David
David Lim, 38:
Owns a business specialising in leadership and motivational seminars.
David suffered from Guillain-Barre Syndrome ( GBS ) in 1998 and is now partially disabled in his left hand and both legs. His right leg below the knee is non-functional. Singapore’s most prolific mountaineer with climbing experience on steep ice, alpine routes, big wall and expeditionary climbs. Amongst his 40 alpine ascents and climbs worldwide are
Everest 1998 – Leader, 1st Singapore expedition, Southeast Ridge
Everest 2001 – Leader, Singapore-Latin American expedition, North Ridge
David has summitted on many major expeditions, some of which were:
Aconcagua-,6962m, 2000. 1st all-Singapore ascent of highest peak of the Americas,
Dhaulagiri VII, 7246m, 1996. 1st 7000m summitted by a Singapore team
Cho Oyu, 8201m, 1997. 1st 8000m peak summitted by a Singapore team
David also currently runs the Central Singapore CDC Youth Adventure Programme, From 1999 – 2000, he administered the CLIMB 2000 national mountaineering programme.
He is Singapore’s first professional mountaineer.
Wong Ting Sern, 44
Works as a technical manager in an airline company. Ting Sern is partially disabled from infant cerebral palsy and affected by loss of hearing, a speech impediment and balance problems. Despite his serious physical shortcomings, Mr Wong’s climbs have included:
Mount McKinley, 6194m, 1982. USA. First Singapore ascent of North America’s highest peak
Mount Foraker 1982 Infinite Spur, a technical route on a challenging Alaskan peak ( USA ),
Naya Kanga, 5846m, 1995. Langtang region, Nepal
Khatung Kang, 6400m, 1996. An expedition peak in central-west Nepal
Cholatse, 6443m, 1998. A difficult, technical peak in the Everest region, Nepal
Everest 2001 – technical officer of the Singapore-Latin American Everest expedition. Ting Sern integrated a satellite communication solution for the team and helped maintain it and sent regular online dispatches during the expedition.
Established by long time mountaineer, friend and expedition partner Wilfred Tok, Mountain Torq provides a unique mountaineering thrill and challenge. Consider it mountaineering for non-mountaineers. Mountain Torq is a string of routes comprising steel rungs, footplates and cables strung alongside steep cliffs and slopes of Mt Kinabalu. This is a via ferrata (or iron road) first created in the Italian Alps nearly 100 years ago. Since then, these methods of climbing up and traversing mountains have spread throughout Europe. MountainTorq is not only set in Mt Kinabalu,a UNESCO heritage site, but is also the world’s highest via ferrata. Find out more here.
Join Grant Rawlinson, my friend, and expedition partner from climbs in Iran, Russian and Kyrgyzstan, as he prepares for his biggest challenge yet – a climb of Mt Everest via the North Ridge in Tibet in Spring 2011. Grant is detailing his training schedule, and supporting charitable causes on his blogsite.
Don’t believe the lie stated in masses of T-shirts and tourist brochures. Mt Kinabalu , at 4095m, is Borneo’s highest peak, but is NOT the highest peak in SE-Asia.This was a popular myth, and helps tourism immensely. The highest peak in SE-Asian is Hkakabo Razi, at 5881m, located in the northern tip of Burma, and has been climbed just once.
Mt Kinabalu is a pluton of granitic rock thrust upwards, and scoured by icesheets in an ancient time. You can still see the marks left by the retreating glaciers. It is also one of the few high mountains in SE-Asia that is not volcanic. One of the most interesting aspects of climbing it is that within a space of a few hours as you climb up, you experience 4 types of vegetation zones : equatorial forests, mossy forests, alpine shrubs, and then bare rock as you go above thetreeline. Nearly 250,000 visitors visit each year, and maybe 50,000 attempt the peak annually. The tourist trail is well marked and has shelters and toilets every few hundred vertical metres. You start the hike at 1800m and finish at the collection of alpine huts and lodges at around 3300m. The newest hut, built by MountainTorq is the comfy Pendant Hut, styled after a European Alpine hut with lots of wood features, framed pictures of climbers, a little library, hot water on tap etc.
Safari and transits via Mumbai. We had a great time in Manyara lake and the great Ngorongoro crater where we saw lions upc lose, hyenas, wildebeestes by the thousands
Below: Panorama of the crater from the rim – it was chilly at nights.
Ngorongoro Crater panorama - view from the rim at sunset. This is where we had to fix a flat tire - while keeping watch for lions!
Descent to Marangu Gate 1905m via Mandara Huts. After summitting, the team descended down the loose scree below Gilman’s Point all the way to Kibo Huts (4750m), a quick lunch, and then off on the dusty saddle to Horomobo Huts at 3700m. The following day, in sub-zero temps, the team left at 645am and reached Mandara Huts at 945am; about half way down the 20km descent to Marangu Gate. As we had paid for the rescue car in our park fees, we decided to call it up to cut short the final descent section (!). Dinner at Arusha after a good shower and scrub – Indian food! Naans, rice, lamb curries, fried chicken and a few beers! Unfortunately, we came down to discover that our beloved adopted fur-kid of tem years, Bandit, passed away on our summit day. This climb is dedicated to his memory.
Summit day: Schools Huts to Hans Meyer Cave 5243m and Gillman’s Point 5708m to Uhuru Peak 5895m.
Started for the summit at midnight, reached Hans Meyer Cave at 5200m in darkness, and then finally, after some awful switchbacks, and overtaking a large, and slow Japanese team comprising all types of climbers and videographers, reached Gilman’s Point – the crater rim – at 5721m at 6am shiarp. Sunrise coming up (see left); lighting up the eastern icefields
 1)The team on the summit of Africa! |
 2) David, making the final 200m to the summit |
 3) Maureen , just below Stella Point on the crater rim, The 1.5 hour traverse from Giman’s Point to the summit has a couple of landmarks. You can see Uhuru Peak(the summit) as the highest ‘bump’ in the photo |
 4) David and Maureen together, on the summit. |
Aug 20: Third Caves Campsites to School Huts 4722m. This is the final campsite before the summit psuh at midnight. about 4 and half hours up from 3rd Caves, the dusty route zug zags uo the flanks of Kilimanjaro to a tiny, waterless perch. The sunset on 5000-metre high Mawenzi (left) is terrific thought. Dinner at 5pm, breakfast/supper at 1130pm, andthen off for the summit!
Maureen on the trek to School Huts
Descent to Third Caves Campsite 3936m. This day is the spectacular walk across the saddle separating Mawenzi and Kilimanjaro. But instead of heading for the Kibo Uts, we make a sharp right turn (or heading south) and drop down to the greener valley and camp lower down for better sleep. En route, we pass the wreck of a plane that crashed in bad weather in 2008. You can see the remains of the Rebmann Glacier in the top left corner of the Kili photo above
Kikelelwa Camp to Mawenzi Tarn Hut 4302m – a pleasant 4 hour trek uphill, traversing a dry river bed that still has a few senecios (lobelias) before rising up to the Tarn Hut campsite (see left). While only a small pond left these days, the campsite is spectacular, with views of Mawenzi above. In the evening, we took a sunset walk up to around 4600m for extra acclimatisation.
Ate too many salted almonds and suffered most of the night from gas – the realities of expedition life.
Left: the Kili team, l to r: David, Shani, Juliana, Maureen
Simba Camp to Second Cave 3487m to Kikelelwa Camp 3675m
[SMS received SG1408HRS] We reached 2900m, enroute to the Second Cave for lunch and then a long afternoon to Kikelelwa Camp at 3600m. It is going to be a long day… Weather has been goo so far. We got the first views of Mt Kilimanjaro and Mawenzi.
[SMS received SG 2243HRS] We reached Kikelelwa Camp at 4pm local time. An 8 hr day of treking. We walked thru heathland and traversed east. All are quite tired, but fine.. covering 12km from 2650m-3660m. Tomorrow is a steep climb to Mawenzi Tarn campsite at 4375m, with spectacular views from the saddle between Kili and mawenzi. Managed to wash my stinky shirt from the day before!
Arusha to Rongai Gate – trek begins.End at 2635m. :))) We started the day’s trek from Rongai Gate, 1800m. Was a nice walk until lunch. After that, the going was a bit more challenging.We will spend the night at Simba Camp, 2635m. The weather has turned cloudy and cool. We might get a bit of drizzle later. We are all in good spirits. No one has been eaten by lions yet. David & Maureen (via SMS).
The walk was pretty sweaty and humid to the campsite – but a mellow day in all.
Arusha – Arrived after a 5 hour van ride south of Nairobi and through the Namanga border crossing. No problems with our visas. Today: tooling around the town that is supposed to be the Middle of Africa – exactly midway between Cairo and Cape Town. Picked up a shady Maasai who appointed himself as an offiicial tour guide; ostensibly to pick up tips at the end of the day by showing us things we already knew. Took a while to shake him off. Friendly dude though. Picked up a Tanzanian SIM card, ate some cool chappttis.