The Wall of the Qin State

Qin reformed its political system in the year 356 B.C. It is known as Shangyang's Reform. It enacted a new collection of decrees and encouraged the masses to grow plants and join the army. Owning vast fertile lands in present the central Shanxi plain and Sichuan Province, Qin soon surpassed other states in military power. But north nomads Donghu and Loufan frequently crossed the desert and harassed the north part of Qin. To resist their raids, Qin built a wall along its north border. This wall started from Mingxian County of Gansu Province, went northeast to present Longde and Kuyuan County of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, headed north along the Liupanshan Mountain, went on east to Huanxian County of Gansu Province and finally arrived at the bank of the Yellow River of Suide County of Shannxi Province.

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The Wall of the Chu State

The Chu State was relatively slow in agriculture. But it kept a strong army and with it expanded its territory to the banks of the Changjiang River. Chu lay in the central plains of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. It bordered the Qi, Song, Wei and Han States on the north, the Qin and Ba States on the west, Bai'e on the south and a vast sea on the east. Its land was the largest among the Seven Powers.
Chu began to fall in the late Warring States Period. It failed several wars to Qin, Han, Wei and other states after King Chu Huiwang had became the new ruler. Chu later expanded the embankments of Mianshui and Bishui Rivers and linked them to mountain ranges and high lands by building walls. The whole line was the Wall of Chu. It is known from literatures that the wall ran more than 400 kilometers from east to west. It started at present Biyang County of He'nan Province, moved north to Ye'xian County, turned to the west and hiked over Lushan Mountain, went on southwest and passed through northeast Neixiang County and finally arrived at present zhushan County of Hebei Province.
Recent years' archeological activities have uncovered a 100-kilometer wall that intersects from east to west Xunyang County of Shannxi Province. Layers of stones make the wall and in some place passageways are still perceptible. Further investigations have proved that it is the Wall of Chu. It could be built for resisting the powerful Qin State.

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Origin of the Great Wall

From 770 B.C. through 476 B.C. was the Spring and Autumn Period of China. During the Period, princes that held land from the Zhou Kingdom made themselves states. Among all the 149 states, the most powerful were the Qi, Jin, Chu, Qin, Lu and Zheng States.
For the wide use of iron tools and farm cattle, the social production of this period progressed greatly. The higher-rank people started to gain private croplands. The land was privatized, and the basic social system of the day, i.e. the Well Field System, began to collapse, which cracked Zhou Kingdom's leadership over its princes and caused among them wars for domination.
To conquer other states, stronger ones made frequent wars upon others. Only a few out of the more than a hundred had finally survived, and were anxious for a new round of war. These states included Qin, Wei, Yan, Zhao, Han, Qi, Chu, also referred to as "the Seven Powers", and others less strong. And the history came to the Warring States Period (B.C. 475 ~ 221).
The social production of this Period continued to grow. The advancing in agriculture and handicraft gave rise to thriving cities acting as marketplaces. The architecture of this time also improved remarkably and made it possible to build solider constructions of better structures in more flexible steps. On the other hand, wars went on unabatedly between the states, some of which at the same time were harassed by minority nationalities from the north. Hence the states built walls around important cities, especially their capitals.
A latest excavation has revealed that the wall-surrounded capital Linzi of the Qi State in the Warring States Period was four kilometers from east to west, and five kilometers from north to south. Palaces to rulers lay inside. Distributed in the city were workshops selling instruments made by way of smelting iron ores, casting bronze, abrading and carving bones and the like. It is recorded in Shi Ji, a great historical literature, that Linzi had over 700,000 families (the unit ancient Chinese used to count population) and was "so crowed with people and vehicles that they could hardly go without brushing each other".
The city Xiadu of the Yan State was eight kilometers from east to west, and four kilometers from north to south. The capital Handan of Zhao was three and four kilometers from east to west and from north to south.Because walls around cities proved excellent defense, the states wanted to utilize this advantage widely. Hence they built walls on the borders and joined them up with natural barriers like large embankments and steep mountain ridges.The building of walls expensed countless labors. But they were undoubtedly grand constructions even seen today.

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The Great Wall of the Qin Dynasty

In 221 B.C., King Qin Shihuang defeated the other States, unified the whole China, and established the Qin Dynasty, also knowns as the First Empire, the first centralized empire in China. A long-time division by feudal lords ended.
The territory of the Qin Dynasty enlarged greatly, with its north border extending to present east Liaoning Province, Yinshan Mountains and the Great Bend of the Yellow River, the east border to the sea, the west to now Qinhai Province and the Gansu Plateau, and South to now Guangdong and Guangxi Province. The Qin Dynasty abolished other characters, laws and metrologies. To eradicate the influence of division left by the warring states, it replaced the enfeoffment with prefectures and counties and torn down the walls and embankments that blocked connections.
Hun, one old minority nationality from the north of China, began to thrive in the late Warring States War Period. When the Yan and Zhao States were falling off, Hun invaded them and bit by bit occupied large patches of land in the Great Bend area of the Yellow River. Hun migrated with seasons and based their agriculture mainly on collecting plants and hunting. This tradition made their troopers fast, depending on which the Huns looted labors and wealth on Qin's border. Hun damaged farming work and setting the north border of the Qin Dynasty unrest.
To solve the border trouble, Qin Shihuang appointed General Meng Tian for garrisoning troops on the north. In 215 B.C., Meng Tian led an army numbered 3,000,000 and assaulted Hun successfully. The battle returned present the south area of the Great Bend of the Yellow River of Southwest of Mongolia Province. Moreover, he swept crossed the Yellow River and took up present Linhe County, the Yinshan Mountains and the area north to the Wujiahe River, and set in these places 44 counties. The war forced Hun out of the Wall of Zhao and eliminated its threat over the Qin Dynasty.
Qin Shihuang later found that the walls of the Yan, Zhao and ex-Qin States were disconnected from each other and could hardly stop enemies from breaking in again. So in the year 215 B.C., he ordered to link up these three walls. The weather-beaten parts were also reconstructed and new parts were added in some places. The labors for this construction numbered 2,000,000, made up of the army under the command of Meng Tian, confiscated labors, captives of war and the guilty people against laws of that time. The whole construction lasted for 10 years.
The finished wall extended further at the north end as the territory of the Qin Dynasty in the north had expanded. The wall started at Lintao, i.e. Minxian County now, went eastward to now Guyuan of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, met the Wall of the Zhao State that ran eastward from Gaoque of the Great Bend of the Yellow River, went on and crossed the Yellow River, entered now north Shanxi and Hebei Province, ran the rest part of the Wall of the Zhao State and headed on along the north branch of Yanshan Mountain, passed by way of the five counties of Shangu, Yuyang, Right Beiping, West Liao and East Liao, and finally arrived at Jieshishan Mountain near the Datongjiang River of Pyongyang, Korea. This wall was longer than and lay slightly north to the Great Wall we see today, which was built by the Ming Dynasty about 1,500 years after.
Since the Liberation of China, the Chinese government has launched several investigations on the Great Wall of the Qin Dynasty along the route that passed by Minxian County of Gansu Province, Langyashan Couty, Yanshan Mountain, Chifeng of Hebei Province till entering into Jilin Province. The relics of the wall can still be seen scattered along the route. Some parts relatively well preserved are about five or six meters high, made of blocks of mud or stone of the local resources.

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Mount Vancouver

Mount Vancouver is the eighth highest mountain in Canada and is located in Kluane National Park and Reserve on the Canada-US border. Mt. Vancouver has three summits: north, middle and south with middle being the lowest. The south summit borders Canada and the United States and is known as Good Neighbor Peak. While conventional wisdom indicates that the north summit is the highest, discrepancies in topographic maps of the area muddle the question. Older Canadian maps indicate that north is the highest but newer US maps based on GPS, show the south summit higher. However, the US maps do not show the north summit
The mountain was named by W. H. Dall in 1874 after George Vancouver, who explored the southeast coast of Alaska from 1792 to 1794.
1949 North Buttress (northwest ridge): FA of mountain by William Hainsworth, Alan Bruce-Robertson, Bob McCarter, Noel Odell; with Walter Wood in support.
1975 Northeast Ridge (to north peak), FA by Cliff Cantor, Bab Dangel, Paul Ledoux, Rob Milne, Hal Murray, Bob Walker, John Yates and Barton DeWolf.
1977 West Face, FA by John Lauchlan, John Calvert, Trevor Jones and Mike Sawyer.

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Mount Sanford

Mount Sanford is a shield volcano in the Wrangell Volcanic Field, in eastern Alaska near the Copper River. It is the third highest volcano in the United States behind Mount Bona and Mount Blackburn. The south face of the volcano, at the head of the Sanford Glacier, rises 8,000 feet (2,400 m) in 1 mile (1,600 m) resulting in one of the steepest gradients in North America
Geology
Mount Sanford is mainly composed of andesite, and is an ancient peak, being mostly Pleistocene, although some of the upper parts of the mountain may be Holocene. The mountain first began developing 900,000 years ago, when it began growing on top of three smaller shield volcanoes that had coalesced. Two notable events in the mountain's history include a large lava flow which traveled some 11 miles (18 km) to the north east of the peak, and another flow which erupted from a rift zone on the flank of the volcano some 320,000 years ago. The second flow was basaltic in nature and marks the most recent activity of the volcano. The flow was dated using radiometric methods.
History
The mountain was named in 1885 by Lieutenant Henry T. Allen of the U.S. Army after the Sanford family (Allen was a descendant of Reuben Sanford).
Mount Sanford was first climbed on July 21, 1938 by noted mountaineers Terris Moore and Bradford Washburn, via the still standard North Ramp route up the Sheep Glacier. This route "offers little technical difficulty" and "is a glacier hike all the way to the summit" but is still a serious mountaineering challenge (Alaska Grade 2) due to the altitude and latitude of the peak. The base of the route is usually accessed by air, but landing near the mountain is not straightforward.
On March 12, 1948, Northwest Airlines Flight 4422 crashed into Mount Sanford. All 24 passengers and 6 crew members were killed. The wreckage was quickly covered by snow and was not found again until 1999.
The first solo ascent of Sanford was achieved on September 19, 1968, by Japanese mountaineer Naomi Uemura, who later died just after making the first solo winter ascent of Mount McKinley.

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Mount Saint Elias

Mount Saint Elias, also designated Boundary Peak 186, is the second highest mountain in both Canada and the United States, being situated on the Yukon and Alaska border. It lies about 40 kilometres (25 mi) southwest of Mount Logan, the highest mountain in Canada. The Canadian side is part of Kluane National Park, while the U.S. side of the mountain is located within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.
Its name in Tlingit is Yaas'éit'aa Shaa, meaning "mountain behind Icy Bay", and is occasionally called Shaa Tléin "Big Mountain" by the Yakutat Tlingit. It is one of the most important crests of the Kwaashk'khwáan clan since they used it as a guide during their journey down the Copper River. Mount Fairweather at the apex of the British Columbia and Alaska borders at the head of the Alaska Panhandle is known as Tsalxhaan, it is said this mountain and Yaas'éit'aa Shaa (Mt. St. Elias) were originally next to each other but had an argument and separated. Their children, the mountains in between the two peaks, are called Tsalxhaan Yatx'i ("Children of Tsalxaan").
The mountain was first sighted by European explorers on July 16, 1741 by Vitus Bering of Russia. While some historians contend that the mountain was named by Bering, others believe that eighteenth century mapmakers named it after Cape Saint Elias, when it was left unnamed by Bering.
Mount Saint Elias is notable for being the highest peak in the world that is so close to tidewater; its summit rises only 10 miles (16 km) from the head of Taan Fjord, off of Icy Bay. This gives the peak immense vertical relief, comparable to that of Mount McKinley (Denali) or peaks in the Himalayas.
In 2007, a documentary movie called "Mount. St. Elias" was made about a team of skiier/mountaineers determined to make "the planet's longest skiing descent" - ascending the mountain and then skiing nearly all 18,000 feet down to the Gulf of Alaska; the movie finished editing and underwent limited release in 2009. The climbers ended up summiting on the second attempt and skiing down to 13,000 feet.

Climbing history

Mt. St. Elias was first climbed on July 31, 1897 by an expedition led by famed explorer Prince Luigi Amadeo di Savoia, (who also reconnoitered the current standard route on K2) and including noted mountain photographer Vittorio Sella.
The second ascent was not until 1946, when a group from the Harvard Mountaineering Club including noted mountain historian Dee Molenaar climbed the Southwest Ridge route. The summit party comprised Molenaar, his brother Cornelius, Andrew and Betty Kauffman, Maynard Miller, William Latady, and Benjamin Ferris. (This expedition was somewhat unusual for the era in including a female member.) William Putnam was a member of the expedition but did not make the summit. They used eleven camps, eight of which were on the approach from Icy Bay, and three of which were on the mountain. They were supported by multiple air drops of food
Mount Saint Elias is infrequently climbed today, despite its height, due to the typically terrible weather conditions engendered by its proximity to the ocean.

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