We are on the summit of Mt. Everest! There is no place to climb up anymore!

On the summit of Mt. Everest (8,848m), which is the highest peak in the world, the Korean flag and the KIU flag flapped strongly in the wind. It means ‘The 2016 Mt. Everest expedition from the KIU alpine club succeeded in reaching the summit of Mt. Everest.

The KIU Mt. Everest expedition let the entire world know the spirit of KIU by conquering the summit of Mt. Everest. Jin-Cheol Cha, the vice leader of the expedition, and Yeong-Rok Bae, the climbing leader, departed the 4thcamp at 9P.M on May 14th and succeeded in conquering the summit of Mt. Everest at 7.30 A.M local time on the 15th. Even though they were placed in an extreme situation in which they were hovering between life and death, they went beyond their limits.

This was the second attempt at climbing Mt. Everest for the KIU alpine club. In April 2014, they attempted to climb Mt. Everest, but they had no choice but to turn back because of the massive avalanche that occurred on the day following their arrival. As the Nepalese government decided to close the trails of Mt. Everest, the KIU expedition changed their destination to Mt. Dhaulagiri (8,167m, the 7th highest mountain in the world) and conquered it.  They were never discouraged and showed endless challenge spirit and personified the indomitable will of KIU.  Afterwards, the KIU expedition prepared to re-challenge Mt. Everest for 2 years, and the KIU alpine team leader Sang-Ryul Lee, the vice leader Jin-Cheol Cha and the climbing leader Yeong-Rok Bae headed for Mt. Everest. On May 15th,  they eventually conquered the highest peak in the world and it had been the 42nd day since their departure of Korea.

Since 2013, the KIU alpine team has attemped to conquer the highest peaks in the seven continents of the world. They already planted flags on the summits of Mt. McKinley (6,194m) in North America, Mt. Kilimanjaro (5,895m) in Africa, Mt. Elbrus (5,642m) in Europe, and Mt. Aconcagua (6,962m) in South America, and now they can include Mt. Everest in Asia, where the expedition has just conquered, to that list. Only Mt. Carstensz (4,884m) in the North Pole and Mt. Vinson Massif are left to be conquered by the KIU expedition.

Particularly, Jin-Cheol Cha, the vice leader of the expedition succeeded in reaching the summits of Mt. Makalu(8,465m), Mt. Cho Oyu(8,203m), Mt. Dhaulagiri(8,169m), Mt. Casherbrum peak���(8,070m), ), Mt. Casherbrum peak ��� (8,036m),and Mt. Shishapangma (8,027m). The climbing leader Yeong-rRk Bae succeeded in climbing the north-east ridge route of Mt. Everest in 2002. This time he succeeded in climbing the route of Mt. Everest via the south-east ridge, making it a record of conquering Mt. Everest, the highest peak in the world, two times.

The KIU expedition will get permission to climb Mt. Lhotse, which is the 4th highest mountain in the world. After that, they will consecutively climb the two peaks in the Mt. Himalayas range whose heights are over 8,000 meters by the end of May. They are scheduled to come back to Korea in June.