TEMPO.CO, Bandung - Two female students joined in the Women of Indonesia’s Seven Summits Expedition Mahitala from the University of Parahyangan Bandung, Fransiska Dimitri Inkiriwang and Mathilda Dwi Lestari are currently in a healthy state after reaching Mount Everest`s 7,000 meters above sea level height.

Both women have descended back to the Everest Base Camp Tibet (5,150 meters above sea-level). “The acclimatizing process went well. I never imagined reaching the height of 7,000 meters,” said Mathilda on a phone interview to the support team in Bandung on May 3.

The university’s outdoors group, Mahitala said in a press release both women’s acclimatizing process started from the Everest Base Camp on April 26, where the team traveled to the intermediate camp at the height of 5,800 meters above sea-level that took about seven hours to cover.

The team decided to stay the night once they arrived at the location and continued their journey to the advanced base camp (ABC) located at 6,400 meters above sea-level where they stayed for three nights up to April 30. Their journey to ABC also took about seven hours to complete through a hiking route that crosses Morain ice river

They had to sleep with oxygen masks during their stay at the ABC since oxygen is greatly reduced at that height. Their hike on May 1 took them to the North Col (7,020 meters above sea-level).

From the six tallest mountain in the world they hiked, North Col’s position places them far above the other locations they have ever conquered. The closest location to settle at North Col is Camp 1 located at the height of 7,030 meters above sea-level under a freezing condition of -19 degree Celsius with strong winds and snowstorms.

Their latest step towards acclimatization is by traveling to the height of 7,400 meters above sea-level, which is half the travel distance to Camp 2. However, the group must descend to Everest Base Camp each time they reach a certain height to maximize their acclimatization process.

Anwar Siswadi