KATHMANDU: Chinese Zhang Hong has scaled Mount Everest from the Nepal side, becoming the first blind man in Asia and the third in the world to climb the tallest peak in the world.
“No matter if you’re disabled or normal, whether you have lost your eyesight or you have no legs or hands, it doesn’t matter as long as you have a strong mind, you can always complete a thing that other people you can’t,” Zhang told a media agency.
Zhang, aged 46, completed the 8,849 metre-high Himalayan feat on May 24 along with alongside mountain guide Quang Zi and two high altitude guides, and returned to the base camp on Thursday.
Born in southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, Zhang lost his sight at the age of 21 due to glaucoma. He was inspired by Erik Weihenmayer, a blind American mountaineer who scaled Everest in 2001, and began training under the guidance of his mountain guide friend Qiang Zi.
Nepal reopened Mount Everest in April for foreigners after it was shut last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “I was still very scared, because I couldn’t see where I was walking, and I couldn’t find my centre of gravity, so sometimes I would fall,” said Zhang.
“But I kept thinking because even though it was hard, I had to face those difficulties, this is one component of climbing, there are difficulties and dangers and this is the meaning of climbing.”
This historic achievement comes after decades of sacrifice looking after his father and uncle, who both lost their sight in rural Chongqing. Zhang himself lost his sight aged 21 and spent much of the proceeding years working as a masseur with his wife in a hospital.
After months of government- and cyclone-induced postponements, Covid-19 tests and quarantines, and exhausting summit training, he returns home with the knowledge that his own story will have likely inspired several Chinese climbers.
Zhang now turns his attention to the “Seven Summits” – the highest peaks from the world’s continents – as his next major milestone. “This is only the beginning,” he said.
