By Dawn Yip

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Linda Tan, who is days away from being Singapore’s first woman to summit Mount Everest. (Photo courtesy of Linda Tan)

Mount Everest presides over the world at a lofty 8,850m. And if all goes according to plan, Singapore will have her first woman on its summit by this weekend.

28-year-old financial advisor Linda Tan will make her attempt this coming Sunday, 25 May. When Red Sports last spoke to Linda via satellite phone, she was at Everest Base Camp preparing to climb to Camp 2 (6,500m). She has since given an update on her plans and intends to climb to Camp 3 (7,300m) on 23 May, Camp 4 (8,000m) on 24 May, before summiting on 25 May at about 11am Singapore time.

Adventurer Khoo Swee Chiow, who was Singapore’s first man to summit Everest in 1998, observed that because of the Olympic torch relay and China’s closure of Everest, “it’s going to be doubly crowded. There will be a lot more people on the South side [of the mountain]. That can potentially be a problem because basically it’s just a one-line progress, a traffic jam.”

“There has to be 4 to 5 days of good weather so I pray the weather will hold,” said Swee Chiow. Describing the physical conditions of this last stretch of Linda’s journey, Swee Chiow said that the route from Camp 1 to Camp 2 is fairly flat, but Camp 2 to Camp 4 is “steep and strenuous. That’s a dangerous stretch. Camp 3 is when climbers will start to use oxygen, and people usually don’t go beyond Camp 3 unless they plan to summit. At Camp 4, you rest and drink lots of water. And then at night you start the summit push so that you can get there before sunrise.” This is because the winds typically pick up in the morning, explained Swee Chiow.

And when you get to the top of the world, “it’s one huge plateau,” described Swee Chiow. “Like a football field. Wind-swept. Climbers usually spend 5 minutes up there, longer if the weather is good, before coming down.”

Said Swee Chiow, “My prayers are with her. ” He has another reason to root for Linda – if she does summit on 25 May, it will be “exactly 10 years” since his own conquest of Everest.

Click here to read previous Red Sports stories about Linda Tan’s Everest journey.