Hello Brilio.net friends. This time Brilio chatted with the first climber of Everest from Indonesia. Are you curious about the story?
Clara Sumarwati was registered with the Everest Summiteer Association as the first Indonesian to conquer Mount Everest in 1997. She has been interested in climbing mountains since she was still in high school.
"In Indonesia I started climbing mountains in 1987, to Mount Rinjani. During the school holidays, I was doing something for the school holidays, but there was an offer from a friend from the Faculty of Economics, would you like to go to Rinjani or not, Clar? That's what I said. Finally I went up to Rinjani "That's why I started to be interested in that mountain after I climbed Mount Rinjani. Finally I climbed Rinjani," said Clara.
Clara's climbing in mountains abroad began after she graduated from college. Clara explained that she graduated from Atmajaya Catholic University, then she was offered a climb to Annapurna 4. She learned about mountaineering from the Jayakarta student regiment and nature lover Edelweiss at the Faculty of Economics.
Before 1997, Clara had tried to climb Everest in 1994. At that time, Clara climbed with six Kopassus members. Kopassus Commander, Agum Gumelar gave a briefing on his first ascent.
"At that time the commander was Mr. Agum Gumelar. When he was about to leave, he said, don't force yourself. If the weather isn't good, you have to go down. It's better to fail than not to be able to repeat that failure so that you can succeed. That was according to Mr. Agum's instructions. And at that time it was the season storm on Everest," explained Clara.
Finally, Clara's climbing group only arrived at camp 3 because of the storm. After returning from training, Clara returned to climbing Everest in 1997. With swimming, fitness, short mountain climbing trials, and other training. After 20 hours, Clara finally reached the summit of Everest in 1997.
"We only had 10 minutes at the top, it was difficult for us to take photos, the hurricane, we just didn't see it here. We just held the stake, I hurt my hand like that. It was so cold, it (the stake) was like being electrocuted, you know. Finally my gloves were replaced with Serpa. "I screamed like I was electrocuted, 'euuy', so I grabbed the stake at the top. I shouted, it's all wet, I immediately replaced it with my spare glove, it didn't get wet," said Clara.
The second ascent was funded by the Committee for 50 Years of Independent Indonesia. Clara and her group were able to overcome the very difficult terrain and extreme weather.
"What we feel more is that we feel grateful and can enjoy the results of God's creation. Apart from our friends who still don't know, we are only given the opportunity to enjoy God's most beautiful creation in the world, besides other natural worlds in Indonesia and abroad that still exist Closed Clara.