Second Singapore women team reaches Everest summit

938 Live l 22 May 2009 l 1011 hrs

SINGAPORE: Two more members of the NATAS Singapore Women's Everest Team have reached the summit of Mt Everest, 8,850 metres above sea level.

39-year-old Joanne Soo and 32-year-old Lee Peh Gee reached the summit of Mount Everest at 7.41am and 8.11am Singapore time respectively. The two women are currently making their way back to Camp 4.

The women from the first Singapore team - Jane Lee, Lee Li Hui and Esther Tan - are back at Everest Base Camp.

Team leader Jane Lee said: "All of us are very pleased and very happy, and I'm extremely proud of the team. Having stood on the peak of Mt Everest is like a dream come true. "The sense of fulfilment was extremely strong after finally being able to step on top of Mt Everest - after waiting, planning and training for the last five years."

The sixth climber, Sim Yi Hui, who had to turn back after experiencing chest pains, has recovered and is doing well. The 27-year-old training facilitator at Raffles Junior College suffered an inflammation of her sternum and ribs due to heavy breathing at high altitudes. She said: "At that point, it was very difficult for me to make a decision because I knew... it might be my final chance to go for the summit. But yet I knew that if I had gone on, my condition might deteriorate because at high altitudes, you never know what could go wrong. "It's very difficult to perform any rescue situation. I didn't want to put my other teammates and climbing sherpa at risk as well."

Her two team mates Joanne Soo and Lee Peh Gee are scheduled to reach base camp on Sunday afternoon.

The women's trainer and base camp manager, Lim Kim Boon, said: "I'm very proud of them. They are very determined. They set a goal and after so many years, they still stick to it, so... when they saw their dreams come true, we're really glad."

When asked about the future, Jane Lee said: "Well, I'm hoping that Mt Everest would open more doors for the team. Although Mt Everest is sort of our final climb, I'm hoping that together as a team, this will bring us more opportunities because we've met so many more people here, people who have climbed other places and people with much more experience. "We're hoping that after this, we will get our chance to continue our climbing as there are so many other mountains in the world. So, this will not be the end of our women's Everest team."