Yogyakarta – Five UMY students, the members of Mahasiswa Pecinta Alam (MAPALA) UMY, will do mountain climbing expedition to Mt. Elbrus, Russia. Before their departure, they had an audience with UMY Rector, Prof. Dr. Bambang Cipto, M.A. on Thursday (5/22). In their audience, they explained and gave adequate information about their preparation of expedition to Mt. Elbrus.
As explained by Suwarjono Lempo, manager of the athletes who will mountain climb Mt. Elbrus, they needed six months to prepare everything. Not only the financial matter, have they also needed the support from some parties and the equipment they will need. “But, the most important thing of course is the athletes’ physical condition. The most dangerous condition will be the temperature in Russia. Therefore, we have to prepare lots of food supplies to overcome the temperature problem. We still can handle the technical and tracking problems,” he explained.
Suwarjono also said that, to train the athletes’ physical condition, they cooperate with IKIP UNY Foundation, they also consult to Djukardi Ardiana, an expert on mountain climbing. The athletes will be given basic knowledge on mountain climbing, where they will find different terrains to mountains in Indonesia. “Besides, they will be taught to survive with the local foods. So, for some months we will stop eating rice. Because we can only find bread there, we have to survive by not eating rice,” he explained.
Besides physical training, they also trained for the language and the life style. It is highly important for them to be able to survive in another country. “For language problem, we have asked for help from UMY English Department and Drop In Center UMY for Russian,” he added.
According to Suwarjono, there is another important thing. They will not only do mountain climbing, they will also do some studies on Moslems’ life style there, especially Moslems who live in Terskol, Caucasus. He heard that the city used to be the main road for Moslems in spreading their teaching in the outskirt of Georgia, and the majority of the citizens are Moslems.
“We will conduct a study there for four days. From the study and data collecting, we are planning to make a historical book about Islam History in Caucasus. The books will mostly talk about social-cultural problem in the city. As we collected the data, we will be accompanied by Fixor, so that we can gather valid data. Because most of the citizens speak Russian, not English,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Ahkmad Rasyid Gandi, one of the students who will do the expedition to Mt. Elbrus stated that they will depart on June 28, 2014 from Yogyakarta until July 19, 2014. “We will depart on June 28, 2014, and it will be Ramadhan Month. So, I think we will do our fasting there. It can be an invaluable experience for us, because we will be able to do fasting in a country where Moslems are the minority,” he said.
There will be five students who depart for the mountain climbing; they are Singgih Alnin Muttaqin, Ahkmad Rasyid Gandi, M. Fauzan, Saigunsi Bonita Arimi, dan Suwarjon Lempo. However, only four of them will do mountain climbing and Suwarjono Lempo as the manager will monitor them on the climbing. They will also be accompanied by Sri Atmaja P. Rosyidi, S.T., MSc.Eng., Ph.D., P.E. as the Vice Rector III.
Besides mountain climbing and data gathering, they will also carve MURI record by wearing batik clothes in Mt. Elbrus. They will also cooperate with Indonesian Department of International Affairs, Russian Embassy in Indonesia, the Central FPTI, Bantul Local Government, KONI DIY, DIY Tourism Organization, DIY Culture Organization, MURI, DIY Provincial Government, KAUMY, Pengganggeng Keraton Nyayagyokarto, IKIP UNY Foundation, AAU, and “Mitra Sejahtera” Psychology Institutions. They also do internal cooperation with Kampus Nuansa Press, Ciko UMY, Ikom Radio, RPC, and PSM. (Icha)