Clara to be adviser to climbing course
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)