Everesting in Singapore: “I would do it again!”

Bursting with motivation to start the Everesting challenge at Mount Faber, Kerwin Mugar Quinquilleria had his strategy and action plan in mind. It would take an estimated 115 laps of Mount Faber to achieve 8,848m of elevation (the equivalent to Mount Everest’s elevation) and Kerwin’s goal was to complete it in a moving time of 20 hours or less.

However, just 10 laps in, the bolt of his front brake snapped off and got caught in his wheels, causing him to nearly slam into a Mercedes-Benz car.

Fortunately, a friend of his who was also at the Everesting challenge helped him to fix his bike. They spent an hour looking for the missing bolt and aligning the front rotor, but all was good after that.

The biggest challenge Kerwin, and all the others who attempted the challenge, had to battle throughout the entire challenge was the heavy thunderstorms. This particular weekend saw some of the craziest winds and rain, causing the riders to stop and seek shelter. Some were even forced to cease their efforts.

Kerwin made the decision to plod on, but not without some voluntary suffering. “I suffered acute delirium three times due to cold weather and lack of sleep.

As I got to 8,000m, close to the end, that was the worst as the rain and winds were getting stronger and I was trapped at a shelter with no source of warmth,” the 35-year-old nurse shared.

“The state of delirium kicked in and I had to force myself to vomit. I was walking back and forth, basically just struggling a lot, and I even had to slap my face just to stay awake.

Finally I couldn’t take it anymore so I took the plunge and battled the rain and cold to get down to base camp and warm myself inside the PURPOSE van. I took a short nap and at 6am on Sunday I forced myself with grit and determination to finish around 8am!”

Total moving time was 20 hours 8 minutes, total elapsed time was 36 hours 6 minutes. He wore our exclusive Everesting jersey throughout too. “I really love the quality of the material and it makes you fast and aerodynamically breathable. I will purchase another soon!”

Would he do it again? Yes, he would.

“I did this for my family back in the Philippines and I told them to pray for me to finish. I didn’t want to let them down, so I stood firm and battled the hardships. I will definitely do this again and aim to be one of the fastest times in Singapore,” he added.

Abdul Alim Bin Nordin was part of a group, including his brother, who collectively came to attempt the Everesting challenge. They thought it “would be fun” to do this together.

At the beginning, Alim felt fine as he has been training for this, but it became challenging when it started to rain heavily. “As the cold kicked in, the body couldn’t stop shivering and the lack of sleep kept calling for the body to shut down,” the 29-year-old technician said.

“We had to stop quite a number of times as descending in the heavy downpour could be very dangerous. But once I was back on the move, I stayed calm and just focused on the next pedal stroke.”

Alim was the only one of his group to complete the Everesting challenge in a moving time of 20 hours 39 minutes and an elapsed time of 34 hours 31 minutes.

You would think after all the suffering they may not want to attempt this again, but like Kerwin, Alim will do this again. In fact, three days after the challenge, he was itching to get back out on his bicycle again.

That is dedication.

A total of 8 riders (7 males and 1 female) completed the Everesting challenge at Mount Faber over the weekend of 8 to 10 January 2021.

In possibly one of the wettest weekends in Singapore ever, to call them brave would be an understatement.