SINGAPORE: After reaching the summit of Mount Everest, Singaporean Ng Li Ying took a few moments to take it all in."I honestly could not believe that I was already there," she told CNA over the phone from Kathmandu. "My guide was like: 'Okay, (here's the) summit ... there is no more up.'"But after looking at the various peaks in the distance, worry set in. It was not because she had to rush down, nor was it due to bad weather conditions. Her husband Mark, whom she was separated from at the Hillary Step, had yet to reach the top of the 8,848m mountain.
Hillary Step is the final stretch before the summit and is known to be a bottleneck for climbers dealing with extreme altitude, freezing winds and human traffic delays.She said: "I couldn't see (him in the distance) ... I was like: 'Is he coming up?'"Mr Ng added: "It's a single file and you need to climb up what is pretty much a vertical rock face. If you fall and you're not clipped on, you really will just fall off the side of the mountain."
The queue of climbers coming up and down the Hillary Step. (Photo: Mark Ng)
ONE STEP AFTER ANOTHERThe duo, who are lead training consultants with Outward Bound Singapore (OBS), are both active people by nature.After an expedition with fellow OBS instructors to India, the fire was lit for Mr Ng. Finding that treks were "not his thing", he went on to climb a number of mountains, including Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro."There's no enjoyment in climbing up, it's just one step after another step. But I feel like every time I go climb and do something like this, I feel like I appreciate people and things around me more," said Mr Ng.Ms Ng's journey began a few years earlier when she went on treks with friends while studying abroad in China."After I came back to Singapore, I just joined some of those trips that people organised from Singapore, to Indonesia and Nepal. That's where it all started," she said.
