Clara Sumarwati
[The
First Ever South-East Asian To Have Reached The Top Of Mt. Everest]
Proposes
6Summits – 6
Continents
Mt. Vinson –
4820 m – Antarctica's highest peak
Mt. Cook – 3754
m – Oceania’s highest peak
Mt. Kilimanjaro
– 5895 m – Africa’s highest peak
Mt. Mt.
Kinley – 6194 m – North
America’s highest peak
Mt. Elbrus –
5643 m – Europe's highest peak
Mt.
Cartens- Indonesian highest
peak
INTRODUCTION:
My team and I
are planning expeditions to
Mt. Vinson (Antarctica), Mt. Cook (New Zealand), Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania),
Mt. Kinley (Alaska) & Mt. Elbrus (Russia), out of the experiences and
successes of the following ones :
1.
Mt. Annapurna
IV (7535 m – Himalaya) in 1990
2.
Mt. Aconcagua (6959 m – Andes) in
1993
3.
Mt. Everest – South Side Route (8848
m – Himalaya) in 1994,Mt.Cartens,Irian Jaya Indonesia 1994
4.
Mt. Kalapatar (5669 m – Himalaya) in
1996,
Mt.
Cartens, Irian Jaya,
Indonesia,1996
5.
Mt. Everest –North Side Route in 1996
Our “6Summits – 6 Continents”
expedition will take place from May 2004 until April 2005 during the climbing
season, and we therefore welcome any help and support in any moral or material
ways.
A climbing achievement is not
only rare and difficult, it is also time consuming. Success or failure can
happen, like in any other sport, but one difference is the death risk in
climbing activities is high.
By the way, Indonesian
achievement in climbing activities is low, compared to other countries, and
one might ask whether Indonesians are able to reach the highest peaks in the
world. This is the reason why I have decided to attempt reaching the summits
of 5 of the 7 mythic peaks, which should be my sixth expedition.
The first one was achieved in
Oct-Dec 1990 actually, when the “Putri Patria” expedition saw the first ever
women team reaching the summit of Mt. Annapurna IV. The
second expedition was to reach the summit of Mt. Aconcagua in Dec-Jan 1992-3.
the third and fourth ones were my first two attempts to reach the summit of
Mt. Everest (south-face route in Nepal – 1994). The third attempt (the fifth
expedition) to reach the top of the world was eventually successful, via the
north-face route (Tibet) in Jul-Oct 1996.
My past experience of climbing
achievement has therefore made me mentally strong & wise enough to aim at
proceeding with a sixth expedition. And beside the physical aspects of it, I
am willing to take advantage of this huge trip to share my experience with
climbers from other countries, as well as to meet with Indonesian students
abroad.
May God bless & help us for the
success of this expedition.
Thank you very much for your
attention.
Clara Sumarwati.
Expedition Leader
World’s highest peaks await Clara
Friday August
16, 2002
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post,
Yogyakarta
Clara Sumarwati, 35, never dreamed
of becoming a mountain climber as a child. She would be scared to climb a
short tree at her home.
But mountaineering became her
greatest passion as she grew up. In 1996, she became the first woman in
Southeast Asia to set foot an the peak of 8.848-meter-high Mt. Everest.
Her name is recorded as the
fourth Asian woman and the 39th woman in the world to have conquered Mt.
Everest. The achievement won her the Nararya Star award from the Indonesian
government in 1996.
“I think I’m still the obky ASEAN
woman ever to have reached the peak of Mt. Everest,“ Clara told The Jakarta
Post while doing exercise at Kirana Health Club, Radisson Yogya Plaza Hotel.
Currently, Clara is preparing for a
solo climbing expedition to four of the world’s highestt
peaks : Mt. McKinley (or Mt. Denali, as locals call it) in Alaska, Kilimanjaro
in South Africa, Mt. Cook in New Zealand, Mt. Elbrus in Russia, and go on
expedition to Antarctica.
“If I have the found, I would also
like to continue the expedition to Mt. Makalu in Nepal and Mt. Monterosa in
Switzerland,” said Clara.
As part of the preparation, she
plans to leave for the U. S. in October this year, or between April 2003 and
May 2003, depending on the weather there.
“I will take with me three
Nepal guides for the expedition. I like the Nepalese because they do more than
just lead the way: They also help carry the equipment, thus lessening the
burden,” she said.
Clara will drop by in Massachusetts
to shop for equipment and join a month-long practice at the American Alpine
Institute as part of her final preparations, before starting the Rp. 1.5
billion (about US$ 165.000) expedition.
She started preparing early this
year under the supervision of fitness consultant Joko Pekik of Yogyakarta
State University sport school. A comprehensive program has been prepared for
Clara to train partly in Yogyakarta and mostly in Jakarta.
The preparation program includes a
three-time-a-week slow continuous run for some 10 minutes to 15 minutes;
twice-a-week fitness and aerobic exercises, a once-a-month high altitude
exercise in Gunung Gede Pangrango, West Java, a once-a-month rock-climbing
exercise in Citatah (also West Java), and a strict low-fat diet.
Clara is required to undergo
high-altitude testing at Lakespra Saryanto space institution, Jakarta, every
three month and another test or her maximum oxygen capacity at the Ministry of
National Education in Jakarta, also
once every three months.
“Rihorous preparation is vital for
the expedition. Lack of preparation could result in failure,” said Clara.
Born in Yogyakarta in July on 8,
1967, the sixth daughter of the eight siblings of Marcus Mariun and Ana
Suwarti, Clara’s child
hood dream was to become a legal
expert. But she could not say no when her elder brother enrolled her to study
eeducational
psychology at Atmajaya University in Jakarta.
“Then I had wanted to become a
guidance and counseling teacher at high school,” she said.
But destiny took another turn. After
finishing her university studies in 1990, she joined in expedition to Nepal to
conquer the peak of Annapurna
IV 7,525 meters above sea level.
Luck was not aon her side. She had
to stop at Camp 2 (at 7.000 meters above sea level) because the oxygen that
the team carried was insufficient to continue the journey.
Her climbing spirits were high after
she succeeded in conquering Aconcagua in Chile.
Her second attempt on Mt. Everest
ended in failure in 1994 due to bad weather on the southern route (the South
Col). She made another attempt in 1996, this time taking the North Col, where
she sustained minor frostbite in one hand. She made it.
“When I realized I’d been
frostbitten, I quickly took of the glove, which I later found out had a leak,
and put my hand in my armpit before putting on a dry substitute glove,” Clara
recalled.
Her passion for mountaineering grew
out of her for mountaineering
grew out of her curiosity about why most climbers failed to reach the world’s
highest peak.
“I found out later that it was
mostly due to their lack of preparation and patience,” Clara said. The lack of
preparation makes the climber vulnerable to “mountain sickness”.
“Patience, too, determines the
climber’s success. Sometimes, a climber lack the patience to wait for good
weather to continue the expedition. If he insists on going ahead in bad
weather, he will likely fail,” said Clara.
She has also planned to join the
Asian women’s team comprising women mountain climbers from Indonesia, Japan,
India, Nepal, Malaysia and Thailand, for another expedition to Mt. Everest via
the South Col route, which Clara failed to complete in 1994.
“I want to make up for my failure in
1994,” said Clara, who is also planning to establish the Indonesian
Mountaineering Association with in two years.
THE EXPEDITION IN BRIEF
Name “6Summit
–6Continents” – Marathon Solo Climbing Putri Indonesia.
Date May2004
– April 2005
Location Mt.
Cartens – Indonesia
Mt.
Cook – New Zealand
Mt.
Kilimanjaro
– Tanzania
Mt.
Kinley – Alaska
Mt.
Elbrus – Russia
Goals Promoting
Indonesia through Mountain Climbing
Improving
Indonesia’s international image
Improving
creativity and achievement in mountain climbing
Improving
snow-climbing experience and knowledge
Improving &
promoting mountain climbing in Indonesia
Improving &
promoting Indonesia’s tourism industry through comparative studies
Improving
& promoting Indonesia women’s condition, through achievements in climbing &
sport
THE
DIFFERENT STEPS
Preparation;
At this stage, the expedition team needs both to
train, gather funds and make the first expenses. We already have a basic
capital for these first expenses, which is managed according to our
top-priority needs.
Training needs also to be well
managed, because such an expedition is unique. Everything is thought
carefully, as we are conscious that the image of Indonesia is at stake.
Actually, the success of our expedition depends on a good planning &
preparation.
To reach the 5 summits,
we will have to walk through snow and ice field, climb 600 angle
slopes, which will need the use to ropes for safety reason. The normal route
will be however chosen, as followed by the most experienced western climbers.
This doesn’t mean this will be risk-free, since avalanches, snow storms, very
low temperature and thick blinding fog will accompany us at every moment.
Inaccurate timing, insufficient physical and mental preparation are therefore
not welcome.
This huge expedition will be aired
by all major Indonesian TV channel and daily diaries will be prepared by the
team-member in charge of communication. And as this expedition is one of the
most sought
after and arduous adventures, we will take advantage of it for helping
different fields. We will first collect data, in order to help science in
health development matters, such as resistance to altitude sickness.
Psychological aspect will be studied too : mental behaviors in facing
obstacles, for instance. This research will be done by a specialist in
cooperation with KONI, the Indonesian National Sport Institute. All data will
be collected and studied in Jakarta. The result will later go public.
One of our other goals is also to
promote tourism in Indonesia as well as Indonesia culture & product. We will
cooperate with the Indonesian Directorate of Tourism in this matter and we
plan to organize different cultural events in every visited country.
On January 2005, we will then land
at Soekarno-Hatta International airport, where we should be welcome by a huge
crowd and the Media’s. a live TV interview is also planed, and by August we
should be able to disclose a full report to state officials first, and also
meet with different youth organization Not to mention all the publications in
various
magazines and newspapers.