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

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

Biography

Liu was born in

Ninghe County Ninghe District (), formerly Ninghe County, is a district of the municipality of Tianjin, People's Republic of China, located in the rural northeast part of the municipality. Administrative divisions There are 11 towns and 3 townships A townsh ...

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

(now part of

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

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

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, he reached the summit of

Mount Elbrus Mount Elbrus ( rus, links=no, Эльбрус, r=Elbrus, p=ɪlʲˈbrus; kbd, Ӏуащхьэмахуэ, 'uaşhəmaxuə; krc, Минги тау, Mingi Taw) is the highest and most prominent peak in Russia and Europe. It is situated in the we ...

and

Muztagh Ata Muztagh Ata or Muztagata (, Музтағ Ата, literally "ice-mountain-father"; ; formerly known as Mount Tagharma or Taghalma and Wi-tagh) is the second highest (7546 metres) of the mountains which form the northern edge of the Tibetan Plate ...

(making the

first ascent In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they en ...

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 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 sea level. This m ...

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

Wang Fuzhou Wang may refer to: Names * Wang (surname) (王), a common Chinese surname * Wāng (汪), a less common Chinese surname * Titles in Chinese nobility * A title in Korean nobility * A title in Mongolian nobility Places * Wang River in Thaila ...

, 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 reach Everest's peak 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 (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

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