TOPtoTOP expedition reports

TOPtoTOP Guarantor Erhard Loretan passed away

Our TOPtoTOP guarantor, Erhard died on Thursday (27.5.2011) in a climbing fall in western Switzerland. He was 52.

Loretan had been leading a client up the summit ridge of the Gruenhorn, a peak in the Bernese Alps, when they fell. Loretan died at the scene. His 38-year-old Swiss client was flown to a hospital and is in serious condition.

Erhard became the guarantor of TOPtoTOP in 2000 in Friburg, just some month after TOPtoTOP was founded in November 1999 in Wangs. Since then Erhard assited TOPtoTOP with his wise advises. He may was the most talented Swiss mountain guide and became the only third climber to reach the summit of all 14 of the world's peaks above 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) without bottled oxygen.

He was known to favor quick, lightweight expeditions that minimized the time in which he was exposed to danger. His 1986 ascent of Mount Everest in a night-time push took him just 40 hours.

He was not only an excellent climber and friend; - he was above all a very nice person with a big heart! We miss you, Erhard ....

We ask all members in honor and memory of Erhard for a minute's silence.

TOPtoTOP Singapore Founding Ceremony

TOPtoTOP Singapore Founding Ceremony

On the 29th of April 2011 TOPtoTOP Singapore was founded as an interest group of the TOPtoTOP Foundation. The idea came up while having a dinner on Pachamama.

Everything starts on Pachamama...

The board members are:
Chris Ngoi, president
Dominique Gabella
Wang Jing (Ginay)
Sandro Steiner
Marco Preisig
Micheal Thatcher

Founding members:
Deepa Chatrath
Subodh Mhaisalkar
Yan Yen Kheng
Basil Than She Jeeng
Taras Wankewycz
Giuseppe (Joe) Cavallaro
Soh Serena
Li Zixuan
Vivek Chatrath
Sabine Schwoerer
Dario Schwoerer

On the 1st assembly the statutes where discussed and the first action defined. The statutes where signed by all founding members and the 4 board members (Chris, Dominique, Ginay and Sandro). More pictures...

Subodh with the "Fuell Cell Team"

NTU University became a partner of TOPtoTOP thanks to Subodh Mhaisalkar, Executive Director, Energy Research Institute @ NTU. With Subodh's family and some wind surfers we had the first clean up action organized at the Singapore East Coast!

The first project between NTU and TOPtoTOP is to optimize the energy systems on the TOPtoTOP expedition boat "Pachamama". There are 4 groups with 4 different subjects:

1. Fuel Cell Solution, under the lead of Dr. Ding and Taras Wankexycz. Dr Ding (ERIAN/NTU) and Mr. Taras (Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies) are looking into some "Off-the-Shelves" solutions. The idea is to capture our excess energy and store them for portable usage. The unit will be useful for educating students along our trip.

"LED team"

2. LED Lighting, under the lead of Dr. Yen Kheng and Li Zixuan. This team tries to safe even more energy with a smart LED system.

"Rachid and Joe's team"

3. Battery Storage, under the lead of Professor and Principal Scientist Rachid Yazami. Prof Rachid has met up his industry contacts. We already were able to see a battery recycling facility of BSI and GREENBATT Solutions for Renewable Energy. Prof Rachid is also into Lithium battery research. One project is to put Lithium batteries on the boat. That means to extend the storage 3 to 4 times!

Josette Riviiere-Garde from BSI and TS Chung from GREENBATT, solutions for renewable energy.

4. Wind data collection, under the lead of Senior Scientist Giuseppe (Joe) Cavallaro.

More pictures of the NTU-TOPtoTOP event held in April 2011...

We end this report with a "Happy mother's day"!

"Pachamama" is in our hands!

Sabine might be a mother of 4 tomorrow?

For all mothers, here a dance from Salina and Noe!

The contractions begin!

The contractions begin at last. We go to the KK hospital. Call us +65 82 3030 467 (no SMS).

Alegra Tea Elena

funny girl already after 10 minutes!

It's a girl! On the 18th of May 2011 at 11.36 hours the miracle occurred: Alegra Tea Elena Schworer weighed 3926 g and is 51 cm long.

Contact the proud mother Sabine Schworer-Ammann on +65 8 7470 6102 or +65 639 4 37 19 or better see her with Alegra Tea Elena at the KK Hospital in Singapore in level 8, ward 81, room 19.

Alegra Tea Elena's due date was on the 9th of May. We hoped that she is coming on our 10th wedding day on the 10th of May! ... but nature had a different timing! So we had time to explain the hospital, that we like to have a "natural" birth and not a Cesarean section like it is popular in Singapore. The hospital also sterilized the Victorinox Army Knife to cut the umbilical cord ... it was the first time somebody asked this service!

On the 17th of May Sabine was working hard on the sailboat to clean everything in the boat and did not stop till the wonderful full moon was in the sky. We had such a beautiful night and I got up at 4 o'clock to watch the moon and do some work.
At 5.30 a.m. Sabine went to the toilet and told me just after that she feels the first contractions. We called several taxi companies to have a lift to the hospital, but all were booked out. I went from door to door, but all our neighbors were still asleep and did not open the doors. So we start walking to the hospital and stopped for a rest when Sabine has her contractions. Finally we saw a taxi waiting in the street. We asked the lady with the name "Caroline", if we can have her taxi? She told us that she is anyway late for work and like this we made it to KK Hospital in time, where the water broke.

midwife Tamilselvi

May because it was full moon the hospital was very busy and we had to wait till 8.30 h for a free delivery room. - KK Hospital delivered in this pick day of the 18th of May 43 babies! - The labor pains became stronger and more frequent. The midwifes Maria Jumhasan and N. Tamilselvi asked Sabine several time if she likes some pain killers? They mentioned that there is nearly no delivery nowadays without. But Sabine did it and was rewarded with an easy and fast delivery: In the final part our excellent doctor Irene Chua joined us. There were "only" 2 major very painful contractions. After the first I already was able to see the head and with second she was able to push her out. Wet and bloody like she was, she started to suck the breast of Sabine and I was busy to cut the umbilical cord with my Victorinox Army Knife. - Alegra Tea Elena will get her knife on her 20th birthday! - She was so healthy, strong and beautiful!!!

doctor Irene Chua and midwife Maria Jumhasan

The hospital met all our wishes. We were very pleased to have Elaine as our personal assistant. Thank you very much to manage everything!
We could even keep the placenta. Now we need only to find a place where we can plant a try above Alegra Tea Elena's placenta, like we did before in the countries our children were born, so they have a living tree at the place where they have been born.

The name "Alegra" means "cheerful, jaunty". She was already in the belly very lively and active! She was out and so cheerful! She is linked with this name also with her older sister Salina Dija Alegra.

"Tea" means "the gift of God" and goes back to her grand-grandmother Dorli (Dorothea) who lived in the Swiss village Summeri and was all her life a very cheerful character too.

"Elena" means "sun ray, shining light" and goes back to her grand-grandmother. The name also remembers at the beautiful shining full moon, the night she was born. She already covered 2000 nautical miles in the stomach of Sabine...Soon she will sail approx. 8000 nm over the Indian Ocean to "her island"! "St. Helena Island" in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean she will reach when she is about 6 month old and will have crossed the Indian and Atlantic Ocean in her first year.

Please visit Sabine and Alegra Tea Elena. Here the view from their room over Singapore:
view from Sabine and Alegra's room

Check the news when Andri was born! and the first picture of Andri!
Check the news when Salina was born! and the first picture of Salina!
Check out when Noé was born! and the first picture of Noé!

Thank you all to help us to make this special moment to a wonderful experience to us! Special thanks to family Steiner, family Preisig, family Mhaisalkar, Robert; Anna, Dominique, Rachid and Michael!

600 sets of pencils for Nepali kids

The Rotary Club of Yankalilla in District 9520, South Australia, in conjunction with TOPtoTOP Global Climate Expedition has undertaken a project to collect coloured pencils to send to children at Mahendra Jyoti Chaurikharka School Nepal.
We have collected approximately 600 sets of pencils, and 725 sharpeners. The Rotary Foundation has very kindly provided us not only with funds to ship the pencils and sharpeners to Nepal, but have given us extra funding to send 200 colouring-in books as well! The photo shows Don Law and President Elect Gus Gauvin getting ready to pack the boxes (the pencils and sharpeners shown are only a portion of what we have collected!).

In the name of all the children we met in Nepal I like to say a BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU joining this action!
I believe with actions like this you can change the hearts of people and finally the world. Furthermore it makes sense to invest in education. It helps improve directly the situation of these kids and is the key for a sustainable future of our planet in peace. Once again, congratulations!

Kind regards,
dario

Here some more pictures of Alegra:

Alegra awake and asleep