The "Holy Grail" of mountaineering.

What is known as the "Holy Grail" of mountaineering is the 7 summits. The 7 summits consist of the tallest mountains in each continent in which are:

- Denali, Alaska (North America)

- Aconcagua, Argentina/Chile (South America)

- Mt Vinson, no country (Antarctica)

- Mt Elbrus, Russia (Europe)

- Kilimanjaro, Tunisia (Africa)

- Kosciuszko, Australia and Carstensz Pyramid, Indonesia (Oceania)

- Mt. Everest, Nepal (Asia)

The 7 summits is the dream of every mountaineer. Although I have only climbed Mt.Kinabalu twice and only reached the summit once, conquering mountains have been really interesting and exciting for me. I'm finishing my studies with a diploma in Business Admin next month and am planning to take 2009 and 2010 off for mountaineering. 

I plan to climb Mt. Everest 2010 to be the youngest South-east-asian and Malaysian at the age of 19. In preparation for Mt.Everest, I will climb Kilimanjaro, Mt Elbrus, Mt Koscuiszko which means that I'll finish conquering 4 mountains out of the 7. After Mt.Everest, I'll climb Denali, Mt.Vinson and Aconcagua and hopefully finish everything by Feb 2011 which will make me the youngest person in the world to complete the 7 summits at the age of 19 and 7 months (current record is exactly 20). 

Detailed plan to be finalized soon. Interested sponsors please contact me at paul.kzk@gmail.com

Road to Everest.

Oh mann. The passion to go up to the top of the world is growing day-by-day! I recently found out that the youngest climber from Malaysia and South-east-Asia was 21 when I reached the peak of Mt. Everest. I'm only 16 turning 17 now, finishing my diploma, so if I take next year off to train physically and mentally. I'll be 18+ when I climb Everest. Even if I don't make it, I'll be the youngest from SEA and Malaysia to "try" climbing Mt. Everest.

Anyways, here's my plan so far (not approved by my parents yet:P)

Nov 08- Mt. Sinai, Israel

Jan 09- Mt.Kinabalu via Ferrata

Feb 09- Train for ALERT

March to May 09- ALERT training. ALERT stands for Air Land Emergency Resource Team. It involves hard core military style training that includes a 24-hike, a series of fitness tests and survival camps.

June 09- Start searching for sponsors for the Mt. Everest climb and training climbs which would probably include Mt. Kilimanjaro (tallest mountain in Africa and tallest freestanding mountain in the world), Mt. Cook in New Zealand and the local Gunung Tahan in Pahang and Mt. Kinabalu in Sabah

July 09- Take rock climbing and ice climbing courses

August 09- Mt. Kilimanjaro climb

October 09- Mt. Cook climb

December 09- Gunung (mt.) Tahan climb

Jan 09- Mt. Kinabalu climb

Feb 09- finalize sponsors and donors

March 09- train, train, train

April 09- Health check-ups.

May 09- Journey to the top of the world: Mt. Everest

There's only one question I wish could be answered. How would you know if you're fit enough for Everest?

And here's my motivation to conquer Mt. Everest: from the famous quote

"mountain as high, that no bird can fly over it"

Picturing Me.

Finally, well, everything has the bad side. So, here's a video titled: Dying for Everest

Ok, this is going to be kinda random. But somehow, I can't wait to get to the Base Camp in Kathmandu and tell myself: "Ok Paul, its the last chance to turn back." or "remember 1 in every 6 died on the mountain in 2003" and still have the mental ability to go for it!

Final thoughts: I'll only be 18+ when I climb mt. Everest. After conquering it, I think it'll be a great mental boost to do anything in the future. Whether its business, photography or living the life.

Up, up, up to the top of the world.

The 71-day route up Mt. Everest

The tallest peak I have ever conquered is Mt.Kinabalu at 4,095 metres above sea level. Mount Kinabalu would be considered simple and easy for most of us, because there’s no rock climbing skills needed, no mountaineering skills needed, and no special equipment needed. But I still have fond memories of the long suffering, well, not exactly suffering, more like the weary and tired feeling, other than that was the altitude sickness that had my head pounding!

However, the long suffering and altitude sickness will not hold me back to climb the tallest mountain in the world- Mount Everest.  Mount Everest, as we all know, is the tallest mountain in the world. It is 8850 meters tall (which is 4916.6 times taller than me and more than twice the height of Mount Kinabalu). Mount Everest is formed about 60 million years ago (its 3,529,411.76 older than me).  In 1998, 15 out of 98 climbers died having a ration of 6.5:1 and records shows that the highest cause of deaths is avalanches.

All these death records and fatal injuries are somehow the ones that drives me to climb the 71-day hike to the peak of Mt. Everest because it shows how tough it is and how great the achievement would be in my life and the lives of my close ones. To conquer the tallest peak in the world would definitely be the biggest motivation to achieve the best in life. It’s like challenging the hardest challenge. For it to be called the goddess of the sky in Nepal and the mother goddess of the universe in Tibet, it must be something.

Prior to the climb up the tallest mountain in the world, intensive training would definitely be required, first starting with foundation, then aerobic/strength and finally peaking. After all those, then comes mental training, climbing the tallest mountain in the world is not only all about physical fitness but about mental strength as well. Other than that would be learning to rock climb, and then ice climb and finally mountaineering. Some say that climbing mountains in the best way to train to climb Mt. Everest. Well, I might go on Mt. Cook, Mt. Kilimanjaro and such before scaling the tallest mountain.

Snowboarding down Everest

I never tried snowboarding, but it certainly looks like fun. Anyways, in spring of 2001, two climbers snowboarded Everest! Stefan Gatt was the first on May 22,2001 without the help of oxygen and Sherpa support followed by Marco Siffredi on May 23, 2001. Marco Siffredi was the first to snowboard down from the Summit of Everest to ABC. However, Marco attempted it again in Autumn 2002 to snowboard down the Hornbein Couloirs of Everest. He was last seen descending from the top on his snowboard, but was never seen again. Anyways, I was just thinking, maybe I should give it a go. :)

“One could argue that most die because they push too far these days, but certainly not all die for that reason. Mountaineering, especially at altitude, is a very high risk sport. This is a very high risk sport where people die every year” www.everestnews.com

Yes, it’s a very dangerous thing to do, and its not that I don’t value my life, I just want to challenge the greatest challenge- the £30,000, 71-day and life threatening hike up the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest.

PS: Stay tuned, I’ll set up a blog/website when I begin my training for Everest

Journey to the top of the world.

Hi guys!

This is Paul here, and here my personal blog: p-kzk.blogspot.com

Anyways, the purpose of this blog is to update you guys on my journey to climb the tallest mountain in the world - Mount Everest!