Climbing Mount Everest is a dream that many dare to see. Right from training daily to learning new skills, trekkers usually undergo training to scale Everest. And while the sight of the snow-clad Everest looks magnificent, it’s no easy climb. However, some people believe in making the impossible possible, and one such person is the 46-year old Chinese Zhang Hong. Zhang Hong has become the first blind man in Asia and third in the world to scale Mt. Everest from the Nepal side. Read on to know more about it.
Zhang Becomes The First Asian To Scale Nepal’s Side Of Mt. Everest
Zhang became the first Asian blind man to scale Everest, and speaking about his tremendous journey, he said to Reuters,
“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 say you can’t.”
Zhang scaled the 8,849 metre-high Himalayan feat on May 24 with three guides and returned to the base on Thursday, May 27. He lost his sight at the age of 21- due to glaucoma; however, that didn’t stop him from achieving his dreams.
With Bumps And Some Falls, Zhang Scaled Everest On May 24 With Three Guides
Inspired by Erik Weihenmayer, a blind American mountaineer who scaled Everest in 2001, he began training under the supervision of his mountain guide friend Qiang Zi. And soon, with patience, perseverance and dedication, he managed to scale Everest.
Speaking about achieving this and going for it no matter what, Zhang said,
“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. 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.”
Zhang’s story is quite inspiring and shows us that nothing is impossible.