The distant mountains of Kazkhastan reverberates for a brief moment... with the sweet snores of Roz...

Comfortably snugged in my sleeping bag, I was trying to get some sleep after a long summit day which saw us waking up at 2 am in the morning to do an alpine style start for the summit. Wondered whether my tent mates, Roz and Hairul, had fallen asleep or were they also just lying there wondering.

However, when the familiar snoring sound broke the serenity of the mountain, I knew that I had once again lost in the race to fall asleep first. It was going to be more difficult to fall asleep having to put up with the snoring.
We were into Day 16 of our Tien Shan expedition and the next day we would be moving back to Khan Tengri Base Camp. We had just come down from a summit attempt on Karlytoo, a 5450 m peak, some 12 hours ago. We were about 100 m away from the summit when we were forced to turn back as the summit was sitting on a precariously overhanging cornice. I guessed this is what mountaineering is all about, sometimes it does not matter whether you summit or not, but it is the journey to the mountain from the beginning to the end that completes the objective. Being able to summit is just a bonus to the whole thing.

When we arrived at Kakara Base Camp 12 days ago, we went through a 3-day acclimatisation trek at the surrounding mountains before we were air-lifted to Khan Tengri Base Camp which was at about 4000 m. As part of the Climb 2000 programme’ to equip the Foundation Team members with basic alpine skills, we spent the next few days at Khan Tengri Base Camp where we were taught basic mountaineering skills by our mentors. Climbing Karlytoo was to give us a complete experience of what technical mountaineering was all about.

However, getting up the mountain was not the only part to the whole picture. In fact, for some, that would be the easy part. The real work would start from getting the team together, selecting the members, co-ordinating training schedules, juggling work commitments, sponsor hunting for some, getting the logistic together and not to mention the amount of sacrifices, in term of both time and money, each team member had to put in to pull off the expedition. For us, all this requires almost a year if not more of commitment and constant motivation.

All in all, I must say that Climb 2000 has given me a very complete experience of what mountaineering is all about. Different people from different background and environment come together with a common objective, to climb and experience mountaineering. At the end of it, it was more than that, it was a journey of learning, acceptance and self discovery.

Daniel