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The US Consulate General in Chengdu, the capital city of Southwest China's Sichuan Province is offering a 30,000-yuan (US$3,750) reward to anyone who can provide information leading to the discovery of two American mountain climbers missing in the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province.

 

Charles Fowler, 52, and Christine Feld-Boskoff, 39, were last heard from on November 7, when Fowler wrote in an email to a friend in the US that the two were planning to stay in Litang County in Ganzi for several days to climb a mountain.

 

He did not mention the name of the mountain. Nor did he say when or how they would mount it.

 

"The search and rescue operation is difficult, for we do not have any detailed information on them since they did not apply for a permit from the Sichuan Provincial Mountain Climbers' Association to mountaineer in Sichuan, in line with the Chinese government's regulations for foreign mountain climbers," said Lin Li, secretary general of the Sichuan Provincial Mountain Climbers' Association.

 

"But, in the spirit of humanitarianism, the association has made an effort to search for and rescue them since we learned they were missing in early December," he told China Daily.

 

On December 9, people familiar with mountaineering in Ganzi informed Lin's association that the two American climbers might have gone missing while climbing the Genie Mountain or some other nearby peak in early November.

 

"The association asked the local sports bureau and mountain climbers' association in Ganzi to verify the report. On December 15, the US Consulate General in Chengdu sent a formal letter to the association asking for its assistance in looking for the two American citizens. We immediately started the search-and-rescue operation," Lin said.

 

Rescue workers have interviewed villagers in Litang's Genie Mountain region as well as employees of the county's 43 hotels, but have uncovered no information about the missing couple.

 

Rescue workers have also asked the local government in nearby Batang County for help.

 

"Officials from the Dangba Township Government, which administers the Yangmolong Mountain in Batang, said one foreign man and one woman had stayed in the Yangmolong Mountain region. But nobody knows if they were the two missing people," Lin said.

 

Liu Feng, liaison officer of the Sichuan Provincial Mountain Climbers' Association, said there had never been a mountaineering accident on Genie Mountain, the summit of which is 6,240 meters above sea level.

 

"But it is warmer this winter and the snow is not as hard as in the past. It could easily result in an avalanche," Liu said.

 

Kuang Peijun, an information assistant with the Public Affairs Section of the US Consulate General in Chengdu, said relatives of the two missing people as well as a team of professional alpine rescuers from the US will arrive in Sichuan to coordinate search and rescue plans with the Chinese.

 

The timing of their arrival is not yet known, she said.

 

Statistics from the Sichuan Provincial Mountain Climbers' Association show that the province's abundant mountaineering resources have attracted more than 300 foreigners this year.

 

"In Ganzi alone, there are more than 200 mountains whose peaks are 5,000 meters above sea level," Liu said.

 

According to information provided by the China Mountain Climbers' Association, from November 2005 to August 2006, seven people died in Sichuan while climbing mountains. Six of them had not applied for permits.

 

"About 30 percent of all Chinese and foreign climbers climbing mountains in China have no permits," Liu said.

 

According to the US Consulate General in Chengdu, both Fowler and Feld-Boskoff are internationally famous mountain climbers. Feld-Boskoff, who has organized delegations of mountain climbers to Tibet and Sichuan, has mounted six peaks of more than 8,000 meters above sea level.

 

(China Daily December 22, 2006)