Mount Gongga is also named Miinya Konka, or Gongga Shan. It means A Tall White Mountain in Tibetan. It is the highest mountain in Sichuan and in Minya Konka Massif in Daxue Shan Range. Its elevation is 7556 meters above sea level. It locates in Garze Prefecture south to the Tibetan town Kangding in western Sichuan. Mount Gongga is one of the difficult mountains to climb. Up until now a number of 24 people have made it to the summit in total, more attempts have failed and 37 died. The recent successful summit was made years ago.
Mount Gongga Climate – Climbing Season
Mount Gongga is located on the eastern edge of Tibetan Plateau. It has a temperate highland climate with a quick-changing weather. Monsoon season of this place is between June and October each year. From November to the next May is considered the dry season. Rain comes extensively in July, August and September.
Elevation
Listed below are elevations of key locations in Minya Konka
- Kangding: 2560m
- Moxi Town: 1600m
- Laoyulin: 3400m
- Gongga Gompa: 3700m
- Little Konka Base Camp: 3900m
- Riuqie Base Camp: 4100m
To Get There
By Car:7-8 hours from Chengdu covering about 300km.
By Air:1 hour fly from Chengdu Shuangliu Airport and arrive at Kangding Airport and another 7-2 hours drive.
Climbing History
Mount Konka has drawn attention from long ago to the first half of 20 Century. At local it is called “the King of Sichuan Mountains”. It is considered that its difficulty is higher than Mount Everest. It was opened to international climbers in the 1980s. Mount Gongga is regarded by the Japanese people as the “Father Mountain” (as in Japan Mount Fuji being the “Mother Mountain”). Many attempts have been conducted since 1980s. Up until now only 24 people have successfully made it to the summit of Mount Gongga, 37 people have died. Its death rate is calculated among the highest mountains in the world, 64.8%.
First summated by Terris Moore and Richard Burdsal in 1932.
In 1957, on 13th June, a Chinese team went up to the top of Mount Gongga. 6 people successfully summated however 4 died.
In 1982, a Japanese team was stopped by avalanche at 50 meters to the summit.
In the same year D.Coffield and D.Kelley had a successful summit.
In 1983, three climbers from Switzerland made to the summit one of them died while going down.
In 1984, Heinz Zembsch, Gerhard Schmatz and Hans Eng made a successful summit.
In 1998, a Korean team went up from the northeast ridge and made to the summit. One of the them died.
In 1999, first attempt from east and over the north ridge and then over northwest ridge and successful summit. It was also the first successful attempt in Spring.
In 2002, Antoine and Laurent climbed to the top from northwest ridge.
The latest attempt was made in 2013 by a Spanish team.
