My last Christmas was a unique one. Unique because I spent my Christmas eve on the high camp of Er Feng (二峰，四姑娘山), and on Christmas day, together with Kim Boon and the team of students from the NUS Make It Real programme, we made a planned attempt to climb Er Feng after some 5 days of ice climbing inside Shuang Qiao Gou (双桥沟）.

The view of Balang range from high camp

Impressive 4,800m
The weather was not as clear as my last climb with the Singapore Women’s Everest Team in December 2005. This time, it was much colder and with thick layer of fresh snow, plus WIND. The same weather patterns to my first attempt in February 2004, then I turned around at 5,000m.  Siyuan, Robert and I reached at 4,800m and decided to turn around. A few reasons to the decision to abort our climb earlier than expected. To Siyuan and Robert, it was a tough climb. I must applaud the duo as Er Feng was their first mountain, literally the first for them as they have not climbed any besides Bukit Timah Hill. Reaching at 4,800m was not an easy feat for a beginner, they were clever to conserve their energy for the descent (we descended to Rilong town on the same day – 5hrs trek from high camp).

Old Climbing Boots the Culprit
The key factor was – the poor condition climbing boots. I have loan my personal boots to Robert, and I picked up a spare boot that Kim Boon has (KB kept a few spare boots for contingencies). This spare boot was already near its shelve life, I was hoping that I could survived with it just before it disintegrate completely. So the story goes; it broke down at the wrong time wrong place, one side of the shoe soles came off completely when I was on a snow slope. I was already using cords to secure the heels of both shoes. I was worried about the descent after, as the descent on the snow filled rock slates would be treacherous. I radioed Kim Boon to inform him that I would turn around (because of my boots condition). While I made that decision, Robert had also decided to turn around with me (his spectacle was fogging up badly that hindered his vision, making his climb tougher to manage). Since Siyuan was with us, the obvious decision for him was to follow us (we were about 45mins away from the main group) though he had hope to move on.

One of the many boots that did not survive the winter (all stored in Singapore and brought over for the climb)

The main team turned around eventually, at about 5,100m due to strong wind. Disappointed they may seem, but I strongly believe it was a good learning experience for many of them. The summit is never a given, never guaranteed, no matter how much you have put in. The reality is such that a small fraction of something do not lies in our hands. That’s life in the real world and we have to accept that while we win we may lose as well.

My Arcteryx Shell gets exposure (at last)
Yes, for the first time that I have the opportunity to don the lovely shell given to me by my lovely friends. It was a gift from 40+ people (expensive shell, so shared by many lovely friends :)) on my 36th birthday. As I have been storing it since I gotten it in 2006, the cords liner are peeling off.

a lovely gift from my lovely friends 🙂 I love this shell

Next, my focus has to be the Aconcagua trip. Time really flies. We will be departing in less than a month. Looking forward to it.