ISLAMABAD, June 3: It was a moment of triumph for Giji, who on May 22 earned the rare distinction of being one of the few women to have scaled the world’s highest summit twice, the 8,848-meter Qomolangma. She had planned to celebrate with her husband Renar, who was in Pakistan’s picturesque Northern Areas, where he and his team attempted to conquer the last of the 14 peaks of over 8,000 meters high in the world.

But only days later, Giji was sitting in a military ambulance in Rawalpindi, a garrison town next to the capital Islamabad, along with a big wooden box draped in the Chinese national flag carrying her husband’s dead body.

An endless stream of tears ran down Giji’s cheeks as she bade farewell to her husband, father of their 11-year-old daughter.

Renar and Giji are known as a hero couple in China and considered the best among the best of mountaineers in the world.

Giji first scaled Mount Qomolangma on May 27, 1999, along with her husband.

Renar was in Pakistan to scale the last of the 14 peaks, Gasherbrum-I (8068 meters), with a 10-member team led by Sam Drug.

The China Tibet G-I expedition left Islamabad on May 21 for the expedition. The team left for their final destination at Askole in the mountains early in the morning of May 27 in four jeeps. They were accompanied by seven Pakistanis including an army liaison officer and four local drivers.

Near Chimmak where the road narrows with a deep river on their left and a steep mountain on their right, Renar, along with Bianbazhaxi and the climb leader Tseringdorje, who was in the first jeep, did not notice the stones rolling down the steep hills.

Both Renar and Bianbazhaxi were hit on their head. Renar got a three-inch cut at the back of his head and was bleeding profusely, while Bianbazhaxi was hit seriously on the side of his head.

The team which had no doctor did their best to provide first aid and rushed back to the nearest town of Dassu to get help. The town’s small dispensary, however, was not equipped to handle serious emergencies.

A military MI-17 carrying doctors and paramedic staff was dispatched and the injured were rushed to the district headquarter hospital, Skardu, but for Renar it was already too late.

Col Reza, the medical superintendent, said Renar had died because of heavy bleeding and shock.

Bianbazhaxi was in a critical condition. The doctors gave him only a 10 to 15 per cent chance of survival, while Tseringdorje’s right hand was injured.

The Alpine Club of Pakistan coordinated with the Pakistan Air Force and the injured and the dead were shifted to Rawalpindi on May 28 through a C-130 aircraft.

Renar was member of the mountaineering team set up by China to climb all the peaks higher than 8,000 meters in February 1992. He along with Bianbazhaxi and Tseringdorje had scaled 13 of these.

At a condolence ceremony at the Chinese embassy in Islamabad, fellow mountaineers, trekkers, friends and Pakistani officials lined up to express their grief over the tragic accident and prayed for the departed soul.

“We profoundly condole the demise of Renar. His death is a colossal damage to the mountaineering communities of both China and Pakistan. We’ll remember him forever,” said Nazir Sabir, President of the Alpine Club of Pakistan.

Chinese ambassador to Pakistan Zhang Chunxiang described Renar as a “national hero” and a brave man, who brought many laurels to the country.

Renar’s colleagues quietly watched his cremation in Rawalpindi on Thursday afternoon and tears were the only testimony to their grief. But they still are determined to fulfil Renar’s mission of conquering the last of the 8,000 meters peak.—APP/Xinhua

A Reporter adds: Federal Minister for Tourism Dr Ghazi Gulab Jamal speaking at a condolence meeting on Friday said mountaineering had contributed a lot to promoting people-to-people contact between China and Pakistan.

The minister said the death of Mr Renar was a great loss to the mountaineering community, adding that people of his calibre were born once in centuries.

Chinese Ambassador Zhang Chunxiang said Pakistan-China relations would prove helpful in maintaining peace in South Asia as the two countries believe in eliminating disputes in the region,” he added.