{"id":1397,"date":"2019-03-03T23:31:06","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T15:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nus-mir.com\/?p=1397"},"modified":"2026-02-06T23:43:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T15:43:31","slug":"women-on-mountains-seminar-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nus-mir.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/03\/women-on-mountains-seminar-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Women on Mountains Seminar 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Held: 13 February 2019, Wednesday<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mountaineering has\nlong been known to be a sport associated with men. There have long been, and\nthere still are stereotypes that women and mountains are not synonymous \u2013 yet, through\nthe course of history, there have been exceptional women who have broken trail\nfor females in mountaineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lucy Walker, the first woman to climb the Matterhorn\nin 1871 did so in a long flannel skirt customary of proper Victorian ladies in\nthe era. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nAs beginner mountaineers, we were curious as to how Singaporean women pioneered\nthe scene for mountaineering here at home. In hopes of gaining some insight\ninto this question, we had the privilege of sitting down with Joanne Soo and\nSim Yihui, both distinguished adventurers from the first Singapore Women\u2019s\nEverest Team (SWET) for an open, honest discussion about women on mountains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The session kicked off\nwith Joanne briefly touching on the history of women on mountains. It was\nunderstood that even when pioneer female mountaineers in the 19th<\/sup> \u2013\n20th<\/sup> century achieved great feats, facing equal \u2013 or arguably, more\n\u2013 difficulties when compared to their male counterparts, their achievements\nwere often undermined. Today, the stigma that women have to surmount in\nclimbing is no longer as high. Yet it is generally acknowledged that the modern\nwoman still faces some perceived barriers in the sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how was the dream\nof climbing Everest with an all-women\u2019s team born? How did they make it real? These\nquestions were quickly answered when Joanne and Yihui continued with a sharing\nabout their journeys in mountaineering, in which they also recounted their\njourneys with SWET. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yihui delved into the story\nof the SWET, addressing issues such as the conceptualization of the expedition,\nthe trainings and the struggles faced by the team. We learnt of the immense grit\nand hard work the climbers had to put in in their 5-year journey, as well as of\nthe heavy decisions and delicate considerations that the team had to face long\nbefore they even set foot at Everest Base Camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond speaking for\nthe team, they also spoke of their personal struggles and learnings that\neventuated in growth. It was especially inspiring to hear of their stories \u2013\nnot just of how the expedition began, but of how each of them balanced climbing\nwith their personal commitments, relationships \u2013 essentially, the passion with\nwhich they persevered with to make their dreams a reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was perhaps what\nresonated most with me. To so bravely rise against existing norms to pursue\nadventure in the spirit of learning, and love for the sport, is incredibly\nadmirable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The session then\nproceeded into a lively Question & Answer session in which various concerns\nwere raised. Questions included what tips should be given to girls just\nstarting out in mountaineering \u2013 that they should just go for it! \u2013 and how\nthey managed to balance their personal commitments with their love for\nclimbing. We laughed and we learnt about Joanne\u2019s ever-ongoing progress with\nacclimatizing her mom with her love for climbing, and about Yihui\u2019s learnings\nand experiences as the co-leader of SWET, despite being one of the youngest\nmembers of the expedition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joanne and Yihui never\nhesitated when speaking of their experiences on the mountains. They shared\nabout how venturing out of their comfort zones have only helped them better\nthemselves, and how the mountains gift you with experiences almost\nunexplainably like no other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, the mountains\ncan teach us lessons that go beyond ourselves. In the words of Joanne, the\nmountains do not discriminate between males or females. To go out into the\noutdoors is so fulfilling perhaps because we can learn that we are so much more\ncapable than we think we are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe the only thing\nthat we need to do is to take the first step, and naturally, the rest will\nfollow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thank you Joanne and Yihui\nfor showing us how you made it real.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chiew Hui<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MIR 18<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Held: 13 February 2019, Wednesday Mountaineering has long been known to be a sport associated with men. There have long been, and there still are stereotypes that women and mountains are not synonymous \u2013 yet, through the course of history, there have been exceptional women who have broken trail for females in mountaineering. Lucy Walker, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dz1tdprsa\/images\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1770349239\/womens-2\/womens-2.png?_i=AA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nus-mir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nus-mir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nus-mir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nus-mir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nus-mir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1397"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nus-mir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5492,"href":"https:\/\/nus-mir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions\/5492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nus-mir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nus-mir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nus-mir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nus-mir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}