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Tibet team experiences near-fatal accident
Straits Times - 29 April 2002
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THE Singapore team trying to scale Tibet's highest peak has been shaken by a near-fatal accident where two climbers fell into deep cracks in the ice.

Luckily, expedition leader Robert Goh, 36, and team-mate Mok Ying Jang, 34, got out of the crevasses with no injuries - only frayed nerves. Dr Goh, Dr Mok and team-mate Edwin Siew, 32, were on their way back to the advance base camp last Friday after a blizzard and gale-force winds had forced them to abandon an acclimatisation climb up the 8,027-m Xixabangma mountain. They could see no further than a few metres ahead because of the heavy snowfall.

As a safety measure, they roped themselves to each other, with Mr Siew leading, Dr Goh in the middle and Dr Mok taking up the rear. Suddenly, Dr Mok found himself chest-deep in snow. He panicked, clinging on to his ski pole and his ice axe. 'I swung my legs around desperately, hoping to find a foothold. But there was none,' he said. 'When I looked down, I realised I was in a bottomless crevasse.'

Dr Goh, who had felt the rope tighten, dropped to the ground to further secure the rope and stop Dr Mok from falling. Dr Mok plunged his ice axe into the snow and rolled out of the crevasse. But a few minutes after they had started moving on, Dr Goh felt the ground give way beneath him. 'It was like drowning in a sea of snow,' he said. He slammed his ice axe into firm snow to stop his fall and shouted for help. Mr Siew, who could not see him in the blizzard, pulled the rope as he hauled himself out. Safety-drill practices had paid off, said Dr Goh.

'Without the rope, Mok or myself would have easily fallen into the crevasse, which could be a few hundred metres deep,' he said. 'There would have been little chance of a rescue.' Foul weather has forced the team to abandon their acclimatisation climb twice. The climb prepares them for the attempt on the summit. If they succeed, they will be the first Singapore climbers to scale the mountain without conventional aids such as extra oxygen, Sherpa porters, pre-built tents and pre-laid ropes. For now, they are waiting out the spell of bad weather before continuing the acclimatisation climb.