Mount Everest - 6:75-78 (Autumn 1980) -