By: Tan Dawn Wei

The helicopter pilot drops you off on the glacier, and he says, 'See you in 12 days'. No matter, the view is awesome, and you get to name the peak in the distance.

But first, that virgin peak - a never-before 'summited' high mountain top - has got to be conquered.

Three men from Singapore recently did just that, and more: They scaled three virgin peaks, and named them all.

The peaks are in the Tien Shan range straddling Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in western China.

The men are well-known mountaineer and motivational coach David Lim, 45; sales manager Grant Rawlinson, 35; and rope climbing and safety specialist Mohammed Rozani Maarof, 42.

Mr Rawlinson, a New Zealander, is now a Singapore permanent resident.

The trio, who accomplished their feat earlier this month, landed on the glacier with nothing but 100kg of food and equipment and no one else within a 100km radius.

They had no Sherpa guides or porters, and had little knowledge of what to expect ahead. But that was the idea.

With no prior accounts from mountaineers, information about the chosen peaks, set amid hundreds of others, is skimpy at best.

For starters, the mountains gave the three men a spectacular welcome show: On the second day at their 3,950m-high base camp, a huge avalanche came rumbling down.

'We were discussing ways of going up one of the peaks when the avalanche happened. We said, 'Okay, we won't be going up that way then',' recalled Mr Rawlinson.

Echoed Mr Rozani: 'You felt very vulnerable.'

In 2005, Mr Lim led the first South-east Asian team, that included Mr Rozani, and ascended three other virgin peaks in Tien Shan - a feat which gave them naming rights to the mountains.

The three are named Temasek, Singapura I and Ong Teng Cheong, after the former president who was the patron of Singapore's first Everest expedition in 1998.

Why Tien Shan again?

'I'd say, why the Olympics again?' shot back Mr Lim, who has led two Singapore Everest expeditions.

Such previous experience was of some help but only so much, since new situations can arise. Weather conditions were more volatile on this trip.

There were also more sections of deep snow and the temperature dipped to minus 15 deg C with windchill.

With snow falling unabated for six days, trekking through the sometimes waist-deep stuff was slow, if not treacherous.

'Imagine going through snow that has the consistency of wet granulated sugar,' summed up Mr Lim.

The depth of the snow was also not consistent.

Said Mr Rozani: 'Some parts felt good and you gained confidence to move forward, but then you sink in.'

That was not all. They had set up their tents on the glacier by flattening sections of loose pebbles on the first night. The next morning, they awoke to icy cold black mud on their backs. 'Think 7-Eleven Slurpee,' said Mr Lim, trying to keep a straight face.

But what are Singaporeans without food on their minds, wherever they are?

Meals were hearty affairs of pasta and what Mr Rawlinson calls 'mountain pizza' - Russian bread rolls drizzled with olive oil and topped with salami and cheese.

By Day Nine, the men had scaled three peaks with heights of between 4,447m and 5,152m.

They christened the 4,468m peak Kongsberg, named after one of the expedition's sponsors and Mr Rawlinson's employer Kongsberg Maritime; the 4,447m peak Resilience; and the 5,152m peak Majulah.

The last is the highest virgin peak to be summited by a South-east Asian team.

With two days left before their helicopter arrived, they mulled over a peak No. 4 but bad weather ruled that out.

The trio attributed their success to the support from their family, employers and sponsors, and the fact that none of them threw any high-altitude tantrums.

'When you sit in a tent with someone for so many days, every small annoying habit can drive you crazy,' conceded Mr Rawlinson.

Mr Lim and Mr Rozani have been on 11 trips together, while Mr Lim and Mr Rawlinson have done three. This is Mr Rozani and Mr Rawlinson's first pairing.

'The most underrated part of climbing is expectation management,' said Mr Lim.

'You have to agree, before setting out, on 'what's the spirit we are going to adopt?''

Sponsorship for the expedition came up to nearly $40,000. Mr Rozani's employer, KB Access, which provides rope access and consultancy services, also stepped in as a cash sponsor.

With hundreds of virgin peaks all over the world, how did they identify those three?

Through the help of contacts who knew which ones have not been scaled, Mr Lim said. Mountaineers also prefer to go for the 'prestige peaks', those that rise beyond 6,000m, he added.

Other climbers may have made unsuccessful bids to summit these prestige peaks before, which makes them even more attractive.

'The pie is so big. We're happy with our slice,' said Mr Lim, who has more than 60 alpine climbs under his belt, a feat all the more remarkable because he has only partial use of his legs.

He led Singapore's first Singapore Everest expedition in 1998, but was struck in the legs with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare nerve disorder, shortly after his return.

The three newly named peaks may not be Everest, which tops off at 8,848m, but to the trio there is greater satisfaction in scaling the smaller, untrodden peaks.

'In a world where mountain tourism now overlaps with mountaineering, we have to work harder to find that experience that's closer to mountaineering,' Mr Lim said.

'From a climber's point of view, you feel like you've achieved it yourself, not on the backs of paid Sherpas.'

This article was first published in The Sunday Times.