China: data sheet

How to get there

Our expedition took place in the area surrounding the Minya Kongka (7550 m), at the border between the Sechuan and the tibetan Kham country.
A long flight connecting throug Beijing or Hong Kong gets to Chengdu, the Sechuan major city. From there, we had to drive to Kangding by a long (2 days) and difficult (landslides) road. Then another rough road took us in a day to the start of our hike.

What is the best time

Almost never! The weather pattern is known to be  mostly poor in the Minya Kongka area. October had been recommended to us as the less unfavourable. The days have actually been quite pleasant while almost every evening and nights brought small amounts of snow. At any rate, the trees colors and the luminosity were just gorgeous. 

Local contacts

All the local logistics has been taken care of by the Chinese Mountain Association. This was, at that time, mandatory. It looks like some cheaper alternate solutions now exist.
Our chinese staff (in 1995) was made of: 1 chief of staff, 1 translator, 1 cook, 1 cook assistant, 3 drivers and one man whose responsibility remained mysterious to us, but looked important.

More information

Group of 7 persons, including one quadriplegic
Date: October 1995
Duration: 3 weeks 
For more details: jean-francois.porret@wanadoo.fr

The ORWC routes

The purpose of our trip was to hike for a week into the valleys at the foot of the Minya Kongka mountain. The trail happened to be impossible to handle with the chair. This, added to the very rough weather conditions lead us to adapt our plans accordingly. Two hikers ran on the original trail, which they did in three days. The rest of the party did a few daily hikes and climbed on a ridge facing the Minya Kongka. The ORWC was always towed by small tibetan horses, or pushed by local inhabitants.