Set in the vibrant city of Singapore, nestled in the National University of Singapore, we are “Make It Real”(MIR) NUS Mountaineering. So what exactly is MIR? For starters we imagine ourselves standing on top of snow capped mountain-ranges, waving our ice-axe victoriously amidst a full-force wind gale, at subzero temperatures. Are we dreaming? Yes, we are dreamers, but we do not merely stop at that stage. We make our dreams into a reality.
What is Mountaineering really about?
In Mountaineering we travel to places like the Himalayas in India and Nepal, or the mountains in the Siguniang nature reserve in Northwest China. These mountains are generally snow and ice mountains depending on the altitude and latitude of its position. Temperatures range from -20 to 10 degrees celsius depending also on altitude and latitude. Most of these mountains require at least a bit of technical proficiency in high altitude mountaineering of which every MIR member will go through a Technical Mountaineering Course before embarking on expeditions to higher altitude mountains.
Terrain
At lower altitudes the terrain generally encompasses gentler spurs and valleys with lusher greenery of coniferous trees and highland shrubbery. Rivers are more meandering with clear flowing water and not murky brown water that we see in rainforest terrain due to the difference in sedimentation, weather and terrain etc.
At higher altitudes the terrain becomes a greater collection of snow, moraine, glaciers, rocks and ice due to the harsher and colder environment. With higher wind speeds too, much is swept away leaving behind the rocks of the mountains, continually pelted by snow from the skies. The slopes are steeper depending on how one approaches the mountain, either by the spur or by the valleys and more than often, scaling up scree slopes made up of loose rocks. Once on the ridgeline, there is less shielding from the wind and snow and it is usually a place of greater danger and cold.
Weather
Rarely featuring rain up there in the high altitudes, much of the rainfall is translated into snow due to the low temperatures. Strong winds may be featured too due to lack of trees and lay of the land which can result in cyclonic blizzards at worst.
Equipment
Mountaineering is equipment intensive and having the proper and quality gear can surmount to saving your life in the peril of situations. Equipment for mountaineering can be spilt into two categories, namely Mountaineering Clothing and Technical Gear.
Technical Knowledge
Mountaineering is a combination of trekking with no equipment except your walking stick and climbing using ropes, harnesses, karabiners, prusiks, helmets in the most difficult of terrain. Such situations require technical expertise and specialised equipment to bypass the most challenging of places. The ability to walk on ice and snow is one such example of a skill that has to be practised with equipment such as crampons which are spikes attached to the bottom of your climbing boots to allow proper grip of the ice.
Why Mountaineering?
Mountaineering is something you can never experience in Singapore without going out there to the mountains to see and feel for yourself. The exhilaration of being up there above 5000m, the cold dry windy temperatures and the panaromic scenery of the ends of the world are the mini crescendos in life which make it more meaningful. Mountaineering is a passion that can only be justified by the self and the will to achieve something much more for yourself. Finally, the camaraderie gained in mountaineering is something else that cannot be attained elsewhere, anywhere, anytime.
How we came about?
When Dr. Robert Goh and his 2002 Singapore Xixabangma Expedition team decided to pass their mountaineering skills and passion onto NUS students through a Programme called Make It Real(MIR), they had no idea how powerful an impact that programme would leave on NUS students in many batches that followed. The first 10 trainees who turned up for the MIR recruitment talk and who ended up being the first batch of MIR were thought to be reckless risk-taking youngsters. No doubt at the moment even they could not fully grasp what was to lie ahead, let alone how they would eventually be transformed as individuals.
But they chose to go ahead, got themselves ready for a journey they believed the culmination of which would be worth the effort. So in 2002, for the first time in history, Singapore saw a bunch of university undergraduates summiting one of the Himalaya’s 20,000 feet peaks during their Technical Mountaineering Course. Interesting isn’t it, to think of Singapore with Bukit Timah Hill as its closest semblance to to mountain, with rainforest hot and humid temperatures all year round, producing university students having scaled high altitude ice and snow mountains in lands faraway from civilisation.
What will you make of this account? Perhaps you have an adoring admiration for that youthful spirit of adventure demonstrated by these 10 individuals. Or perhaps you may think of it as an inspirational episode about attaining the impossible, about overcoming constraints, about being courageous. But there is something more about MIR which you would not know if you were not part of us. There is something about MIR that can only be discerned by people who have decided to embark on this journey. It is the Make It Real spirit.
Mountaineering is not a sport, it is a lifestyle. Join Mountaineering today.
