The story of the 1932 Sikong Expedition's first foreign ascent of Mount Gongga (7,586m) in Sichuan. Learn about the historic climb, the challenges faced, and modern retracing via the FUGA Gongga 100 trail race.
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By Harriet Gaywood
Gongga summit, water damaged. Credit: American Alpine Association
It was surely the most adventurous 'lad's trip' to ever take place in China.
Nearly a century ago, four foreigners set off down the Yangtze from Shanghai in an armored boat to conquer a mysterious mountain in Western Sichuan Province.
Foreigners mistook it for Mount Everest while locals remained in awe of the sacred, snow-covered peak.
At the southeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, in one of the most isolated and remote locations in the world lay Minya Konka, or Mount Gongga.
Meaning 'White Ice Mountain of Minyag,' even today the summit remains shrouded in clouds and mystery.
The Sikong Expedition
Burdsall on the final ascent, black and white, and colorized as cover image. Credit: American Alpine Association
In 1932, the Sikong Expedition completed the first known successful ascent of Mount Gongga by foreigners.
The group consisted of four Americans: Jack Young, from a Guangdong family born in Hawaii, and who would act as translator; Terris Moore, a student from Harvard School of Business Administration; Arthur Emmons, an engineering student from Harvard; and Richard Burdsall, a mechanical engineer and graduate of Swarthmore College. All of them had some climbing experience.
Snow at the Gongga summit, 1932, black and white and colorized. Credit: American Alpine Association
Originally part of a larger expedition that never took place due to various delays and geopolitical events, the four ended up planning their own expedition following a brief spell as part of the American Company of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps.
The purpose of the expedition was to measure the mountain, and gather samples of flora and fauna, along with an attempt to climb Mount Gongga.
Explorers in Sichuan since the 1870s
Porters on the way to Mount Gongga, black and white and colorized. Source: Emontana / Minya Konka
The Sikong Expedition was not the first group of foreigners to visit the revered Mount Gongga, but they were the first to attempt an ascent.
Previous visitors focused on measuring the mountain or collecting botanical samples.
The first scientific observation of the mountain was made in 1879 by the expedition of the Hungarian Count Bela Szechenyi, who had arrived in Shanghai in 1878. Based on a sight taken 35 miles away, he reported it as 7,600m.
Surveying Gongga 1932. Source: American Alpine Club
In 1903, Australian J.H. Edgar claimed that it was the tallest mountain in the world at 9,144m.
The botanist Joseph Rock then went to its base in 1929 and calculated it to be 7,803m.
However, nobody was climbing it.
The Sikong Expedition discovered that even locating the mountain was difficult. Maps of the region omitted the mountain entirely, or showed it in the wrong location with no altitude stated.
Journey to the Mysterious Mount Gongga
Passing tea porters in 1932 on tea-horse trail near Mount Gongga, black and white and colorized. Source: American Alpine Club
As Shanghai's summer heat began to take hold, the Sikong Expedition set off on a boat from the Huangpu River in Shanghai and up the Yangtze River for an eight-week journey via Chongqing, Chengdu, and Tatsienlu—now Kangding.
Using transport including boat to reach Chongqing, porters to Tatsienlu, then ponies and yaks along one of the more extreme tea-horse caravan routes for a further 10 days, they finally reached their base at Mount Gongga at around 3,900m.
The Hailuogou Glacier looking towards Mount Gongga. Credit: Harriet Gaywood
Aside from a lack of maps, climbing Mount Gongga was challenging because of high-altitude coupled with sub-tropical, humid climate and sub-zero temperatures on the edge of the Himalayan Plateau.
With the Hailuogou glacier to traverse, regular avalanches, and snow hiding many dangers, plotting a route required careful planning and reconnaissance to reach the summit in the increasingly thin air.
Supported by porters for part of the way, the group established camps up the mountain which later became buried in the snow.
Camp on Gongga 1932. Credit: American Alpine Association
Camp on Gongga 1932. Credit: American Alpine Association
Retrieving possessions from a buried tent on the descent, black and white and colorized. Credit: American Alpine Association
In late October, Burdsall and Moore succeeded in enduring the bitter cold to reach the summit. Young suffered from altitude sickness, and Emmons cut his hand preventing him from holding ropes.
Brilliantly recounted in Men Against the Clouds — the Conquest of Minya Konka, the struggle of the ascent and emotions are illustrated by their journals comments:
"At 3.40am on the morning of October 28th, Camp IV was astir. Moore looked out through the door and proclaimed the stars were shining brightly and that there were no clouds visible. The wind still blew out of the west, sending showers of fine powdered snow sifting into the tent.
"Our day had come!…. Four o'clock in the morning was a deadly hour at which to do anything save sleep at 22,000 feet on a cold morning. The work of dressing was almost more than human patience would stand."
Burdsall and Moore on the final ascent of Gongga, black and white and colorized. Credit: American Alpine Association
Remembering the final climb, they wrote:
"The southwest gale was on the job as always, and so battered and bullied us that we felt almost bruised by its impact. The skirts of our parkas flapped viciously about our knees.
"Flying snow particles clung to our clothes in a white rime. Icicles formed on our eyebrows and beards.
"Again and again we were beaten from our tracks despite thirty-pound loads. Balance regained, again the slow rhythm of our feet timed to our breathing, the trip-hammer pounding of heart against ribs, as we labored on…
"Pauses that seemed like heaven itself as long as one were only not moving upward. Then the response of tortured lungs as we struggled on again."
Near Mount Gongga summit in 1932, black and white and colorized. Credit: Eamonns in Rueth 2018
Arriving at the summit, Burdsall and Moore spent just an hour before their descent:
"The horizon surrounded us in one unbroken ring… At our feet, nearly three miles below, the great sea of clouds lapped at the bases of the peaks.
"As the eye traveled eastward it moved away across the endless plains of China to the distant line where earth and sky met."
The final ascent of Mount Gongga, black and white and colorized. Source: American Alpine Association
The Sikong Expedition measured Mount Gongga at 7,586m, just 77m different from China's Ministry of Natural Resources 2023 measurement.
It is now recognized as the highest mountain in Sichuan Province, and the third highest in the world outside the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges.
There have been fewer than 40 successful documented summits of Mount Gongga.
Retracing Steps at Mount Gongga
Elite trail runner Huang Wei climbs up out of the Hailuogou Glacier during the 2025 Kailas FUGA Gongga 100. Source: Kailas FUGA
When I heard about the 2025 Kailas FUGA Gongga 100 Extreme Glacier Challenge I said "yes" without hesitation. While our objectives differed from 1932, the chance to visit and retrace even a few of these steps was irresistible.
The race took seven years of planning and collaboration with the local government and community, including permission for runners to access the usually closed Hailuogou Glacier. In 2020, the area was even hit by a devastating earthquake, and was closed completely to rebuild the villages.
The 30k started at 1,600m, while the 100k climbed to an altitude of 4,100m. I joined the 55k route and as I labored up to the highest point of the grasslands on a sunny day at just 3043m wearing lightweight gear I thought of Bursdall and Moore trudging through the ice and snow in their wet boots.
Compared with 1932, my own journey by plane and bus to the local town of Moxi was easy. Soon, a high-speed rail link will open in nearby Ya'an.
Western Sichuan remains relatively undeveloped, which makes this journey as fascinating now as it was to the explorers nearly a century ago.
About the Author
Image courtesy of Harriet Gaywood
Harriet Gaywood arrived in Shanghai from the UK in the mid-90s on a Chinese music scholarship, studying guqin at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
After graduating, she remained in China and built a successful career in PR, including in the Corporate Communications department of Huawei's global headquarters in Shenzhen.
Image courtesy of Harriet Gaywood
In 2024, she returned to Shanghai and established Anoumis Communications, a corporate communications consultancy, and Trailing Around Asia, a consultancy that focuses on trail running.
Last year, she published a book chronicling her ultramarathon experiences, Trailing Around Asia: Mud, Sweat & Bears.
Click the link below to read our interview with her.
READ MORE: Mud, Sweat & Bears: Ultramarathons Around Asia
Trailing Around Asia: Mud, Sweat & Bears is available on Amazon (paperback and kindle) or contact Harriet Gaywood directly for purchase:
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