Liu Lianman (; December 1933 – 27 April 2016) was a Chinese mountain climber known as the "human ladder of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...

Biography

Liu was born in Ninghe County,

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

(now part of

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

) in 1933. He was selected to the Chinese Mountaineering Team in 1955. While training in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, he reached the summit of

Mount Elbrus Mount Elbrus; ; is the highest mountain in Russia and Europe. It is a dormant stratovolcano rising above sea level, and is the highest volcano in Eurasia, as well as the tenth-most prominent peak in the world. It is situated in the south ...

and

Muztagh Ata Muztagh Ata (meaning 'Ice Mountain Father' in English), formerly known as Mount Tagharma and Wi-tagh, is the second highest of the mountains which form the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, with an elevation of . It is sometimes regarded a ...

(making the

first ascent In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in climbing guidebook, guide books), is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers a ...

in the world) in 1956. He became one of the first Chinese to reach the summit of

Mount Gongga Mount Gongga (), also known as Minya Konka (Khams Tibetan: , Khams Tibetan pinyin: ''Mi'nyâg Gong'ga Riwo'') and colloquially as "The King of Sichuan Mountains", is the highest mountain in Sichuan province, China. It has an elevation of above ...

in June 1957. In May 1960, Liu and his teammates

Wang Fuzhou Wang Fuzhou (; – 18 July 2015) was a Chinese mountaineer, born in Xihua County, Henan. He and Qu Yinhua were the first Chinese to climb Mount Everest on the northeast ridge route. Wang graduated from the Beijing Institute of Geology in ...

, Qu Yinhua and Gongbu tried to ascend to the summit of

via the north ridge. Liu volunteered to be a human ladder when the team reached the Second Step, which helped his teammates become the first to climb

via the north face. Although failing to reach the summit, he was soon thereafter described as the "human ladder of Mount Everest" and was awarded a National Sports Medal of Honor. His heroic story ''Climb to the Top of the Earth'' () was included in the Chinese textbook of junior high school. He retired from mountain climbing in 1973 and worked at Harbin Electrical Machine Factory. Liu died on 27 April 2016 at the age of 82 in

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

Achievements

*1956 —

(first ascent of Chinese) *1956 —

(first ascent in the world) *1957 —

(first ascent of Chinese) *1960 —

(turned back at the Second Step)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Lianman 1933 births 2016 deaths Chinese mountain climbers Sportspeople from Tianjin

Biography

Achievements

See also

References