Finding Zeus in Nepal.

Pushing up from The small little village of Khare, I really started to feel the effects of the 5000m altitude. Here, we had only a third of the oxygen available at sea level. Simple tasks like walking up a small slope would have me panting and gasping as if I just completed a 100m sprint. Fortunately the acclimatization at Khare paid off. The altitude mountain sickness (AMS) began to wear off as I got used to the altitude.

 Practicing our mountaineering skills

View before setting from Khare

As the route to high camp began to transition to snow, I had a good taste of what to expect for the push to summit. Snow, though it looks good on the surface can be your worst nightmare. Hidden crevasses and loosely pack snow can leave traps throughout the entire route threatening to engulf your body if you don't thread carefully. Many a time, I found myself waist deep in snow,  struggling to recover myself, with each move leaving me deeper till I have to start digging myself out with my trekking poles. This was what was expected from here on, crossing the ridges of snow and ice. Any false step could have you tumbling down 50-100 meters into unknown territory, splashing into an ice lake or even down a cliff.

Msian climbers roped together, coming down from a failed summit attempt.

Slowly climbing to high camp we did as I slowly got used to the trekking poles, using it efficiently to climb the never ending snow paths. But as we got higher, the zombie mode kicked in, slowing down even more. The weather started to turn bad, as it usually did in the afternoons and heavy snow started falling. Fortunately we reached high camp (5800m) before it transformed into a snow storm. High camp was pretty cool because it was the rock formation in that area which wasn't white with snow. The tents were pitched at the side of it (also by some cliff) and it provided somewhat some wind cover.

Arrived at high camp around 3-4pm, some what abit too slow for our guide's liking. It was rest time here till about 0030hrs. The tents were quite spacious and we hid inside while the snow storm started to get worst. Our Sherpa, being the most awesome host made us hot black tea and my personal mountain favorite - veg noodle soup, serving us in the comfort of our tent. It was cold out there and once in the tent, I refused to go out unless I really had to. Perhaps then I missed out on some pretty sights, but at that moment I didn't care. I kept questioning myself why I put myself through such stuff.

High Camp

The funniest thing happened was that I woke up at 2230 thinking it was 0030 and fumbled around with my head lamp, cursing and swearing as I tried to put my lenses on, only to realize that I woke up too early and in that process waking Wayne up too! Oops!

The weather remained bad, with a snow storm raging outside. At this moment, it would be a sign that the summit would not be possible. To some miracle, the storm stopped 2 hours later, and our Sherpa decided to push out, risking the possibility that the weather might turn bad again. But it was a good call! We had perfect weather! It was the only small gap that an ascent was possible this season. A day before, there was a snowstorm and a group of 9 Malaysians were unable to summit. A day later and the full force of the monsoon will kick in, making us the last hikers of the season.

The ascent up seemed forever. It was like walking up a slope that lasted forever. First, you aim to make up the ridge line, the line that you see when you look up. The line that separated the starry sky and the ground, the horizon.  However, when you reach that ridge line, you suddenly feel that the horizon just extended further. Step after step we went in the dark, relying solely on our head lamps, with my fingers and toes freezing under the -20 deg Celsius wind. Roped to each other, if we were lucky, we got to walk on solid ice where the crampons made it easy to walk, or else we had to thread through snow, often falling waist deep into snow, having to use an extreme amount of effort to either lift yourself out or dig yourself out with your trekking poles. Oh and the altitude, boy it does make everything harder. With a third of the oxygen of sea level, every single movement took an extreme amount of effort. This never ending cycle of dragging myself up the never ending snow and ice, at times so tired of lifting the heavy la sportiva snow boots from the snow that I trip offer myself and falling. Haha the purchase of the north face snow pants was definitely a good idea. It was the first time I was actually equipped so well for a trek, crampons, snow shoes, gaiters, waterproof snow pants, down jacket, merino socks, and mountain hardware gloves with hardcore -30 deg gloves.

As the sun started to rise behind, I began to see and appreciate the Himalayan mountain range behind. I began to realize, that was I was amongst the tallest mountains in the world. Everest, Lhotse, Cho Oyu, Nuptse and many many more. But looking forward, it was a long way more to the top. Having roped up to one another definitely had its advantage. As we pushed higher, my stamina began to suffer having the need to rest a little after 5-6 steps and with the steepness of the mountain face, I had to take a short break. Being the last person, sometimes meant that I couldn't use the steps the others took as with the rising sun, the snow started to melt increasing the chance of me falling in, leaving me to create my own route at times. With that it also caused me to lose my balance, falling backwards. But thankfully, I was roped up so, it pulls be back to balance at the expense of the guy before me. Oops :x. Also, because we were so exhausted and severely affected by the altitude, there were many times that the Sherpa and our climbing guide had to use the rope to pull us forward like yaks.

taking our rest while walking up

 Sun rising behind everest

As the began to rose above the backdrop of mountains, the beauty of the Himalayan mountain range began to manifest itself before me. As I laid down on the steep incline, i witnessed the for the first time, the splendor of Everest and the other 8000m mountains before me. Above the clouds, the Himalayan mountain range started to reveal itself to me. But before I was allowed to fully appreciate this spectacle, it also revealed the path before us. More and more uphill climbs. And thus the climb to the summit started again. Now, with more determination, with the summit in sight, I climbed and climbed, garnering the remaining strength I had in me. At least with the sun out, warmth began to fill my body. No need for the extra gloves and the freezing feeling in the toes slowly disappeared. I was really afraid that I would get frost bite in the toes haha. The mountain hardware gloves were actually quite useful! Even though it was as thin as running gloves.

Aiming at the little tiny red flags that marked the route to the summit, flag after flag I aimed. FINALLY! At 10am, we reached the south summit. And I was so in man mode that I didn't even know that we have reached! Next up, a 200m 60 deg incline push to the base of the central summit, the peak of the mountain I sought to climb. It was a horrible push, I was so exhausted that our Sherpa had to keep pulling us forward because we kept losing our balance. Next up a 15m ice climb. Hahn this was actually the most exciting part of the climb, primary because we get to make use of the ice axe. One hand on the Juma, the other on the ice axe, up I went, ice axe up, anchored in the ice, crampons up and kicked into the ice, and Juma pulled up. Though it may seem like an easy feat on sea level, 6500m above sea level, it took quite a bit of effort to do it but reaching the top, it dawned upon me....I HAVE FINALLY MADE THE SUMMIT OF MERA! Woooooooooooooooooooooooo! 1030, 25 June 2014, on the peak of Mt Mera (6647m), stood a Sherpa, a Nepali guide and two young Singaporeans amongst the vast Himalayan range. Cues visuals *camera zooming out from where we are standing to the entire empty Himalayan range with the peaks sticking through the clouds. The feeling of standing amongst the tallest mountains was overwhelming and indescribable. It was a hard and shitty journey to make it where I was standing.  The timing was perfect, the weather was holding up for us, the last climbers of the season.

View from south summit with my la sportiva snow shoes and crampons

Clipping into the safety line on Central Summit

View from the summit (with everest behind)

The weather, however would not remain kind for the rest of day. With an imminent snow storm expected at night, we had to return to Khare before that happened. By now, the snow was starting to melt and we had to make our way down as quickly as possible. With the thick and melting snow, descending was not as easy as I thought, though requiring less effort than climbing up, I couldn't run or slide down the ice slopes, I had to go down step by step hoping to avoid the ice crevasses   again. It took another 4 hours to reach high camp and being roped up, the Sherpa was herding us like yaks again. It was quite a useful "motivation" tool so we couldn't take too long a break. The return was also a case of so near yet so far fetched. From far we could see the colorful rock of high camp, but it took forever to reach it. By the time I reached it, I was feeling weak, suspecting that I had mild dehydration, Wayne on the other hand was down with what I thought to be dehydration prolly cos of his massive shitting sprees along the way. He could no longer walk by himself and the porters had to carry him back to the tent. There we rested for about an hour where I desperately tried to rehydrate myself before picking up and heading back to Khare. The return was painfully slow as Wayne was severely weaken by the summit ascent and dehydration, not forgetting the waist deep crevasses that slowed us down tremendously. With the sun setting fast, time was of the essence. Past the snow, the kofla shoes was a chore to walk with on the rocks, nearly sprained my ankle numerous times. The journey became terribly hard as last light passed. As we walked, we started to see lights in the distance. As we ventured further down, we were greeted by the porters from the village holding hot black tea. It was a morale booster. I thought we had arrived at Khare. But the joy was short lived when the Sherpa said lets continue down. It was another hour down to Khare if we ran. Apparently the Sherpa activated the whole village to bring us back because of the imminent snow storm. Wayne was carried back by 3 porters and I was man handled by the Sherpa guide's younger brother, another Sherpa. With a firm grip of my right waist and left arm, he ran me down to the village. I'm quite marveled by their high altitude fitness and could not help but respect them in their field. Smaller than me, he ran me down at striding speed. I was finding trouble keeping up as my shoes were really not suited for the terrain. Snow began to fall as I saw Khare in the distance and as soon as I entered the tea house, the snow storm unleashed itself. It was such good timing.

 Our Shag faces after returning back to High Camp

Relieved that we've finally reached back to Khare before the snow storm unleashed itself

My very first White Christmas

This was the very first time I’ve seen and played with so much snow! I would say, snow decreases the age of an average person by 5 and for tropical Asians like me who have not experienced so much snow their whole lives, 10 years. It was truly a journey of discovery through the Scandinavian country of Sweden.

Christmas of the year 2012 will always be a special one for me. Not only was I studying overseas, all the mini gatherings around Europe built up to this, the big hall 2 exchange overseas Christmas trip.

D-12hrs, we were awaken by the inconsiderate French neighbors living on the 4^th floor, blasting their dance music so loud that by 1am, I was wide awake. D-9hrs, we were out of the house and trying to get the last bus that leaves Glasgow for Edinburgh. What amazed me was that only on our last trip to Edinburgh airport did we realize that the bus that we usually take to Edinburgh passes by a bus stop that we could alight and walk to the airport. We have been wasting time and money taking to the Edinburgh Bus Station and walking to Waverly Bridge to take Airlink, the bus that services the airport from Edinburgh. Haha

skyping justin from edinburgh airport

The flight to Skavska was the usual. Konked out way before the flight took to the skies and by the time the plane arrived in Sweden, I was totally rejuvenated! Housten, team uk has touched down at ground zero. 1.5hrs later, team germany+Amsterdam+Singapore consisting of Potter, Poh E, Wei Chong, Kenryu and Dyanna arrived from Berlin and we made our way towards Stockholm.

Welcoming Team Germany

The journey was long but having not seen each other for so long, it was a good opportunity to catch up with one another and laugh bout other adventures together. We finally reached Stockholm after 2+ hours and met up with team Sweden+France+Finland, Justin, Shuk, Alwin and Shearn, not forgetting the advance party of Team Singapore, Marky and Theresse and Team UK, YY and Hualin.

My time in Stockholm was spent shopping for groceries for our meals in Camp Alta, Kiruna and that last minute Christmas gift exchange gift. But before we knew it, it was time to board the train where the 18hour journey up north would soon start. In my opinion, if you plan to go up to kiruna, just fly. It was just because the plane tickets were too expansive (cos we booked to late) that we opted for the cheaper version.

grocery shopping in stockholm

I don’t know if the train had some magical powers but most of us had an average of 12hrs sleep there! Some didn’t even realize that half of the train changed. Everything was moving as planned and it was only another 2 more hours before we arrived at Kiruna. We stopped at a station between Boden and Gallvare, 2hours away from Kiruna and that was when disaster struck. Little did we know while we took a break in the white snow, experiencing our first snow ball and chilling cold, the train was experiencing a technical error of which, the engine was down. Soon, we were notified that we would continue on once the engine starts but soon after, the train company made the call that we would not be continuing up to Kiruna that day because it was too cold (-40 deg) and it would be too dangerous of the engine were to break down again.

testing the -20 deg temp

things we do in the train

It was the worst news we could get, having planned for this since the start of the exchange. The much-anticipated Christmas dinner in our cabin in front of the lake at Camp Alta would now be spent somewhere else. As we remained optimistic for the train to proceed on as planned, the train reversed and headed towards the nearest proper town, Lulea, a two-hour ride away. The winter sun disappeared and darkness fell. Feeling sian and disappointed, we were dropped off in the cold at Lulea with our groceries and bags in the snow, while busses came slowly to relieve the over crowded train station and bring them to the pre arranged accommodation in Lulea – Scandic Hotel. It was all quiet and as the snow fell upon the decorative Christmas tree outside in the artic cold, we huddled inside waiting for our turn for the bus, looking for alternative solutions to get up to Kiruna.

Apparently Scandic Hotel was the best hotel chain that Lulea had to offer and it was not that bad. Having to make the most out of this outcome, several of us suited up and went out to play in the snow. Shearn said that it was fairly obvious that it was the first time I saw proper snow as I was running around experimenting and jumping into snow! We made a snow slide off hardened snow, ran around sliding on ice, jumped into knee deep snow, snow ball fights etc etc etc. It was fun and it was cold….

all our bags and groceries at scandic

braving the cold

It took fairly long to gather all 17 of us for dinner but to our delight, the staff had prepared a meeting room for us due to the shear numbers! Being considerate Singaporeans or rather lazy to queue ones, we basically just talked cock inside, and discussed different ways to get up to Kiruna, one of them was a 8-10hr drive in a van on the icy roads if there was no hope that there would be a train up. To our surprise, Poh E and Dyanna made Santa hats with our names for us! Haha Merry Christmas! When we finally went out to get our food, everyone was staring at us like what the hell are these Asians doing with Santa hats. But even that didn’t damp our spirits. However, food ran out and all that was left were rice, fries and meat balls. Damn those chin people for taking mountains and leaving none for the rest. So that was our Christmas dinner of the year 2012. I also felt quite bad for the kitchen staff because they were called back at the last minute to prepare food for a train load of hungry and angry people.

the conference room just for us!

christmas gift exchange

Being residents of hall 2, we took no time to entertain ourselves and played Polar Bear till the staff chased us out. It was apt timing too! Christmas was here and time for the gift exchange! What better way to do it than put it under a pine tree out in the snow?  Although things didn’t work out the way it should, it was one of the best Christmas I had. And it goes to show that its not always the big lavish things or location or event but the company that matters. And this was the perfect example how many years down the road; we will still remember this hall 2 overseas exchange Christmas.

The next morning at 7am, through the semi consciousness of the lack of sleep, we received the good news – train service will continue enroute to Kiruna at 10am. It was a relief for us, especially me as I didn’t favor driving a manual van for 10hours to Kiruna and back.

Onward we went, towards Kiruna, lugging the many bags of groceries meant for our hearty Christmas dinner along. Looking outside the train window, with the heavy snowfall and limited vision, I felt extremely relieved that I didn’t have to drive through all that! 5 hours later, we finally arrived inside the Artic circle, in the mining town of Kiruna. It was colder than in lulea! Snow piled up everywhere as we made ourway to Camp Alta at the outskirts of the city built on mine.

The camp consisted of many chalet style buildings scattered around a giant frozen lake. Our house was huge! It had a big living area with a giant flat screen to nuah and a proper dining area and kitchen. Too bad none of us had a hdmi cable, but most of us felt immediately at home. While some cooked, the rest just nuahed and waited for dinner to be served!

Nuahing

dinner in our cabin

As we thought we would never see the northern lights, a knock came on our door as we prepared to go out for a sauna session. There was a break in the clouds and there it was, the Aurora Borealis peaking through the clothes. Although it was weak, at least it was better than nothing. While some headed over to the sauna first, the Aurora started to dance but the show was quickly covered by the clouds once again. Oh wells. I guess it was time to head to the sauna. Haha.

Aurora Borealis 

The suana against the moonlight

This trip was full of new experiences! Never had I gone to a sauna built on a lake that freezes over a meter thick in winter, jumped into a hole in the lake after over heating in the sauna, ran out into the freezing -30 deg cold. tried super cooling water, threw boiling water out into the -30 deg temperature and had it turn into vapour instantaneously, made snow globes with food colour and many more!

The suana above the lake

frozen shorts

Riding the snowmobile was an interesting way to get to the ice hotel. Riding through the artic scenery with the winter sun hiding at the horizon was truly an amazing journey. But first, we had to wrap up in so many layers that we look like we’re on a EOD suit so as to not become a popsicle out there. But wearing the overalls they provided minus our age by 10 for every pit stop, we would be jumping into the thick snow and making attempts on snow angels!

The standard artic attire would require 15 mins to put on and consists of; upper layer: thermals, long sleeve, fleece, down. Lower layer: thermal tights, snow pants, thermal socks, cotton socks and boots. You also wear gloves so thick that its impossible to take photos on a normal compact camera.

 making snow angels

I felt that the ice hotel wasn’t as fantastic as I expected it to be but it did have many impressive ice sculptures I must say. But I wouldn’t pay so much to stay in a freezing room! It was a pleasant journey to and fro on the ice mobiles but the ATs were rather irritating, trying to cut here and there and not listening to instructions.

                                                               entrance of the ice hotel

dragon decor

ice bar

crafter at work

setting back home

   early dinner before dog sledding

Tried reindeer kebab and it was fantastic! The same day, we went for dog sledding. Honestly I expected the huskies to be much bigger in size but these dogs were rather small compared to their Siberian counterparts but were extremely agile and able to go distances from 300-500km in a day.  On the way back, due to the fatigue of the dogs, I had to get down and help push the sled upslope. Magawd. It was shag. Imagine running through the soft snow with so much clothing in the freezing temperatures. The air was so cold that I coughed for an hour after that. But it was kind of worth it because I go to stand at the back after the slopes. The dogs were so cute! Talked to the owner of the company and he said that he and some of his dogs were the dog sledding champions many years back. Everything that we say that day from the transportation kennels to the sleds were all built by him.

dog sledding

With all the activities packed back-to-back, the day ended quickly and so did this Christmas adventure. As we chilled round the fire in the teepee (native Lapland cone shaped tent), playing would you rather, the snow started falling heavier and so did the love between poh e and yuzheng. Haha im kidding.

the adv party at the teepee

The check out the next day was at 11 and everybody thought that meant that the cabin should be inspected at 11 and not gtfo at 11. Most woke up at 10 because we slept like at 5-6am and because they said we couldn’t get our cleaning deposit back if the place needed a cleaner. From the lady saying omg this place is a mess to this is acceptable to get your deposit back in 30mins, level Singaporean like a baus.

early morning shoot

As we parted ways at the train station, with some leaving to Spain, London and us to Riga, a part of me felt sad because of the people and fun I’ll be missing the next semester when I do my internship overseas. Nevertheless, the people of Hall 2 are still the best and it was a great gathering from all over the world.  

Getting their lunch at Kiruna