Local Training Schedule Once a week training on their own
for 1 hour which includes aerobic endurance and muscle strength
training. Forthnightly training with the Xixabangma Expedition
members for 3 hours which includes long distance running
plus staircase training.
Planning And Preparation Expedition meetings twice per month
to discuss expedition related issues such as fund-raising,
training progress, equipment, logistics, website updates,
satellite communications for expedition and preparation
for the Technical Mountaineering Course.
Meetings with potential sponsors
to learn the ropes of public relations, professional presentation,
negotiations and commitment to sponsors.
Participation in June 2001 in the launch of the Xixabangma
Expedition and the Make It Real! Programme by Expedition
Patron Mr Lim Swee Say, Minister for the Environment.
Technical Mountaineering
Course This specialised course is a pre-requisite
to snow and ice climbing and cannot be conducted locally.
The students will thus travel to New Zealand in December
during their vacation for a course conducted by internationally
recognised mountaineering institude.
The syllabus includes the use of ice tools, glacier
travel, self rescue, crevasse rescue, mountain environment
awareness, snow and ice survival craft, mountain
navigation, setting of camps in snow and ice environment,
and mountain first aid.
The course will impart
skills needed for climbing with other experienced
climbers or guides in a snow and ice mountain environment
of moderate difficulty.
Trek To
Xixabangma Base Camp / Advanced Base Camp This is the nerve centre of the
expedition. Operations include documentation of daily
activities, medical monitoring of members' physical well-being
in high altitude, setting up of a stand-alone satellite
communication in the wilderness and a command-and-control
centre.
The students will spend about 10 days at Base Camp/Advance
Base Camp coinciding with the latter part of the main
expedition. They will be given tasks to acquire experience
in as many areas as possible. They will also be the Expedition's
"official reporters"
to the press while they are there.
Their activities will include:
Observing and learning about the execution of high-altitude
mountaineering; assisting expeditions members to establish
satellite communications including possible video conferencing,
dispatching news of climbing progress, handling of media,
and writing journals.
Community Activities After each of the trips abroad,
the students will conduct talks and presentations to the
University community and the public. They will also write
reports about each overseas training/expedition for the
website and the press.
Post-Programme Activities
After the programme, the students are expected to continue
to be active in mountaineering, and even plan a modest expedition
on their own in t he following year or year after. This
would let them put into practise all that they had learnt
from the programme.
In addition, they are expected to pass on their skills to
other new-comers.
