Tomuer Feng Berg

Tomür Feng of 7453 meters above sea level, means“Iron Mountain“ in Uygur language. At 80.1 0E and 42.0 0N, it is situated in the north of Wensu County in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and proves to be the heighest peak in the section of Tian Shan in China while the Tian Shan Mountains, 2500 kilometers in length from the east to the west, tranverses the whole of Kazakhstan and stretches to the center of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in China.

With 15 high peaks over 6000 meters and 5 over 6800 meters around it, Tomür Feng is a place of clustering peaks in the Tian Shan Mountains. Highly developed, some 509 modern glaciers here of various kinds tota an area of 2746.32 square kilometers and 350.000.000 cubic meters of water reserve, which serves as the important water resources in the vast expanse of both the south and north Tian Shan.

Deep in the inland, far away from the oceans, under the strong effect of the westerly wind in high altitudes and protected by screens of mountains, the south and north slopes differ greatly in climate, while with the humid north slope and the arid south slope, the Tomür Feng area often undergoes myriads of weather changes in the twinling of an eye- showers, a blast of strong wind and occasional hailstones. At an altitude of over 4500 meters, the temperature remains below-0℃ all the the year round with the lowest of -40℃. Only be-tween the months of July and August can the temperature rise to about-18℃, which proves to be a period of high temperature in a year. A cycle of 5-6 fine days favors a concentrated offort of mountain climbing.

Five ridges are On Tomür Feng – the West Ridge, the East Ridge, the Southwest Ridge, the Southeast Ridge and the Norteh Ridge. To the north of the North Ridge stands the second highest peak in the Tian Shan Mountains-Hantergri Feng, which is at a straight-line distance of about 20 kilometers away from Tomür Feng.

With its top like the spine of a fish, the giant, dangerous and steep Tomür Feng is covered by uninterrupted snow and often affected by the harsh climate. Glaciers can be found everywhere in abundance, and the open and hidden crevasses are so deep as to be immeasurable The natural barriers of the broken precipices, the difficulties caused by the crayons, frequent snow and ice avalanches and rolling rocks, all pose a serious threat to the mountaineers.

In 1956, the former Soviet Expedition ascented the summit of Tomür Feng from north slope along the northeast wall. In July, 1977, Liu Dayi and 26 others from China’s Science and Investigation Organization of Mountaineering conquered Tomür Feng from the south slope along the Southeast Ridge. In  1977, however, the camp site, set up at 5800 meters above sea level by the Chinese Mountaineering Team, was levelled to the ground by a snow avalanche, but fortunately nobody was in it. Moreover, in 1986, the Japanese Woman’s Team met with three snow avalanches in two days. In short, the wild havoc of snow avalanches constitutes the greatest barrier for the mountaineers.

The route line to the mountain. Travel by air or by bus from the City of Urümqi to Aksu and up northward to Wensu. After going on to Taglak, walk northward along the Qongtailan River valley to the south slope of Tomür Feng, where the mountaineering base camp site may be put up at one end of the Qong-tailan Glacier, measuring 3200 meters above sea level. Another way to the mountain is to advance for 60 kilometers from Wensu to Pochengze. After that, trudge for 40 kilometers northward along the Muerte River valley to Gaibieliqi from which you can climb Hantengri Feng and Xuelian Feng (Snow-Lotus Peak).