ON Sunday noon in Nepal, Shenzhen mountaineer Liu Yongzhong climbed to the summit of Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world at a height of 8,516 meters, the Shenzhen Evening News reported.

So far, Liu has conquered 13 mountains higher than 8,000 meters. He said he will be completing the ultimate challenge of climbing all 14 mountains over 8,000 meters soon. Liu plans to conquer his last target, Shishapangma, in September.

In fact, it took Liu three tries to climb to the peak of Lhotse. The mountaineer recalled that “each try is full of blood and tears.”

In April 2015, Liu attempted to embark on his first climbing journey to Lhotse. However, the 8-magnitude Nepal earthquake stopped him from entering the camp at the foot of Lhotse.

“Five of our team members, including two guides, two expats and one Chinese, Ge Zhenfang, were killed by rocks rolling down from the mountain,” said Liu. The deceased members had entered the camp two days before Liu.

His second attempt took place in March 2016. However, tragedy happened again when Liu and his team members reached 8,450 meters, only around 100 meters from the summit.

One of the local guides stumbled and lost his balance. He slid down the snow slope behind Liu for more than 1,000 meters and the team could not even find his remains when they got down there. The extreme weather also made Liu decide to give up climbing for the summit.

Liu firmly believes that climbing a summit does not depend solely on the difficulty of the mountain, but also has a lot to do with the weather, the team’s abilities and physical condition. Luck is also a big contributor for successful climbing.

For the third attempt, Liu and his team members entered the camp April 8. They decided to climb to the summit on April 26, but a sudden change in the weather interrupted their plan.

“The weather appeared like it would be nice in the next two days, so we decided to try our luck Sunday,” said Liu. Although they had encountered strong wind while climbing from camp 2 to camp 4 at 7,800 meters, Liu and his team managed to make it to the summit. (Zhang Qian)