“Mountaineering has been [dad’s] way of teaching me how to face challenges in school and daily life,” says Bob. “A lot of parents teach simple life lessons at home or in a safe environment – he likes to take me to dangerous places.”
John’s passion for adventure was lit as a teenager when a classmate told him about the Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards, a youth awards programme founded in the United Kingdom in 1956 by Prince Philip and introduced in Hong Kong in 1961.How Hong Kong Everest guide stays in peak condition
As a 15-year-old, he joined a scholarship programme to Outward Bound Hong Kong, a non-governmental organisation offering adventure courses in the great outdoors. After high school, he learned to rock-climb, trained as a hike leader, then worked as an Outward Bound instructor.
“I come from a local Chinese family, my parents always told me to study, get a good job with a good return,” John says. “Outward Bound offers experiential education. It changed my outlook on life.”
After several years working at Outward Bound, he went to university to study recreation and outdoor management and then founded Alpine Adventure Travel, an overseas mountaineering expedition travel company that brings people to climb mountains all over the world.
“I don’t just take people mountain climbing, I offer leadership training. As a father, I think about how to deliver the right message to my son, and I do that through outdoor activities,” John says.Climbing mountains is as much about physical training as mental fortitude, as there are discomforts to be endured along the way. In remote regions, hot showers are unavailable. The longest John has gone without showering is 22 days – no mean feat when you are physically active and sweating.
“It’s all about pushing your mind,” John says. “You need lots of energy and determination to get to the summit, but you have to find your way back to base camp and that is the most challenging part of the expedition.”
The father-and-son team reached Everest’s peak at sunrise on May 12, passing a body near the top.
“When the sun comes up, you can see everything, especially on the way down. In previous years I’ve come across quite a few dead bodies. You have to challenge yourself to think positively,” John says.
As an expedition leader, he regularly hears about inexperienced climbers who just want to pay the money to climb and are reluctant to turn back if the weather is poor. That is a recipe for disaster – on average, five climbers die on the 8,848-metre (29,032-foot) mountain a year.
Hong Kong climbers avoid deadly queue to summit Everest
Stories such as these would make anyone anxious about a loved one attempting Everest, so waving off a husband and a son must have been especially difficult for Mrs Tsang. John says his wife is the toughest person in their family.
“I really appreciate that my wife lets us go, she worries and is under a lot of pressure. The day before we summited, I made a satellite call to her to tell her we are safe,” he says.
The pair took five days to climb from base camp to the summit of Everest. For the two-and-a-half days that they were above 7,000 metres, they relied on oxygen, supplied in 4kg (8.8lb) tanks, only taking the oxygen mask off to eat.
“Without supplemental oxygen, your body deteriorates, you feel like you’re moving in slow motion. It took me 10 minutes to put on my mountain boots without oxygen,” says Bob.
The Everest climb was part of a 97-day expedition that began when they left Hong Kong on March 8. They climbed three other Nepal peaks first – Mera Peak (6,476m) on March 22, Island Peak (6,160m) on April 4, and Lobuche East (6,119m) on April 17. After Everest, they flew to Alaska to climb Denali (6,190m) on June 12 before returning to Hong Kong on June 22, spending seven days in hotel quarantine.Bob graduated from Li Po Chun United World College, located on the edge of Ma On Shan Country Park. He regularly ran to the top of the 702-metre peak after class to train for the Everest expedition. He also trained at Tai Mo Shan – Hong Kong’s highest peak at 957m – wearing a 20-30kg backpack to build up his endurance.
“Preparing for my IB [International Baccalaureate] I was so stressed. Training in Hong Kong and mountaineering have been a way to cope with my stress and the stress of academic life,” says Bob. He will start a degree in film and television production at the University of York in the United Kingdom in September.Most years, John spends April and May in Nepal with clients and trains the rest of the year. The Lantau trail is his favourite training ground in Hong Kong; he mixes it up with mountain biking in Yuen Long.“Father and son on the top of the world, it was a dream come true,” says John.
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