At the beginning of August, Justin Zhang, an account supervisor in the Ketchum Beijing office, set off to accompany his client, Discovery Channel, on a most unusual mission: to help a group of five very important reporters climb to the top of the 5,396-meter high Mt. Haba in Yunnan for an interview. Below is a diary of his travels.

July 31: When most of our clients ask us to arrange interviews, we normally invite the journalists to a nice hotel, or their office, shop or factory. But not Discovery Channel. Instead, their challenge to Ketchum Beijing was to escort five key reporters to the top of Mt. Haba in Yunnan to interview Mark Inglis, the inspiration behind the Discovery documentary “Everest: Beyond the Limit”. Mark was the first person to have conquered Mt. Everest on artificial legs and he is a living legend in the mountaineering community. He had come to Mt. Haba to conduct a training camp for participants in the Snow Beer Globe Trekker, K2 training camp.

My job was to look after five very important reporters from For Him Magazine, Beijing Youth Daily, The Mirror and The Bund. Getting to Shangri-la, our first stop, was an ordeal in itself and no sooner had we arrived there than we all started suffering from altitude sickness!

August 1: Today was acclimatization day. We needed to get used to being 3,600 meters above sea level in Shangri-la. After some last minute shopping for equipment in the old town of Shangri-la, we all met Mark Inglis for the first time. It was a real thrill, even though everyone was feeling sick because of the altitude. I was worried that the reporters would complain about it – but they didn’t.

August 2: After an early-morning departure ceremony, we headed for Haba village – the starting point for our climb up Mt. Haba. Haba village is “only” 2,600 meters above sea-level – which made everyone feel better! We received a really warm welcome from the villagers; over 300 people dressed in traditional Tibetan costume welcomed us. That night, another guest trainer arrived to help lead our expedition. He was Wang Yongfeng, the head of the China Mountaineering Association. The media were keen to interview Wang – and he was very obliging in talking to them.

August 3: We set off early in the morning to hike to base camp, which was 4,100 meters up Mt. Haba. It took us seven hours of hard climbing to get there from Haba village. When we arrived we were absolutely exhausted, but the view of Mt. Haba was breath-taking. That night, none of us slept well because of severe altitude sickness.

August 4: The weather deteriorated a lot today, with thick fog and constant rain. Everyone was worried that we wouldn’t be able to summit after all. Some of the journalists started to complain about the stress and the food, and I had to work really hard to keep them happy. Despite the weather, we still participated in training.

August 5: People were a bit more relaxed today, despite the constant rain which was getting on everyone’s nerves. Because of the uncertain weather, Discovery agreed to move forward the interview with Mark that it had originally scheduled for the 7th as it was concerned that some of the journalists may decide to return to Haba village before then.

Mark was an absolute inspiration. He not only provided us with amazing training in mountain survival skills, he never lost his positive attitude and belief that we would make it to the summit. The interview with Mark lasted well over two hours, and the reporters were delighted with the extraordinary stories that Mark shared about his life experiences.

August 6: Today dawned bright and sunny – a perfect day to summit! As the largest mountaineering party ever to climb Mt. Haba, we had to separate into three groups of 40 people. The journalists and I were in the second group, which meant we could rest today and prepare for our climb tomorrow. We could see the beautiful icy summit from our tent and could dream about being at the top. In Yunnan, Mt. Haba is revered as a holy mountain that represents wealth.

August 7: Today was the most amazing experience of my life. We left base camp at 3:30 am and climbed for 4 hours to get to the snow line at 4,900 meters. As soon as we were above the snow line, the climbing became much harder. Every step was a struggle and we had to stop very frequently to rest and catch our breaths. The climb looked endless and we were beginning to despair of ever reaching the top. Indeed the climbers called it the “desperate hillside”.

At 10:20 am I finally reached the summit along with the reporters from the Beijing Youth Daily and For Him Magazine. The view from the top was indescribably beautiful – it was like heaven! We took photos and just reveled in our achievement. Getting back down the mountain was torture for us because the path never seemed to end. It took us seven hours to get back to the base camp and another two days to recover from the exhaustion of climbing.

August 8-9: After five unforgettable days on Mt. Haba we left base camp to return to Haba village again. The two reporters who had summited with me said it was the best event that they had ever experienced!

August 10: We held a group celebration in Shangri-la. Over the 10 days that everyone had been together we had forged new bonds and made new friends. The party was full of laughs, tears and beer! Everyone was thrilled to receive a certificate from the China Mountaineering Association and a medal from Snow Beer to commemorate the unforgettable experience of climbing to the top of Mt. Haba with Discovery.