Chinese climbers give up on Mt Everest metres away from summit to save woman

Fan Jiangtao and Xie Ruxiang from southern China’s Hunan province were just 400m from the summit on May 18 when they made the tough call to abandon their climb to rescue another climber.

Fan and his sherpa stumbled across an unconscious woman while painfully close to the peak of the world’s highest mountain.

It is neither uncommon or frowned upon among Everest mountaineers for climbers to prioritise reaching the summit instead of assisting others.

In fact, rescuing or aiding others above 8000 meters is considered extremely dangerous for the rescuer and is usually discouraged.

Fan, however, elected to rescue the Chinese woman who had found herself in perilous circumstances at an altitude of about 8500 metres.

According to Fan, leader of the Hunan mountaineering team, she was out of oxygen, uncontrollably shivering, and had lost a glove, leaving her hand blackened by frostbite.

According to the South China Morning Post, Fan said his goal shifted from reaching the summit to saving a life.

“My guide asked me many times if I really wanted to give up ascending the summit. I told him, ‘Yes, my goal is to save a life’,” Fan said.

Fan refilled the woman’s oxygen with his own and momentarily brought her back to consciousness with chest compressions, a drink of hot water, sugar and chocolate.

Fan and his sherpa spent two hours painstakingly taking the woman 200m down a steep slope where they linked up with fellow Climber Xie and his sherpa.

After a gruelling four hours, the pair and their sherpas eventually got the woman to Camp 4 below the “death zone”, and she has reportedly recovered since.

Later, it was revealed Fan even helped pay the woman’s $10,000 rescue fee from Camp 4.

“At such an altitude, you will feel exhausted even from holding a water bottle,” Fan said. “Because my guide and I had reached the limit of our physical capacity, we couldn’t move her any longer. I had to let her stay there and go to seek help.”

Xie said when Fan, who had become crippled by exhaustion, cried when he saw him.

“He told me he wanted to save a person, but he didn’t have enough strength. I totally understood his desire to save a life. So I also decided to give up my plan of reaching the top and joined him to save the woman,” he said.

“No matter whether she will live or die, we must try our best to get her to our base camp.

“She is just there. If we don’t save her, she will definitely die. If we help, she will probably live.”

Fan said reaching the summit of Everest was his “life’s dream”, but he remains content with his decision.

“Although we didn’t reach the summit, saving a person’s life is far more valuable than reaching the peak,” he said.

Xie added: “Ascending to the top of Everest is our dream, but it can’t be compared with life.”

Peking University, where both Fan and Xie are alumnus and involved with its Mountaineering Association, praised the men’s efforts.

“Well done to two PKUers for their remarkable acts of bravery and benevolence,” it said.

“Faced with the dilemma of pursuing their dreams and helping a person in distress, they made the commendable decision to stop and save the climber’s life.”

The 2023 Everest climbing season has seen a record amount of climbers and deaths.

Twelve people have died on the mountain this year, and five are still missing, presumed dead.