James Lee Heads To Gorakshep Tuesday

KUALA LUMPUR, April 11 (Bernama) -- James Lee Chong Meng, the oldest Malaysian mountaineer attempting to conquer Mount Everest will be heading to Gorakshep at 5,164m above sea level, Tuesday. The 69-year-old mountaineer said despite having minor difficulty, he and his team managed to get to Lobuche (4,910m) Monday from Dingboche. "Today the weather has been fine but very windy, temperature was about 5°C during our trekking and now 0°C. "Tomorrow we will trek to Gorakshep and hope to stay overnight there or else will proceed directly to Everest Base Camp," he told the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama), a media partner of Lim's mission to reach the world's highest peak. He said the team would continue to climb towards Kala Patthar (5,545) before proceeding to the base camp at 5,380m above sea level. Lee and his team arrived in Kathmandu on April 1. The five other climbers are Eugene Kwan Jyh Sin, 47, Chong Nyuk Kooi, 49, Teng Hee Weng, 48, as well as Berdych Tan Teck Chai and Jack Oh Jin Heng, both 32. They are escorting Lee to the Everest Base Camp before he continues his climb to the top of the summit in the expedition organised by the Lions Club of Port Dickson Pantai. In May last year, Lee had to call off the last stage of his climb to the Mount Everest peak when he reached Camp III at a height of 7,200m due to bad weather. Mount Everest is 8,848m high. -- BERNAMA