Singaporean Eugene Tan climbed Mount Rinjani as a bachelor and got here down as an engaged man.
High above the island of Lombok, at an altitude of three,726 m above sea level, rises Mount Rinjani, the second highest mountain in Indonesia and probably the most energetic volcanoes within the archipelago.
The three-day, two-night expedition can be quite a challenge for anyone but the previous commando officer.
Eugene was I used to be diagnosed with hereditary spastic paraplegia in 2014, a neurological condition that makes it difficult for him to maneuver. His older brother Kenneth suffers from the identical condition.
Within months, the sports science and management graduate had to offer up his ultramarathon profession. Even climbing stairs became a painful chore.
Two months later, Eugene fulfilled his promise and have become the primary person in Singapore diagnosed with HSP to climb a mountain, an achievement he attempted earlier this month.
But climbing the volcano was secondary to his primary mission. He had something else in mind.
“It was always my goal to propose to my girlfriend on the top of a difficult mountain and this was truly a challenge,” Eugene admitted.
He first met his girlfriend, 24-year-old Tan Ci Hui, at Nanyang Technological University, where they were classmates. They have been dating for five years, and never once has the thrill-seeking couple let Eugene’s health get in the way in which of their easy joys.
To prepare for the expedition, Eugene and several other of his friends from the Catholic Junior College Outdoor Adventure Club went on long treks through MacRitchie Reservoir and Bukit Timah Hill, during which he also practiced walking with trekking poles as a substitute of counting on a walker.
The group is made up of passionate mountaineers who’ve been conquering high peaks together since their student days.
However, no training was enough to organize him for the expedition.
Most volcanoes are typically characterised by a bed of rock—extremely loose gravel—toward the summit, making it incredibly difficult to climb. And Mount Rinjani is understood for its deadly bed of rock.
Like many others, Eugene found the summit push to be essentially the most painful a part of the expedition. But while it’s not unusual for hikers to offer up and switch back, he pressed on.
The remainder of the group reached the summit after 4 hours, while Eugene and one other hiker reached the summit after five hours.
To ease Eugene’s pain, the group hired an additional porter to assist him along with his backpack.
Mr Tan added: “He could have just given up, even when we had unloaded him and the guides had helped him, but he didn’t. Only the facility of affection and a transparent mind of purpose could have brought him there.”
When Eugene’s legs gave out on the summit on December 1, the group unfurled a big banner he had painted just a few days earlier.
He then got down on one knee and asked this query.
Fortunately, she said yes.
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