Malaysia’s oldest climber still determined to scale Mt Everest
SEPANG: Malaysia’s oldest climber, James Lee Chong Meng is determined to try scaling Mount Everest again next year after his second attempt ended prematurely due to severe chest pain.
The 69-year- old who returned home last night, was disappointed at not being able to make the country and his club proud, after being given a second chance to climb to the highest peak in the world.
In his first attempt last year, Lee was forced to cancel the climb in the final stage at Camp 3 (7,200 metres above sea-level) due to bad weather.
He was greeted upon arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport ( KLIA) here by the organising committee chairman Tan Sri Othman Abdul Razak, who is also vice-president of Lions Club of Port Dickson Beach ( LCPDB), the main organiser of the mission known as the Lion Mount Everest Expedition (MEE) 2017.
“To be honest, I was very disappointed because I have never faced any health problems before, and neither have I got acute mountain sickness (AMS) but the situation occurred suddenly, and I had to give in,” he said.
Lee said the mission was going fine at first, and the weather was also similar to that of last year before they reached Camp 2.
At Camp 2, he said, he felt pain in the chest, and two professional sherpas who accompanied him during the ascent advised him to get a medical check-up.
“I began to worry because I didn’’t want the situation to mar the mission. However, I had to follow the sherpa’s advice to get down and do the test because if we had continued, the situation may have worsened because the weather condition in Camp 3 was getting colder and windy,” he said.
Lee was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Kathmandu on Saturday and received treatment for two days there before deciding to abort the mission due to several factors including health issues and logistics.
Mount Everest is the highest mountain of the world, with an altitude of 8,848m.
The Malaysian National News Agency ( Bernama) is the media partner for the mission.
Lee was seeking to highlight two important messages through the mission — to inspire people of every age to take advantage of good health by keeping active, and the need to preserve the environment. In the meantime, Othman said LCPDB was very proud of Lee’’s dedication and commitment in the mission.
As chairman of the organising committee, Othman said LCPDB did not regret sponsoring the mission and the most important thing was that Lee returned home safely. On whether the club would sponsor Lee for a third time next year, Othman said the matter would be discussed first. – Bernama