The next day, we woke up, had a hearty breakfast of oats, lowered the Singapore flag from Karaka Base Camp and took pictures with Mr Kazbek and the rest of the team that hosted us at Karaka Base Camp before beginning the long journey back to Almaty. This was to be a 6 hours…
Read more
Today marks the final day we are spending in our Base Camp at Siemienova glacier. Our instructor, Edwin, had told us the night before that the chopper would be coming at 10am subjected to the clear weather, hence all of us were eagerly awake by 6.30 a.m., and preparing for the pack-up. Some of us…
Read more
Being disappointment in my performance climbing Mt. Ong Siew Mei, I was ready to redeem myself at the climb up Mt. Ong Teng Cheong. This time, on the team, there were only Mao, Wenkie and I. We headed off at an ungodly hour in the morning, to beat the recent erratic weather patterns. The morning…
Read more
After several days of eating Koka instant noodles, today the team woke up earlier to cook Japanese Tonkatsu udon. I was thankful for the change of flavour and warm meal. Together with Team 1, we were exhausted after the summit push to Ong Siew May peak yesterday. Hence, it was heart-warming for the rest of…
Read more
The day starts at 3am in the morning. Getting up itself was much of a challenge as it was still freezing. We groggily put on our equipment at a rather slow pace while boiling water for our trip and it took us about 2 hours before we were ready to set off. The sky was…
Read more
Before this formal technical training day, I acclimatized quite well and had and open mindset of learning new techniques for ice climbing as this is the first time that I get to know about it and practice it in realistic environment. Therefore, I was excited to know how fast can I absorb the skills and…
Read more
Well, today we are leaving Karkara commercial camp and going to our base camp between OTC and OSM. Initially, the thought of having to sleep on glacier ice frightens me a little as I’m a person who is extremely afraid of cold. In addition, we (9 of us + Edwin + our Russian guide) will…
Read more
We started the day with an array of buffet delicacies at the International Breakfast in Hotel Kazzhol. I wouldn’t say it’s the best I’ve had but if you compare to the following days to come… I wouldn’t mind having a few more days of this. Around 9am, we left the hotel and started loading our…
Read more
Finally, the day of departure has come! While riding in my parents’ car on the way to airport, I was excited but also a bit fearful for the uncertainty of our journey there as we had to transit in Bangkok and Tashkent in Uzbekistan. Both cities were places I have never been to, so that…
Read more
