As usual, we struggled out of our cozy warm heated bed 30 minutes before breakfast was served at 8am. After our sumptuous hot meal, we went back to prepare and get ready to set off for the climb. We started our trek from Rilong and hiked from the entrance of Haizi Gou. Junwen and Yuxin…
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It was the final day of ice climbing. Today’s hike up to the frozen waterfall training ground is by far the steepest. As I have just recovered from AMS (acute mountain sickness), this came especially shocking to me, as I even struggled to make my way to the toilet in the middle of the night.…
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The day began with a wretched alarm that rang 30 minutes earlier than the agreed upon time. The room with Loo Jun Wen (21), Mao and myself all woke up and started packing our bags for the day and putting on them cumbersome snow boots. This was followed by a quick check on Mervin who…
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Waking up at 8.00am in an altitude of 3500m, I felt a little dizzy and the lack of proper rest due to several nightmares last night was preventing me from getting out of the bed. After a few days, I came to realize that insomnia and nightmares are common symptoms in high altitudes because of…
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We dragged ourselves out of our cozy and comfortable beds after being woken up at 7am by the blaring alarms of 6 mobile phones. We had yoghurt drinks, walnut milk as well as some snacks for a light breakfast. The long anticipated journey to Siguniang is about to begin! It started off as a drowsy…
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Woke up for hostel’s free breakfast (baguette and scrambled eggs) at 9:50am because our dear friend, Mao, fell sick and needed more rest. After which, we took our shower and checked out. Since it was our last day, we barely have any money left. We pulled together our money and thankfully we still have sufficient…
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“HANOI~HANOI~…” We arrived at Hanoi around 5:30am. Most of us dragged our feet down the train and all the way till our hostel. As it was very early in the morning, the streets are relatively empty. We were not allowed to check in to our hostel till 11:30am that day L. We left our bulky…
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3am: The SUTD fansipians, exhausted from the climb up, fall asleep as the moon rises. All except for one, a wild Kunal woke up in the middle of the night in search for the gents. Despite his stealth attempt, his spark of light shone on the 3 sleeping beauties disrupting their sleep. 4am: Lightning flashes,…
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We reached Lao Cai station at approximately 6.15am. The train ride was comfortable and cosy. At first glance of the surroundings, I felt the silence of the foggy atmosphere. It was deceiving as we stepped out of the station to be surrounded by a bustling town centre, where we met our contact driver. The drive…
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Day 2 has been tiring, surprisingly. The weather’s hot and walking around in slippers is tiring on my feet. I didn’t get all that much sleep because someone living in the same room was snoring away, but after playing rainymood on my headphones, I managed to get some sleep. Most of the day was spent…
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Well, D-day had arrived and we gathered at the airport after a few weeks of training. I could tell that we were pretty excited. For many of us, it was the first time going to Vietnam and for the freshies their first trip with the club. The first day was pretty chill, we reached the…
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This was it – the day of our summit attempt. All that we have worked hard for since May 2012 was now a reality. We woke up feeling groggy but ready to go. We all wondered if we could make it to the summit, as the estimated time for the summit attempt would be 8…
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At 0200 hours in the morning, we heard a flurry of muttering in Hindi and the crunching of snow boots on rock – was it time already? We knew we were supposed to wake at 0230 – maybe they were packing/preparing for our summit attempt. All of a sudden, Edwin poked his head into our…
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We had our acclimatisation trek from Camp I (5256m) to Summit Camp (5490m) and back yesterday. We will be moving from Camp I to Summit Camp today. Summit Camp is just below the pass (which we can name) and ridge that we are aiming to climb. Our initial plan was to leave Camp I at…
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Last night was one of the most uncomfortable nights we’ve had in a camp thus far. We did our best to lay flat rocks beneath our tents to make the ground as even as possible, but we could still feel rocks poking against our backs. Needless to say, the sleep was not peaceful, but given…
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I woke up to the sound of “Chai?” with great anticipation. Our porters dutifully served us chai every morning. This served as our wake up call as well. A beautiful morning The initial plan was for us to trek two hours, approximately 2Km, from ABC (5006m) to Camp I (5256m) and back to ABC (5006m).…
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Edwin, Raymond, Wei Zhen and I met with the guides last night to discuss the schedule. We were one day behind schedule as we stayed an extra day at Base Camp to allow Yi Qian to acclimatise. That extra day did him good as he was feeling a lot of better after that. All of…
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A full day of rest yesterday precedes our movement up to Advanced Base Camp (5006m). The ABC is just 100m (in altitude) away from the Intermediate Camp where we left our equipment. Compared to the previous trip, the climb up to IC today was a breeze. We took just one hour and thirty minutes, which…
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As we all know by now, Yi Qian had Diamox the night before. As a result, he was peeing non-stop throughout the night. Non-stop is an exaggeration, but yeah, you know what I mean. Thankfully, Yi Qian woke up with a minor headache and his Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) was largely cured. It was great…
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Like little hatchlings leaving the comfort of our nest for the first time, today was the day that we left the relative comfort of our Base Camp and began our first cycle of acclimatization; a trip to Intermediate Camp (4898m) and back. Rise and shine Javier Samuel packing his stuff Yi Qian placing his technical…
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This was our second day in Base Camp. It was a rest day for us to acclimatize as we had ascended very quickly over the past 3 days with no rest days at all. There was no wake up call today! Most of us enjoyed a good 12 hours of sleep. Some of us had…
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The day started a little earlier than the last, By 0600 hours, most of us were already awake. After a good meal of pancakes and cereal, we went back to do some last minute packing. When we were finally ready to set off, Anil led us out of Batal and we headed for Base Camp…
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The first night sleeping outdoors was peaceful. We woke up to a bright and sunny morning. Today, our objective was to pack everything up and move to another camp just before the base camp. We took a two hour jeep ride to Batal, put down our stuff and left for an acclimatization walk at a…
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We woke up at 0400 hours and headed to the lobby with our belongings. The vehicles arrived shortly and we loaded our equipment onto the roofs of the vehicles. We were excited and reluctant at the same time. Excited because this marked the commencement of our expedition; reluctant because we had to leave behind the…
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It’s our second day at Manali and we were housed at a supposedly luxurious hotel that costs USD 400 per night (EDIT by Samuel: It’s a package for 3 nights). Of course, we did not pay that much money to stay there, as our India counterparts are able to get a discounted price, as they…
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Chandigarh is a crowded and highly polluted city. We were all looking forward to going to Manali for the fresh air and cool weather. We departed at 0900 hours from the hotel and took the same old route to Manali. We passed familiar landmarks en route and the journey seemed to be a lot shorter…
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Today we embark on our journey. We journey to India from Singapore. We met at Changi Airport at 0630 hours. After checking in, we were pleasantly surprised by Provost’s appearance at the airport. He specially went down to send us off and wish us a safe journey. We took a picture with our expedition banner,…
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We had simple vegetarian food continuously for 10 days in the mountains. Naturally, we had craved for delicious food back home. We talked about the famous stalls selling various foods such as Chicken Rice, Prawn Noodle, Nasi Lemak, Mee Soto Ayam, Kway Chup, Pig Organ Soup with Salted Vegetables, Roti Prata (for some, we already…
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I started the day feeling really good. The wind was a lot milder compared to what we experienced yesterday and the sun was shining brightly. We took our time to pack up our tents and our supplies. In the mean time, we took some selfies together! Selfie with our assistant cook Packing up our tents…
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The sky was overcast today, which was great for us! The weather wasn’t too cold nor too hot, and we would have extended periods of hard snow. We made lots of progress within the first 2 hours of our departure. Did someone put this here? The sun hiding behind the clouds A very dim morning…
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We set off at 0730 in the morning to catch the hard snow. It is much easier to walk on hard snow as we would not sink into the snow. All packed and ready to go! The valley we came from The sun was shining brightly on my back. I officially hate snow now. The…
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We woke up to clear skies and sunny weather, but there was some bad news. Mountaineers do not usually move after heavy snow. Especially after 24 hours of snow. A fresh coat of powder snow covers the mountains and thus makes the area susceptible to powder avalanches and rock fall, when the ice melts. As…
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No amount of words and pictures can aptly describe my experience today. Nonetheless, I will try. It was the middle of the night, at about 0200 hours. I woke up and felt that the tent was closer to my face than usual. Thinking nothing much of it, I went back to sleep. Shortly after that,…
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As the title suggests, we rested near a stupa in the middle of nowhere. If I’m not wrong, it was 8.5Km away from Chhatru. We had a simple breakfast consisting of toast and omelette, with some Kaya and Peanut Butter, with compliments from Raymond! We have to remember to bring food for the next trip.…
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Perhaps I should start my journal the night before Day 1. We all met for dinner at our favourite butter chicken and tandoori chicken restaurant. The food was really good and affordable. Everyone kept saying how this was our “Last Supper”. Indeed it was, for me. Well maybe perhaps for them as well since they…
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We spent a day in Training Camp to clean up our equipment before returning it to the local guides. It was convenient that all the snow melted and we had access to a river to wash our ice axes, mountain boots and some clothing. It was a busy day trying to dry everything before we…
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It was a great rest last night as it wasn’t as cold. I can only look forward to the end of today as we were heading back to Training Camp, where it will be much, much, warmer. Deep inside me, I knew that it was going to be a tough day. I had frostnip on…
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This is it. the past 2 days of crazy trekking under the relentless sun and cold have led to this. The summit push usually starts at dusk, so that means we had to wake up at 0100 hours and be ready by 0200 hours… …but that didnt happen. It was one of those mornings where…
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We were camping at base camp at an altitude of approximately 4000m. We slept at this height for a night. So far, no one is experiencing any sign of AMS. We will be heading to high camp, at an altitude of 4500m, today. 500m might not sound far but at this altitude, the difference in…
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Waking up in trepidation, knowing of the trials and tribulations which lay ahead of us today. This culmination of our training, what we have worked hard for over the past few days, was starting. This is the beginning of the end. Yes! Finally! I woke up, packed my huge sleeping bag into the surprising little…
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It has been raining and snowing for 2 days straight… Didn’t get a wink of sleep last night and neither did Raymond – our tent was flooded in a few places and we couldn’t sleep since our drenched sleeping bags no longer shielded us from the cold. We finally gave up on sleeping and waited…
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The plan was to wake up at 0600 hours, have breakfast at 0700 hours and leave for the base camp at 0800 hours. When we woke up, we knew that the plan was foiled. The rain outside was heavy and there was no morning call (or rather morning tea). Samuel and I both stayed in…
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There’s quite a lot I want to write. Long post coming up! It was really interesting last night. It started raining at about 1800 hours, while we were practicing knots in the dinner tent. The rain did not seem like it was going to stop. Some of us went back to check our tent shelters…
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The number 789 has become somewhat of a routine. By 7 we’ll be woken up by the chef for a nice cup of hot tea; By 8, we’ll be having breakfast; By 9, training begins. Yum yum! A crow attacked our GoPro Overview of our camp again. Notice the melting snow The first half of…
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In the past 2 days, I was running a fever and was trying to recover. I could not eat well and was suffering from some gastric problems. Today, I felt much better when I woke up. My appetite improved and I felt much stronger. I could actually concentrate on the activities! HAHA. Having said that,…
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I woke up feeling good today, thanks to a good night’s sleep! I wasn’t feeling that well a day before due to poor sleeping conditions and vomiting. In fact, I actually vomited twice in my tent and made a mess of the whole tent. It was really smelly (sorry Yong Siang). Yong Siang probably has…
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We woke up early in the morning with the friendly tea call from the kitchen crew. It was always easy to wake up with piping hot tea served to you while you were still in your warm sleeping bag. We washed up and got ready for breakfast, which was a simple meal of toast, eggs,…
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Today is the day we head for Training Camp, where the training starts. The day when we throw back everything from Singapore and enter the mountains. Waking up, I tell myself that this would be the last day in civilisation for a long while. Sitting on the toilet seat to take my customary early morning…
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The night at Mayflower Hotel was awesome. The place is spacious and rather close to the town centre. We had a simple breakfast with eggs & toasts, nothing too special. After breakfast, we started our first training. It was an acclimatisation hike up one of the hills near our hotel. The first few days of…
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We left Chandigarh first thing in the morning for Manali. Manali is a town located further north of Chandigarh at an altitude of 2050m. Loaded and ready to go As we started to move further north, we encountered more rural surroundings, and occasionally places with no road. Despite the bumpiness and the incessant horning, the…
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