The sherpas took down all our tents the very day we were scheduled to descend. The spots we made our home for two months became flat in minutes. It was unsettling. The beautiful views of Cho Oyu and Trong La Pass would definitely be missed.

The team would now be back to training in Bukit Timah on weekends and HDB stairs on weekdays. Our next trip would be to ice climbing in Szechuan, China in January. This would be our last training trip before we leave for everest in March.

We would also be planning a Everest Base Camp trek to visit us around April. Do email us at myjourney@womens-everest-team.com for more info or stay tuned to our website for more updates on this.

SWET

The Singapore Women’s Everest Team formed in 2004 and aimed to send the first team of Singaporean women to the world’s highest peak. Following a rigorous 5 year training schedule, we successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest in May 2009, placing 5 Singapore women on the top of the world.

www.womenoneverest.com

The Singapore Women’s Everest Team marked another successful expedition by summiting Cho Oyu (8,201m) on 23rd Sept. Fully acclimatized and using supplementary oxygen, the team set off for the summit at 1.30am on 23rd September from Camp 3 at 7,500m. Team leader, Jane Lee, 23, arrived at the summit at 10.20am, followed by team members Lee Li Hui, 26, Joanne Soo, 37 and co-leader, Sim Yi Hui, 25. The team’s expedition doctor, Dr. Mok Ying Jang, 40, also made the summit shortly after. Team member Lee Peh Gee, 31, arrived at the summit plateau at 8180m, but turned back just before the summit due to dwindling oxygen supply.

Enroute to summit

Team leader, Jane Lee, says, “I am extremely elated that our expedition has turned out so well. Not only has the team summitted, all members are also in good health. The success of this expedition speaks volumes of our months of training and preparation. The team is deeply grateful to all our base camp manager, Mr Lim Kim Boon, 43, as well as to our supporters and well-wishers who have been climbing the mountain with us every step of the way.”

Although the team summitted in perfect weather, the descent turned out to be more challenging as the weather on Cho Oyu proved to be volatile and changed for the worse within a matter of hours. The team braved a descent in visibility of less than five meters and with wind speeds gusting up to 70km/h. Fortunately, all team members made it down the mountain safely, in good health and in high spirits.

Descending in whiteout condition

The triumphant completion of this expedition marks an important phase of the team’s training as Cho Oyu is often climbed in preparation for Everest. During the Cho Oyu climb, teams test out their oxygen systems, communications equipment and assess their physical response to being at high altitude.

This successful expedition would not have been possible without the help and support from our climbing Sherpas, Kami, Mingma Tenzing, Kama Rita, Nima Karma, Jamling and Phinjo Dorje. We would also like to thank all our sponsors and supporters back home for all their encouragement and well wishes.

SWET

The Singapore Women’s Everest Team formed in 2004 and aimed to send the first team of Singaporean women to the world’s highest peak. Following a rigorous 5 year training schedule, we successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest in May 2009, placing 5 Singapore women on the top of the world.

www.womenoneverest.com

Following 3 days of well-deserved rest at Nyalam, we’re back at advanced base camp, well-fed and physically recuperated! We’re now into the most exhilarating phase of our climb—the summit push! Looking at our weather forecast for the next week, stable and good weather is expected from now until the 24th, with the good weather period peaking from the 22nd to the 24th. Thus, we’ll be making full use of this period of good weather to go for the summit. We’ll be setting off for camp 1 on the 20th, we’ll reach camp 2 on the 21st, camp 3 on the 22nd and summit on the 23rd, descend back to camp 1 for the night and then arrive back at advanced base camp on the 24th, just ahead of the clouds predicted for the next day on the 25th.

This morning, to add on to our state of anticipation for the summit, we tested out our oxygen systems to ensure that everything is working efficiently. The oxygen tanks each weigh in at 7.5kg and together with the visually-restrictive oxygen mask and snow goggles, we expect the summit push to be quite a bit of a challenge. Climbing with oxygen is a new experience for all of us and although we have heard much about the benefits of climbing with oxygen, we remain circumspect, as every additional piece of equipment represents an added source of anxiety and potential breakdown.

Sorting out oxygen masks, Check out the oxygen tank in the foreground!

At this moment, no one has yet to summit Cho Oyu and other teams are eagerly looking towards the summit, watching for the first team to make the trip up and break the trail. We are trying to avoid being the first team up to break trail for the rest, to avoid unnecessary physical exertion, but looking at our weather forecast and our summit plan, we may end up being the first team after all!

Once again, wish us luck, fair weather and strong lungs as we strive to be the first women’s team from Singapore to summit an 8000er!

SWET

The Singapore Women’s Everest Team formed in 2004 and aimed to send the first team of Singaporean women to the world’s highest peak. Following a rigorous 5 year training schedule, we successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest in May 2009, placing 5 Singapore women on the top of the world.

www.womenoneverest.com

We finally spent a night at Camp 2!!! Camp 2 (7000m, the height of a number of mountain summits) was extremely deserted with only 3 IMG tents, one Spanish tent (set up in the middle of our campsite) and 2 Mountain Madness tents (compared to Camp 1 where there are easily 20 tents in the vicinity). We reached there between 4 to 5pm after a gruelling 10 hour climb. In fact, the weather was near perfect throughout the first 3/4 of the climb. The sky was clear and the wind was almost non-existent. However, as we approached mid-day, the sky was so clear that the heat from the sun was getting unbearably hot, especially as we were travelling in a basin.

Travessing round a bend towards Camp 2

This time round, another way was set up at the first ice cliff by Russel Brice’s team of Sherpas. It was a long traverse to the left of the ice cliff followed by a shorter climb up the ice cliff. Although the traverse was rather intimidating with narrow foot paths and a near vertical drop down on our left, it was indeed less tiring than a vertical ascent up the initial fixed line.

After the first ice cliff, we travessed along a small ridge, and trudged on flat ground for about an hour before arriving at the base of the second ice cliff. The second ice cliff was about 70 degrees and comprised a mix of soft snow and ice. The fixed rope ran for about 30m and this took us about another hour to clear it. Upon clearing the 2nd ice cliff, we still had to clear a long snow slope before reaching Camp 2, completely drained out.

We did the usual of boiling water, cooking and preparing for the next day at Camp 2. Almost everybody had a fitful sleep at 7,000m.

Descending towards Camp 2

The next morning, we set off with our downsuits towards Camp 3. The downsuits were extremely cumbersome and the only comfort was that we did not need our harnesses for the day’s climb as there were no fixed ropes set up for Camp 2 to Camp 3. The way up to camp 3 was completely straightforward. It was a vertical ascent up to the rock a little below the rock band.

It is amazing how the summit of Chooyu actually looks so deceivingly near when you are standing at camp 2. We ascended about 150m in about one hour before deciding to turn back and head back to Camp 1 for a night’s rest.

Yihui had the unfortunate experience of a classic AMS syndrome, HAPE. She is usually one of the faster climbers in the team but this morning, she was actually taking 20 breaths for merely 2-3 steps. This occurred to her out of the blue as she was still feeling fine and actively walking around the campsite just that morning. This is a classic display of how AMS strikes individuals suddenly and relentlessly.

We then descended down all the way back to Camp 1 on the same day and back to ABC the day after.

SWET

The Singapore Women’s Everest Team formed in 2004 and aimed to send the first team of Singaporean women to the world’s highest peak. Following a rigorous 5 year training schedule, we successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest in May 2009, placing 5 Singapore women on the top of the world.

www.womenoneverest.com

We completed our first acclimatization cycle 2 days ago by spending 2 nights up at Camp 1. We reached Camp 1 on 4 Sept at about 1.30pm and then spent the rest of the day resting, cooking and sorting out our gear for the next day’s climb.

We left Camp 1 the next day at about 7am with the goal of reaching the base of the second ice cliff en route to Camp 2. From Camp 1, we had an unobstructed view of the daunting route up. Most of the route up required the use of fixed ropes which were buried due to the heavy snowfall of previous days. After about 4 hours of back-breaking climbing, we reached the bottom of the first ice cliff and we had to wait for one another to clear the vertical ice cliff. Although it was only 20m tall, it took each of us about 30 min to ascend the vertical ice, using a front pointing technique (with our crampons) all the way up. At 6700m, “tiring” was a description that barely cut it.

Moving up the first ice cliff

When we reached the top of the ice cliff at 2.30pm, bad weather and poor visibility prevented us from proceeding any further and it was also past our turn-around time of 1.30pm.

During the descent back to Camp 1, the prevailing wind speed was about 60-70 km/h and we had to stop numerous times to shield ourselves from the oncoming spin-drifts. The round trip took us about 10 hours and we were relieved to be back in the relative “comfort” of Camp 1.

Descent back to Camp 1

Throughout the second night in Camp 1, our tents were continuously blasted by heavy winds and we did not manage to sleep well. In the middle of the night, we also heard disconcerting rumbling sounds caused by heavy avalanches on the mountain above Camp 3.

In addition, to add to our unease after hearing the roaring avalanches the night before, what would have been a smooth descent the following morning turned out to be an agonizing descent in knee deep powder snow caused by the heavy snowfall the night before. It took us 4 hours before we finally managed to return to ABC where we met up with our newly-arrived “campsite buddies”, a team of 19 American climbers and another team of 7 from Singapore. Looks like we’ll have no shortage of company for the rest of our climb!

We will be resting at ABC for the next 2 days before moving up the mountain for our next acclimatization cycle. This time around, we plan to clear the first and second ice cliffs on the way to Camp 2, stay a night at Camp 2 before moving towards Camp 3 and then descending to ABC for our final rest period before our summit bid.

Wish us luck and fair weather!

SWET

The Singapore Women’s Everest Team formed in 2004 and aimed to send the first team of Singaporean women to the world’s highest peak. Following a rigorous 5 year training schedule, we successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest in May 2009, placing 5 Singapore women on the top of the world.

www.womenoneverest.com

Today was an extremely important day for us as we were due to set off on a round trip for Camp1 at 6400m. We had heard so much about how difficult climbing up the long and steep scree slope leading up to Camp 1 would be. Taking into account the fact that we did not even manage to reach Lake Camp (situated at the bottom of the scree slope) two days ago, we were rather anxious about our performance for today.

As events of the day unfolded, it turned out that our initial apprehension was unfounded, much to our surprise and delight! We started off bright and early at 730am at a great pace and we actually reached the turn around point (before Lake Camp) of two days ago in 2 ½ hours, down from the original 4 hours it took us the first time. The terrain was definitely very challenging and we had to be accurate and sure in our footwork so as to avoid nasty falls and sprains while navigating the landslide of boulders and rocks that paved the entire way to Lake Camp at the base of the scree slope.

We arrived at Lake Camp in 3 ½ hours at 11am and we had our lunch break, consisting of a packed lunch of biscuits, hard-boiled eggs, Tibetan bread (a type of deep friend dough very similar to hum chim peng) and cheese. All throughout lunch, our initial satisfaction at arriving at Lake Camp in good shape was tempered by a sense of foreboding at the impressive sight of the seemingly endless scree slope just ahead of us.

Our Sherpa guide, Kami, estimated that it would take about 3 ½ hours of hard climbing for us to clear the scree slope before reaching Camp1 so when we set off, we were prepared for a long and arduous climb. Along the way, we took turns to change the lead so the person breaking trail could have a rest. As the slope was so steep, it was literally impossible for us to stop and take breaks without suffering painful lactic acid build ups in our calves, thus as much as we wanted to stop at regular intervals, we made do with only two 5-minute breathers.

After a spell, the scree terrain gradually merged with the beginnings of snow on Cho Oyu and we found ourselves in the very tiring position of having to break trail through unconsolidated knee-deep snow, sometimes falling face first into the slope when the snow surface gave way underfoot. We had almost forgotten how physically demanding climbing can be, especially in deep snow. Every step we took had to be compensated by at least four hard intakes of air and it took all of our concentration to stay on the steep snow without pitching sideways from fatigue. The slope was so steep that the last 50m required the placement of a fixed rope (placed by our climbing Sherpas the day before) as a safety precaution. Even holding on the fixed rope was hardly a mitigation in the level of effort required.

Moving up the last stretch

At long last, we saw the end of the fixed rope and a rock outcrop dead ahead and we knew that we had almost reached our goal for the day! Kami was grinning at us when we stumbled onto the rock outcrop overlooking Camp 1. He looked none the worse for wear, whereas we were collapsing on top of each other, panting for dear life! At 6400m, Camp 1 is higher than any mountain in Southeast Asia and is almost the height of Mera Peak (6476m), our very first training climb in June 2004. Imagine our utter surprise when Joanne had the sense to check her watch that we only took a total of 2 hours and 10 minutes to clear the steep slope and reach Camp 1, way ahead of the 3 ½ hour estimation made by Kami, which probably explained why he was so happy when we arrived.

Peh Gee arrived about 45 minutes later than the rest of us because she was combating a splitting headache all the way from Lake Camp. We were not even certain if she was going to be able to make it all the way up, since she had already expressed an alternative plan to turn back early if her condition aggravated. However, true to Peh Gee’s characteristic determined nature, she fought her pain all the way up and we were elated to see the top of her head bobbing as she cleared the last 20m of the fixed rope.

The round trip back to ABC took us 11 hours and we fell into the dining tent one after another, exhausted, frozen and famished. In our semi-moribund state, we were mortified to find out from Kami that our Sherpas only require about 4 hours to make the round trip! That’s the difference between our incredible Sherpas and mere mortals like us! Yet having said that, we were still pretty pleased with ourselves as Kami revealed that most teams take 14 hours to make the round trip, so we didn’t do too badly on the first try!

We’ll be resting for the next two days to eat lots and recuperate, before heading for Camp 1 again to stay for the night and then make the climb up towards Camp 2 at 7000m.

SWET

The Singapore Women’s Everest Team formed in 2004 and aimed to send the first team of Singaporean women to the world’s highest peak. Following a rigorous 5 year training schedule, we successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest in May 2009, placing 5 Singapore women on the top of the world.

www.womenoneverest.com

Once again, our original plan for the day was waylaid by another bout of heavy snowfall. There seems to be no end in sight to the bountiful supply of snow from a malignant weather god. So far, our puja doesn’t seem to have taken effect. Yet. We had planned to do a technical session consisting of rope ascending to simulate conditions high up at Cho Oyu, but the snowfall made it necessary for us to stay put in our dining tent.

However, it was not a day that was wasted as we utilized the morning to fit our crampons onto our rather unwieldy mountaineering boots and tried on our Marmot-brand down climbing suits together with our harnesses for the first time.

Getting into our downsuits

The fitting of down suits was an occasion for much mirth as all of us looked like walking mascots for Michelin tires. Do check out the photos of us in said elephantine state. Simply walking around ABC in our down suits proved to be clumsy and difficult and all of us could not imagine how it will even be possible for us to climb at 8000m ensconced in our down suits, with oxygen mask, snow goggles and backpack to boot! Some of us even joked that while the summit pictures of other climbers often look very inspiring, we feel like such clumsy ducks, barely manging to waddle around in a straight line!

Michelin tires in the mountains

SWET

The Singapore Women’s Everest Team formed in 2004 and aimed to send the first team of Singaporean women to the world’s highest peak. Following a rigorous 5 year training schedule, we successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest in May 2009, placing 5 Singapore women on the top of the world.

www.womenoneverest.com

This morning, we set off for an acclimatization climb yet again (there is simply no end to our great excitement at acclimatization climbs it seems), aiming for a point called “Lake Camp”, right at the base of the infamous scree slope leading up to Camp 1 of Cho Oyu.

This was to be our first acclimatization climb since our arrival at ABC. We had intended to set off for a climb earlier, but the frequent snowfall and bad weather put a dampener on our plans until this morning, when the weather finally let up enough to permit a foray beyond ABC.

The terrain towards Lake Camp was new to all of us and we had to navigate a moonscape of large boulders that required nifty footwork and boulder-hopping most of the time. The terrain was challenging but also very interesting, especially since we could see Cho Oyu right ahead of us. Unfortunately, we were not in the best of physical conditions to enjoy the magnificent landscape of Cho Oyu and the Nangpa La pass to our right (a high mountain pass traditionally taken by Tibetan traders traveling into Nepal), as most of us felt the debilitating effects of altitude at more than 5600m.

Navigating the tricky terrain to Lake Camp

We started off at 8am and after walking for about 4 hours, we were still not at Lake Camp yet, which was a disappointment as we had already passed the estimated time required. Taking into consideration the physical condition of the team and impending headaches, we decided to err on the side of caution and turned around before reaching Lake Camp.

Spirits were low for today as we did not manage to reach our target. However, we feel that at this early stage, it is more crucial to maintain good health than to tire ourselves out prematurely and we are confident that with adequate rest, we will be able to make it up to Camp 1 in another two days’ time.

SWET

The Singapore Women’s Everest Team formed in 2004 and aimed to send the first team of Singaporean women to the world’s highest peak. Following a rigorous 5 year training schedule, we successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest in May 2009, placing 5 Singapore women on the top of the world.

www.womenoneverest.com

This morning, we participated in a ritual we had heard and read so much about, the traditional “Puja” ceremony. The Puja is an important religious ritual that is strictly adhered to by Sherpas climbing on big mountains. It is believed that by giving prayers and offerings to the mountain Gods, climbers will be accorded good weather and safe passage during the climb. The importance of the Puja is underscored by the fact that neither Sherpa nor climber is allowed to go beyond Advanced Base Camp before seeking favour from the Gods believed to reside on the mountain.

The Puja was an eye-opener for the team and it highlighted the spiritual aspect of climbing that is very much honoured by the Sherpas and respected by climbers. The Puja lasted for 2 hours and was centered on the chanting from the sutra by three Tibetan lamas, punctuated at intervals by the ceremonial tossing of rice and tsampa flour by the participants of the ceremony.

After the Puja, we completed some “domestic” chores such as cleaning up our dining tent, placing toilet rolls in our makeshift toilets and setting up our communication equipment – yes, we are sending out our dispatches from the relative comfort of our dining tent. We also received emails from our friends and loved ones, definitely something that gave us all good cheer!

SWET

The Singapore Women’s Everest Team formed in 2004 and aimed to send the first team of Singaporean women to the world’s highest peak. Following a rigorous 5 year training schedule, we successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest in May 2009, placing 5 Singapore women on the top of the world.

www.womenoneverest.com

We’re finally at Advanced Base Camp! At about 5,660m, our campsite is built on a ridge and it took us about 5 hours to trek here from “Intermediate Base Camp”, the point where a very rickety lorry dropped us off after a bumpy 40 minute ride from the Chinese Base Camp.

It started snowing towards the end of the trek towards Advanced Base Camp and we were delighted to see the familiar tents after a 5 hour trek, of which the last 2 hours were spent in the ill company of bad weather and rapidly falling temperatures. Much to our disappointment, it continued to snow throughout our first day at Advanced Base Camp, leaving us with nothing much to do other than to wait out the weather and get our new accommodations sorted out in the meantime as we adjusted to this new altitude.

SWET

The Singapore Women’s Everest Team formed in 2004 and aimed to send the first team of Singaporean women to the world’s highest peak. Following a rigorous 5 year training schedule, we successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest in May 2009, placing 5 Singapore women on the top of the world.

www.womenoneverest.com