SINGAPORE: Only a handful of Singaporeans have ever stood on the summit of Mount Everest, and just last month, husband-and-wife team Mark Ng and Ng Li Ying joined that exclusive group after years of climbing, training, and steadily working their way towards the world’s highest mountain.
The pair, who are lead training consultants with Outward Bound Singapore (OBS), may also be the first Singaporean married couple to summit Everest together.
For Ms Ng, reaching the 8,848m summit brought disbelief rather than celebration at first. She said it took time to register that she had finally reached the highest point on Earth. When their trekker guide announced, “Okay, here’s the summit … there is no more up,” Ms Ng said, “I … couldn’t believe I was already there.”
Ms Ng initially struggled to process that there was nowhere left to climb, but after years of preparation and weeks on the mountain, she had finally reached the highest point on Earth. That feeling, however, quickly gave way to concern, because her husband was nowhere in sight.
A dangerous wait near the summit
The pair became separated at the Hillary Step, one of the most notorious sections of the climb just below the summit. The narrow route forces climbers into a single file as they navigate steep rock and ice at extreme altitudes. Delays are common and can be dangerous, especially when temperatures plunge and oxygen is scarce.
Ms Ng had gone ahead after her trekker guide secured a climbing line. Mr Ng was left waiting while descending climbers passed through the bottleneck. He spent about 30 minutes standing in freezing winds. As time passed, Mr Ng became increasingly worried as pain began developing in his fingers and toes, a warning sign in such harsh conditions.
Eventually, the queue moved, and he continued upward. The couple were then reunited on the summit, but even then, the achievement didn’t erase the risks surrounding them.
The summit was never worth risking their lives
Unlike many who view Everest as a once-in-a-lifetime target, the couple approached the mountain differently. They repeatedly stressed that reaching the top was never worth risking their lives, a mindset that was tested earlier in the expedition when Mr Ng’s oxygen levels dropped after reaching Camp 2.
Instead of pushing ahead, Mr Ng was advised to rest and spend the night on supplemental oxygen. This setback could have ended their summit attempt, but it didn’t change their outlook.
Mr Ng said that if climbers had advised him that reaching the summit would likely cost him his life, he would have turned back without hesitation. “If they told me that if you summit you might die, I would just say: ‘Okay, we don’t climb’,” he said.
Getting down was getting harder
Many Everest veterans say the summit is only halfway. The descent is where fatigue, poor judgment, and deteriorating conditions usually claim lives. The mountain reminded the couple of that reality.
While descending from the Hillary Step, Mr Ng slipped due to a foot placement error and fell several metres, but because he was clipped into the safety line, he managed to grab the ropes and stop himself against a ledge. The fall could easily have ended differently.
Later, as the pair returned to Camp 4, exhaustion and cold began taking their toll. Mr Ng said he was losing coordination in his legs. Both climbers were physically drained. They simply needed rest.
Preparing for the worst
Everest is not a mountain that allows for wishful thinking. Before leaving Singapore, the couple met with a lawyer friend to prepare their wills. Family members were concerned but not surprised.
Friends and relatives knew mountaineering had become a major part of their lives and understood that Everest was likely a goal they would eventually pursue.
Support also came from Outward Bound Singapore, which connected them with Singaporean orthopaedic surgeon Dr Kumaran Rasappan, who successfully summited Everest in 2012.
Years of climbing experience led to Everest
Their Everest journey began long before they arrived in Nepal. Mr Ng discovered mountaineering after an expedition to India. Ms Ng developed her interest while studying in China and joining trekking trips with friends.
The pair later met through Outward Bound Singapore. Their first major adventure together was the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail in Japan. Mr Ng joked that surviving 10 days together on the trail was a good sign for their future as a married couple.
After getting married in 2020, they continued climbing increasingly challenging mountains. They summited Mera Peak, Island Peak, Lobuche Peak and Himlung Himal before successfully climbing Ama Dablam in 2024. It was after Ama Dablam that their guides suggested they were ready for Everest.
The idea didn’t come as a shock as the couple had spent years gradually building the skills, fitness and experience required for such an expedition.
More than just an Everest story, it was a life lesson beyond just mountaineering
What makes their achievement stand out isn’t only that they reached the summit. It is the way they got there. The couple spent years preparing, accepted setbacks, respected the risks and never allowed summit fever to override common sense.
Their lesson may be particularly relevant for young Singaporeans facing academic, career and personal pressures. Not everyone will climb Everest, but most people will face challenges that feel just as daunting in their own lives. They hope their experience encourages others to tackle their own personal challenges, even if those challenges look nothing like Everest.
Their message is that growth comes from stepping outside familiar routines or comfort zones, staying curious, and persevering through difficulties.
As for their future adventures, neither appears ready to stop. The couple plans to continue exploring new adventures together. Their achievement shows that remarkable goals are rarely reached in one giant leap. Mostly come from years of preparation, persistence and taking one step after another.
Mr Ng perhaps summed up the expedition best when he reflected on sharing both the mountain’s triumphs and its miserable experiences with his wife. At nearly 8,000m, cold, exhausted and battered by the elements, he found comfort in one thought: if the experience was going to be miserable, at least they were enduring it together.
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This article (‘Okay, here’s the summit, there is no more up’ — Singaporean husband-wife mountain climbers made it to the top of Everest after surviving bottlenecks, freezing winds and dangerous descent) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.
