(What was your gut reaction when you heard the news?) I’m relieved they’ve done it but they followed typical procedures and part of how they did that was to use Tibetan climbers to reach the summit. (When we hear about groups like this, is it true that these locals are more adept and experienced at climbing Everest?) The Han Chinese are experienced but they’ll rarely be as strong and easily adaptable to Tibetan to the high altitude. Historically, the inclusion of Tibetan in climbing teams is reflected in numbers as well. (Is this an athletic feat, a political maneuver or both?) It’s a couple of things here: let’s not forget the nationalistic motives here. But for Han Chinese and Tibetans to be climbing together, there’s tremendous frustration from the Tibetans for nationalism to be promoted with this climb and for harmony between the Tibetan and Han Chinese to be promoted as part of this climb.
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