Top Central American climber to scale Yushan

Vinals, 49, a Guatemalan national, is scheduled to scale 3,952-meter Yushan on March 7-8, said Chen Lung-sheng, head of the Yushan National Park Administration (YNPA).

Meeting Taiwan's media at the YNPA headquarters in Nantou County, Vinals said he has long heard about the unique ecology and beauty of Yushan that has made the peak one of the 50 most prominent summits of the world for him and other world-class mountaineers to challenge.

Vinals, the first Central American ever to climb the world's highest peak, Mt. Everest, was invited by Taiwan to drum up publicity for Yushan, which has been nominated as one of 28 candidates in a worldwide contest to choose the Seven Wonders of Nature on the planet.

Before scaling Yushan, Vinals will attend a series of activities scheduled for Saturday at the Tatachia Visitor Center to mark the reopening of Taiwan's highest peak to climbers after a five-week “tranquil period.” The mountain was closed during that time for preservation purposes, according to Chen.

On Friday evening, Vinals will be in Dongpu township in Nantou, where indigenous people from the Central Mountain Range area, mainly the Bunun, will get together for a prayer night to pray for the safety of future climbers and the harmonious existence between humans and Mother Nature, Chen said.

Vinals will be accompanied by YNPA staff member Chiang Hsiu-chen, Taiwan's first female mountaineer to have successfully reached the summit of Mount Everest. Chiang is also the first woman of Chinese descent to scale Everest from both the north side and south side of the peak.

Born in Guatemala City, Vinals studied biology at the Universidad de San Carlos. He began climbing locally in 1987 at the age of 26. Since then, he has climbed over 300 mountains in 42 countries.

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