Chinese Boy With No Legs Attempts to Climb a 1,100-Meter High Mountain

A man named Chen Zhou, who also lost his legs in an accident, joined him on his first mountain-climbing attempt near the East China Sea on the southeastern coastline of the Chinese peninsula of Shandong.

Gao aided himself with wooden boxes he used as “shoes” for his hands during his climb, but the rough climb gave him painful blisters on his hands so he was forced to quit after reaching more than 80% of the route made of rocky steps.

While the brave attempt allowed the boy to reach a significant altitude of 900 meters, Gao Zhiyu was unable to fulfill his goal of reaching the very top of the sacred mountain in Qingdao, known as the birthplace of Taoism, Qingdao Evening News reported (via South China Morning Post).

His partner Chen, who is a self-help lecturer, is much more experienced, having climbed the summit of over 100 peaks such as Mount Tai and Mount Huang. He has also traveled to 700 mainland cities using his hands.

According to Chen, he immediately felt it was his duty to give Gao a little support upon learning of the boy’s intention to climb the summit.

The trail was reportedly already steep and winding and the climb was made even more treacherous by a terrible thunderstorm and heavy rain that made the steps slippery.

The climbing partners began their ascent at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, but Gao had to halt his mission by 3:30 p.m. due to his severe hand blisters.