First ascent of Ren Zhong Feng

The first ascent of Ren Zhong FengUKC News, 09 Dec 2009© Kristoffer Szilas and Martin Ploug

Danish climbers Kristoffer Szilas and Martin Ploug have made the first ascent of Ren Zhong Feng in Sichuan, China.”The mountain was thought to be 6079m, but actually turned out to be around 5800 metres as seen from our altimeters and the altitude model in our GPS on the summit.” commented Szilas, speaking to UKClimbing.com.The peak was 'discovered' by the legendary explorer Tom Nakamuras back in 2008 and Nakamuras proposed the name Ren Zhong Feng.”Martin slipped while trying to place an ice screw and fell… luckily I managed to do a classic ridge jump onto the east face just in time”Describing their alpine-style ascent, Szilas said:”We established a camp at 4500 metres and from there Martin and I made an alpine style ascent of the east face to the north ridge which we followed for around 1.5 km to the summit of the mountain. We had three bivies on the way and spent one day acclimatising at the first because we had not been higher than 4500 metres before our attempt.””The route was very long and tiring because of the long ridge, but it was free from objective dangers. The route went at TD: M4, WI4, 1300m with most technical difficulties on the east face, but storm and bulletproof ice on the north ridge made it a long and tiring climb to the summit – 18 hours round trip from our third bivy site.”At night on the way down from the summit Martin slipped while trying to place an ice screw and fell 30 metres down the 1000 metre west face, but luckily I managed to do a classic ridge jump onto the east face just in time and thus saved both our lives. He was bruised but assisted by lots of pain killers he was able to continue back to the bivy, where we rested the next day before heading down to base camp.”Photo Gallery – Ren Zhong Feng:

The first ascent of Ren Zhong FengUKC News, 09 Dec 2009© Kristoffer Szilas and Martin Ploug
The first ascent of Ren Zhong FengUKC News, 09 Dec 2009© Kristoffer Szilas and Martin Ploug
The first ascent of Ren Zhong FengUKC News, 09 Dec 2009© Kristoffer Szilas and Martin Ploug
The first ascent of Ren Zhong FengUKC News, 09 Dec 2009© Kristoffer Szilas and Martin Ploug

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