Month: January 2014

It’s our final day in 成都 (Cheng Du)! Yi Qian and Yong Siang went for a traditional chinese medicine massage last night and came back with “octopus circles” on their backs. They went for some bottle suction massage. It was apparently quite comfortable for them. A pity I don’t have pictures of the aftermath. We…
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It’s always hard to say Goodbye! Today, we leave the place where we stayed for 10 days. There were many wonderful memories we had here: home-cooked 四川 (Si Chuan) dishes; traditional Tibetan drinks; 小粘粘 (Little Sticky) who had accompanied us to the summit of 大峰 (Da Feng), 5038m; the clear blue skies; and last but not least,…
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Unlike most days, we started the day at 0200 hours, when the many restless souls of the team started stirring from their light sleep. Waking up to a symphony of sound, with the snores trumpeting loudly in the shack, the percussion of the rustling of backpacks was deafening. I could hardly believe that I was…
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We left 日隆镇 (Ri Long Zhen) early in the morning and set off for 大峰 (Da Feng). Upon reaching the ridge line that would lead us to base camp, we decided to stop for a photo! A picture of all 8 of us with 四姑娘山 (Si Gu Niang Shan) in the background. You can see…
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Our final day of ice climbing training. Behold, the vertical waterfall that awaits us: The route on the right was really hard. As such, we decided to play a game to push each other to climb even higher than the previous person. The person who climbed the lowest will have to write the blog for…
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It’s our 5th day of ice climbing training today! We have been really fortunate to have clear skies for the past few days, but today, it was a gloomy morning. It was quite hard to get out of bed today! We were more or less comfortable with our crampons by now. It’s really nice to…
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A day of fast climb. Today’s breakfast was wonderful as I drank a cup of locally produced butter tea. It was surprising that Yi Qian did not enjoy the taste of the tea. He’s usually quite adventurous with regards to food. Must be an acquired taste. In today’s training, the approach route was relatively short,…
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I woke up early today, feeling ready for today’s ice climbing training. Breakfast was served at 0830 hours and our drivers arrived at 0900 hours. By 0915 hours, we were on our way towards the next training site. I was secretly nervous for today’s training, as I have missed yesterday’s training due to severe headache…
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As per other days, we started the day with the same porridge and man-tous for breakfast. By 0915 hours, we were already on the road, heading out for training. We were heading towards a different site today. Training was tough, but… Today. Was. Awesome. Karen climbing up the slope in the foreground. It began with…
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Waking up at 0745 hours and wrapped up in our bed sheets, there was a sense of excitement and nervousness. We did not know what to expect. Will the training be too intense? Will we be able to remember all the lessons that were taught to us? There were so many questions and doubts unanswered.…
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After a good night’s sleep, we woke up at 0645 hours to get ready to set off for the valley. The trip was estimated to be around 6 hours and we left at 0815 hours sharp. Fortunately, we did not get trapped in the peak hour traffic jam. Tibetan prayer flags The journey up the…
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It’s the beginning of a new journey. A journey that will create history in SUTD. We are embarking on Phase I of our unnamed and unclimbed mountain expedition. I am extremely excited and am looking forward to the challenges we will face in the next 9 months. Our flight to Chengdu was at 0200 hours…
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