Clara to be adviser to climbing course

JAKARTA (JP): Clara Sumarwati, the first Indonesian and Southeast Asian woman to reach the 8,848-meter summit of Mt. Everest, is to be the adviser to the country's first mountaineering course.

"The offices of the State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, the State Minister of Environment, the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications, the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Forestry are due to set up a mountaineering course for people who live in and around Indonesia's mountains so they can be trained as mountain guides for tourists," Clara told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

"The course will last for 10 years. If it succeeds, it will be handed over to the Ministry of Education and Culture," she said.

Clara, who received a certificate from The Mountaineering Association of The Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China after her success in scaling Everest, said that the idea behind the course is because Indonesia has many mountains but many local guides are not professional enough.

"We'll train the local people because they are familiar with their area and they can be taught to take care of the environment. Besides, being mountain guides can earn them extra money," she said.

Clara, a 1990 psychology-pedagogy graduate of Jakarta's Atma Jaya Catholic University, said that she is going to take a post- graduate course in communication psychology in the United States next year thanks to a scholarship from the Ki Hadjar Dewantara Foundation.

Clara, who was awarded Bintang Nararya from the President last week, reached the 8,848-meter summit of Mt. Everest on Sept. 26 at 11.00 p.m. after preparing herself for 16 months.

The plan to climb Everest had to be delayed for more than a year because of the weather conditions in Nepal, where at least 200 people died in an avalanche.

The State Secretariat and the National Sports Council jointly financed Clara's expedition to Everest. She spent Rp 500 million (US$212,800) on equipments and other costs.

Clara took the most common route to reach the summit: a three- day journey to reach Camp 3 from the Base Camp and a five day journey from Camp 3 to the peak, then she spent two days going down to Camp 3 and one day (11 hours) from Camp 3 to Base Camp. (yan)