Into thin air: Japanese climber’s 25-year search on holy Chinese mountain
For the past quarter century, Naoyuki Kobayashi has made an annual pilgrimage to Kang Karpo, part of the Meili Snow Mountain range in Yunnan, to find the last missing victim from one of history’s deadliest mountaineering accidents
Just as he has done every year for the past 25 years, Naoyuki Kobayashi is packing hiking equipment, cold weather gear and the maps and notebooks that might yet help him to find the last missing Japanese climber on the flanks of a remote mountain in Yunnan province, China.
A journey that has become an annual pilgrimage begins on November 23 this year, with Kobayashi, 48, leaving his home in Yokohama, Japan, for Kang Karpo, the highest mountain in Yunnan and one that is revered by locals as part of the holy Meili Snow Mountain range.
And, as always, he will start his search for the remains of Hisanobu Shimizu by asking villagers in the communities that dot the base of the mountain if they have recovered any remnants of the 17-strong, joint Sino-Japanese expedition that set out to become the first to scale the 6,740-metre peak in December 1990.
The ascent ended in tragedy in the first four days of January 1991 when an avalanche engulfed the team. Rescue parties were able to reach the group’s Camp II at 5,300 metres, but the dangerous conditions forced them to turn back before they could reach Camp III. Aerial photographs later showed thick avalanche debris around Camp III.
Ten bodies were subsequently recovered and a further six turned up over the following years. But the remains of Shimizu – the group’s doctor – have never been discovered. The tragedy was one of the most deadly mountaineering accidents in history. To this day, no climber has reached the mountain’s summit.
“When I visited last year, I learned that a few more relics had been found,” Kobayashi said.
