Yu Qiqing (left) and Zhang Zhilin (right)
The "steel barrel" that Yu Qiqing and Zhang Zhilin are fiddling with is the pressure cooker used to cook rice when they worked on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. After nearly 50 years, they returned to the "origin of the land" in Jingyang, Shaanxi Province, and recalled the days when they were also members of the 1975 Everest Surveying and Mapping Team of the National Surveying and Surveying Team.
Everest
The members of the surveying and mapping team, who have been selected layer by layer, bid farewell to their comrades and relatives and go to the foot of Mount Everest. But it wasn't until they rushed to Rongbuk Temple, the base camp of Mount Everest, at an altitude of 5,100 meters, that they found that the environment here was far beyond their expectations.
The climate on Mount Everest is harsh, with a minimum temperature of -50 °C and a maximum wind speed of 90 meters per second. Ordinary hand and foot frostbite, in this environment, is likely to bring serious consequences of amputation.
The remains of an unidentified "green boot"
Hundreds of climbers have fallen on their way to the summit so far, and most of their bodies remain in place because of difficulties in carrying them.
This extreme environment is one of the difficulties that the Everest mapping team and mountaineers need to overcome. The surveying and mapping team members must wait for the mountaineers to insert the index at the top before they can complete the altitude survey task through triangulation.
Even with the cooperation of the meteorological team, the mountaineering team still encountered a sudden storm. According to the opinion of the meteorological team, the surveying and mapping team members had to follow the mountaineers to the base camp.
In 1975, Xue Zhang, a member of the Everest Surveying and Mapping Team
In 1975, Xue Zhang, a member of the Everest Surveying and Mapping Team, recalled that the communication equipment was not perfect, and the teams could only use signal flares to communicate like the troops.
Xue Zhang: If the red signal is fired that day, it means that it will reach the top tomorrow; if the green signal is fired that day, it will not reach the top tomorrow.
Xue Zhang, who was waiting for the message of the summit at 6120 meters, had been on standby for five consecutive days.
The observation equipment used by the Everest mapping team that year
On the sixth day, he received a letter from the base camp, Xue Zhang had not yet opened the letter, his heart was already full of uneasiness, was it an accident when he reached the top?
The person mentioned in the letter is named Wu Zhongyu, who was the vice captain of the Everest Mountaineering Team in 1975 and has been leading the team on the front line.
Zhang Zhilin, a member of the Everest Surveying and Mapping Team in 1975: He wanted to take the lens, he wanted to run forward and back, so he was more tired than other mountaineers, and when he climbed to 8200 meters, the other team members were climbing up, and he said you take a step first.
The content of the letter is exactly: "The summit was lost, and The political commissar Wu Zhongyu sacrificed." ”
At that time, the team members climbed to an altitude of 8600 meters, and wu Zhongyu was still missing. It was already dark, And Everest was slowly shrouded in darkness, and the vice-captain never returned to the camp.
Zhang Zhilin, a member of the Everest mapping team, recalled that in order to find the vice captain, they had to light the duck down vest, but in the end they could not find it.
Zhang Zhilin: At that time, the place could not just go down to look for it, and no one could climb up. As a result, there was no way, and when I waited until the next day, I still didn't see anyone.
The vice captain's life and death are uncertain, and the team members are uneasy in their hearts, continue to move forward to the top, or turn back to look for someone? Everyone had to stop working and wait for instructions.
Bid model
On May 21, 1975, the Headquarters of Mount Everest Headquarters issued an order to march towards the summit again. Zhang Zhilin, a member of the surveying and mapping team, stared closely at the traces of the mountaineers from the amplification instrument.
Suddenly, Zhang Zhilin found in the telescope that the mountaineers had gone in the wrong direction.
The surveying team observes the climbing team in the instrument
Zhang Zhilin immediately reported to the front line command of the base camp, and the command personnel immediately shouted!
Zhang Zhilin: At that time, it was called the Yellow River, the code name of the Yangtze River. Saying that your direction has deviated, you quickly find the direction of the top again, and then they slowly change direction and go up.
The last 50 meters of the summit took the climbers more than two hours.
The climbing team climbs to the top
Finally, at 2:30 p.m. on May 27, 1975, the mountaineering team successfully reached the summit and inserted the mapping marker at the summit. The survey team members also immediately began to carry out elevation measurements.
Lu Furen, a member of the Everest Surveying and Mapping Team in 1975: After a while, the clouds came and found that they could not see the bid. Wait until five o'clock in the afternoon, the sun on the top of the mountain cleared, and I saw the sign.
The target "appeared", and the observation team members of each observation point immediately began to measure, and everyone looked desperately, desperately measured, and repeatedly collected data, from the afternoon until dark.
Surveying and mapping team members at work
In 1975, a large team of surveyors and mapping team members fought for 80 days in the "forbidden area of life" on Mount Everest, and successfully measured the elevation of Everest.
On July 23 of the same year, China announced to the world that the altitude of Mount Everest was 8848.13 meters, and this accurate Chinese altitude was quickly recognized by UNESCO and the world.
In 2005, a large team of national surveyors once again undertook the task of measuring Mount Everest. On May 22 of the same year, the mountaineering survey team composed of professional mountaineers and members of the national survey team successfully collected more accurate data, and the final elevation was 8844.43 meters above sea level.
May 2020 Surveying and mapping team members who test equipment near Everest Base Camp
In May 2020, the national survey team measured the height of Mount Everest for the 7th time. On December 8 of the same year, China and Nepal jointly announced that after the solid work of the teams of the two countries, the latest elevation of Mount Everest is 8848.86 meters.
Two times to the South Pole, 7 times to measure Mount Everest, 39 times stationed in the inner Mongolian wilderness, 52 times deep into the plateau no man's land, 52 times into the desert hinterland, the footprints of a large team of national surveyors have traveled all over every dangerous place, but they have not stopped.
In recent years, with the establishment of new departments such as the Department of Technology Research and Development, the Emergency Surveying and Mapping Center, and the Department of New Technology Application, the eye-catching figure of Chinese surveyors and mappers has gradually appeared in more fields!
Source: Phoenix History Network