The first woman from South East Asia to climb the Seven Summits.
2
14 LIFESTYLE lite SEPTEMBER 2011 Distractions: sport Jane Lee the first woman from South East Asia to climb the “Seven Summits” told WONG MUN WAI about her Mount Elbrus experience, “Every day I was there felt like a privilege”. HITTING HER PEAK Meeting Jane was a treat. She had returned to Singapore the week before in early July from her Seven Summits Expedition. Her talk was about climbing Mount Elbrus on Russia including dodging the police, hiding in a cable car to avoid capture and fleeing down the mountain on a less well known path to evade pursuers. Mount Elbrus was closed in response to terrorist attacks in February, so Jane had to take drastic measures to complete the climb. But it was all worth the effort. “I was so overwhelmed by all these new things that I never actually thought of what I was missing, what I was sacrificing because there were so many new things to absorb,” said the 27-year-old. The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. Mount Everest, Mount Kosciuszko in Australia, Mount McKinley in North America, Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mount Elbrus in Europe, Mount Vinson in Antarctica and Mount Aconcagua in South America. 14-15 Lite-Distrations-Sport sep.indd 14 8/16/11 1:06 PM
-
Upload
mun-wai-wong -
Category
Sports
-
view
35 -
download
0
description
Jane Lee the first woman from South East Asia to climb the “Seven Summits” told WONG MUN WAI about her Mount Elbrus experience, “Every day I was there felt like a privilege”.
Transcript of The first woman from South East Asia to climb the Seven Summits.
14 LIFESTYLE lite SEPTEMBER 2011
Distractions:sport
Jane Lee the fi rst woman from South East Asia to climb the “Seven Summits” told WONG MUN WAI about her Mount Elbrus experience, “Every day I was there felt like a privilege”.
HITTING HER PEAK
Meeting Jane was a treat. She had returned to Singapore the week before in early July from her Seven Summits Expedition. Her talk was about climbing Mount Elbrus on Russia including dodging the police, hiding in a cable car to avoid capture and fl eeing down the mountain on a less well known path to evade pursuers. Mount Elbrus was closed in response to terrorist attacks in February, so Jane had to take drastic measures to complete the climb. But it was all worth the effort.
“I was so overwhelmed by all these new things that I never actually thought of what I was missing, what I was sacrifi cing because there were so many new things to absorb,” said the 27-year-old.
The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. Mount Everest, Mount Kosciuszko in Australia, Mount McKinley in North America, Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mount Elbrus in Europe, Mount Vinson in Antarctica and Mount Aconcagua in South America.
14-15 Lite-Distrations-Sport sep.indd 14 8/16/11 1:06 PM
LIFESTYLE lite SEPTEMBER 2011 15
NEXT CHALLENGEHer experience of climbing Mount Vinson in Antarctica will be helpful when she next attempts to cross Greenland.
“Climbing in Antarctica is an eye opener because you are dropped off in the middle of nowhere and you look around and cannot see an end to the horizon,” said Jane.
The endless snow and ice are what she expects to encounter when she completes her two-year MBA at Yale University in the U.S.
Greenland will be challenging because the landscape does not change, it is mind-numbing, says Jane.
“And especially for me as I am a very visual person. Without visual landmarks (like rocks and campsites), my coping mechanism will be sorely tested.”
“On the mountain itself I usually have a potato chip diet. It is very bad but I eat high calorie junk food because it is very light in weight, and even if you crush it, it still tastes very good.” Jane Lee
Jane’s training for a climb includes exercises such as long trail runs, interval training, stair-climbing with backpack, weight-training and spinning bike training, twice a day for three to four hours.
Career choicesHer numerous expeditions have even infl uenced her choice of career.
“That’s why I want to go to Yale. Yale’s MBA has a very strong link with the school of environment and forestry. They have many business management programmes like sustainable business practices, going green, green technology. That’s the area I want to go into.”
We wish her luck in all her endeavours. lite
14-15 Lite-Distrations-Sport sep.indd 15 8/16/11 1:06 PM
