The accidental death of a student climber has spurred college mountaineers to pay more attention to safety.

A junior, Huang De, from Beijing's Tsinghua University, fell to his death when climbing down a mountain in southwest China's Guizhou Province on Saturday noon.

Huang fell after a piece of rock he was grasping broke off.

His companions, Wang Rongtao and Zhang Weihua, both graduates of Beijing's Peking University, and two guides dared not move after the fall.

One of the guides then went back to a local village for help on Saturday evening.

It was not until the next afternoon that the two trapped climbers and the other guide were rescued.

"We have reminded our climbers to pay more attention to their safety," said Sun Lin, a student working at the Tsinghua University Mountaineering Association.

Currently, a team of 13 climbers, all students of Tsinghua, is in northwest China's Qinghai Province to climb a mountain more than 6,600 meters.

After hearing of Huang's death, the climbers held back from attempting the climb because of the potential risks.

Sun said the climbers in Qinghai are now in good spirits despite the death.

A source with the Peking University's Mountain Eagles Club said the club's mountaineers have not changed their plans to climb a peak of more than 6,000 meters in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

In recent years, mountaineering has gained popularity among college students.

Students from Peking and Tsinghua, China's top two universities, have earned the most acclaim in the field.

Last July, 16 members of Peking University's Mountain Eagles Club climbed the 6,178-meter Mount Yuzhu in Qinghai Province.

Meanwhile, 14 students from the Tsinghua University Mountaineering Association reached the peak of the 6,590-meter Mount Samdain Kangsang in the Nyainqentanglha Mountains in northern Tibet.

But students' enthusiasm has been accompanied by accidents, sometimes fatal.

Five members of the Mountain Eagles Club died or were presumed dead after they were hit by an avalanche when they were trying to reach Mount Shisha Pagma's 7,292-meter western face in Tibet in August 2002.

(China Daily July 6, 2004)