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RI women climbers aim to conquer Vinson Massif

A team of climbers from the Indonesian Red-and-White Women’s club is preparing to climb Mount Vinson Massif, the highest mountain in Antarctica and one of the world’s Seven Summits

Elly Burhaini Faizal (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, April 23, 2014

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RI women climbers aim to conquer Vinson Massif

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team of climbers from the Indonesian Red-and-White Women'€™s club is preparing to climb Mount Vinson Massif, the highest mountain in Antarctica and one of the world'€™s Seven Summits.

'€œThe Red-and-White Women'€™s climbing team has climbed a number of the highest summits in the world and we are ready to carry out a climbing mission to Mt. Vinson Massif in Antarctica,'€ Red-and-White Women coordinator Nunky said at a press conference Tuesday in Bandung, West Java, as quoted by Antara.

She said her team, which comprises seven climbers, was pursuing the challenge to highlight the impacts of global warming.

'€œWe are campaigning about the need to fight against global warming and to protect the global forests and environment. We will spread our message through our activities and at the Indonesian embassies in the countries we visit,'€ Nunky said.

Nunky and her fellow climbers have successfully conquered four of the famous Seven Summits: Puncak Jaya, also known as the Carstensz Pyramid, in Papua, Indonesia; Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa; Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus Mountains, Russia; and Mount McKinley, also known as Denali, in Alaska, US.

A number of Indonesian teams have reached the summit of Mt. Vinson Massif, which rises 4,897 meters above sea level. On Jan. 7, 2012, the Seven Summits team from the prestigious Wanadri mountaineering organization successfully reached Vinson Massif'€™s peak. The mission was part of a program, launched in 2010, to conquer the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. Vinson Massif was the sixth of the seven mountains Wanadri had conquered before conquering the world'€™s tallest peak, Mount Everest in Nepal, in 2013.

Vinson Massif, the highest mountain in Antarctica, lies in the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains, above the Ronne Ice Shelf near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. Since being first conquered by an American expeditionary team on Dec. 17, 1966, around 1,500 climbers have attempted to climb Vinson Massif, the peak located in the coldest climes of all the Seven Summits. Every year, a strict maximum of 60 climbers are given permission to climb Vinson Massif, provided they pay the steep climbing costs of US$30,000 per climber.

It is not an easy undertaking for climbers to conquer Vinson Massif, one of the world'€™s highest peaks. It also takes time, allowing for the climbing team to travel to Chile, the nearest country to the Antarctic.

They also have to deal with extreme weather conditions that can be very challenging and plunging temperatures, which can go as low as minus 40 degrees Celcius.

Nunky said her team was currently engaged in a series of preparations for the climb.

'€œWe hope that we can immediately set off on the climb of Vinson Massif,'€ said Nunky, who is also an ambassador for the Masigit Kareumbi conservation forest in Sumedang, West Java.

She added that all aspects of the climb had to be well-prepared. '€œIt is located in the South Pole, so its challenges are quite different compared to other mountains,'€ she said.

During the press conference, Nunky took the opportunity to express the commitment of her community to encourage Indonesian women to play a more active role in protecting the environment.

'€œWe women can play a strategic role in campaigning for environmental conservation,'€ she said.

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