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Singapore: The second NATAS Singapore Women's Everest Team will attempt to scale the summit of Mount Everest on Friday, May 22, but without one team-mate.
Joanne Soo and Lee Peh Gee will make their summit attempt as planned, while a third member, Sim Yihui, will remain behind after experiencing chest pains at the Khumbu Ice Fall.
The team had to trek from camp 2 to camp 3 to prepare for the ascent, but Sim, who was forced to turn back, returned to basecamp where she is reported to be well.
The second attempt by the NATAS-SWET climbers comes after the first team of Lee Li Hui, Esther Tan and Jane Lee became the first Singaporean women to conquer Everest.
This was on Wednesday, May 20, when the trio reached the summit between 3.45am and 4.43am Nepali time.
News of the first team's success was greeted with delight in Singapore both by the general public as well as family and friends of the climbers, who had set off for their mission some two months earlier.
The women who are mostly in their 20s had spent many weeks on the slopes of Everest training and acclimatising with the thin air and altitude, which is essential in attempting Everest, the world's highest peak at 8,848 metres.
On Wednesday, a Czech climber died attempting to scale Mount Everest without oxygen. According to the climber's club, the 47 year old apparently died from altitude sickness.
The man - who was an experienced climber who had scaled Tibet's Shisha Pangma
at 8,013 metres, and Mount McKinley (6,193 metres) in Canada - was said to have died in his sleep after climbing to a lower altitude of 7,027 metres on becoming ill on his climb up Everest.
CNA/AFP - sf
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