Officers take high road to guard nation's border

Glacier rescues

The Kampug glacier, located near Pumaqangtang at an altitude of more than 5,600 meters, attracts hundreds of tourists every year. However, visitors often become trapped in the glacier's steep, intricate crevasses, enduring frostbite and even dying.

Glacier rescue missions are important tasks for the police officers.

There are no roads, location signs or mobile phone signals near the glacier. Self-driving tourists may face severe consequences, including death, if their cars break down or they slip into ice seams. It usually takes the officers about two hours to drive to the glacier from the station, but in winter the journey can last much longer as the grassland is covered by heavy snow.

Sonam Daje recalled a rescue mission in March 2017, when a 61-year-old member of a tour group from Shanghai got lost on the glacier.

After being alerted, Sonam Daje and four colleagues drove to the spot immediately, arriving at about 10 pm.

Later, about 30 local people－including doctors and firefighters－were dispatched to join the mission.

They searched for four days, eating instant meals and keeping warm by burning dung.

When they finally found the man's frozen body in an ice cave, where the temperature was -25 C, Sonam Daje and the other rescue workers had varying degrees of frostbite.

He has attended more than 100 rescue missions during his time at the border police station, and hundreds of rescued tourists have sent thank-you letters to the officers.

This year, there have been far fewer visitors because of the COVID-19 pandemic and local policies to protect the environment. Those factors have resulted in a sharp fall in the number of rescue missions.

"I hope there are no more rescue missions on the glacier－then everyone would be safe," Sonam Daje said.