SEPANG, Oct 21 — Although suffering from frequent bouts of acute mountain sickness (AMS), Siti Hanisah Sharuddin was undeterred from accomplishing her task of scaling Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania today.
The 23-year-old from Felda Jelai 1 Scheme, Gemas in Negri Sembilan succeeded in conquering the African continent’s highest mountain at 5,895 metres.
She was accompanied by her coach, Zainudin Lot, at 6.45am local time after the five-day climb.
“I am able to tolerate AMS now. Luckily, I was able to deal with the symptoms well, and I managed to recover quickly despite severe vomiting.
“Upon reaching 5,400 metres, I once again experienced AMS. I began vomiting and on the way down from the mountain, I threw up again.
“Every time after vomiting, I felt re-energised and continued to climb with fresh vitality,” she said when met at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport after returning from her mission to conquer the mountain.
Siti Hanisah, who is a member of the Royal Malaysian Navy, said scaling Mount Kilimanjaro had tested her mettle to the maximum against strong winds and bad weather, causing her to suffer from freezing cold.
“I would not have succeeded if my coach was not by my side to support me and keep my spirits alive to continue the challenge this time,” she said.
Thus far, Siti Hanisah has scaled Mount Everest (May) and Mount Elbrus (in the European Continent) in June last year.
In her mission to conquer seven of the highest peaks in seven continents by January 2015, organised by Kelab Eksplorasi Tujuh Benua, she now has four more mountains to climb.
They are Mount Aconcagua (6,960.8m) in South America, Mount McKinley (6,194m) in North America, Vinson Massif (4,982m) in the Antarctica and Carstenz Pyramid (4,884m) in Australia. — Bernama
