IT HAS now come down to 'solo' versus 'team', and it looks like Ms Linda Tan will have the first go at becoming the pioneer Singaporean woman to scale the world's highest peak.

The 28-year-old life insurance planner leaves at the end of this month for her solo bid at reaching Mount Everest's 8,850m summit. She will be taking on this challenge with a Sherpa guide.

Back in 2004, she was one of the four co-founders of the Singapore Women's Everest Team. The other three were Ms Jane Lee, 24; Ms Sim Yi Hui, 26; and Ms Elza Tan, 27.

They had planned a joint Everest expedition.

But Ms Linda Tan, who works for Great Eastern, told The Sunday Times that some 'incompatibility' and 'personality differences' led her to leave the team two years ago, and to strike out on her own. She has not kept in contact with the others since.

Ms Lee, an administrative officer at Republic Polytechnic, and Ms Sim, a senior executive at YMCA, are now the leader and co-leader respectively of the current six-woman team. Ms Elza Tan left the team to start a family.

The current team had also planned to scale Everest this month but have postponed its bid due to funding difficulties.

Ms Linda Tan, who needed $50,000 for her expedition, did better. Her company and several colleagues decided to sponsor her Everest bid.

Great Eastern's head office in Singapore provided $30,000, while $20,000 was raised by her fellow life planners through a book sale.

Titled Life's Great Journey - Life's 100 Great Quotes: Incorporating 100 Years Of Life's Great Moments, the book, edited by Mr Arthur Goh, has quotes from famous people such as Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi.

Ms Linda Tan is all prepped up and has gone on three mountaineering trips and one ice-climbing trip since she left the team.

She devotes 17 hours a week to physical training. Her weekly regime includes 40-storey stair-climbing with 18kg packs, 10km runs, hiking in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, overnight walks and frequent gym sessions.

Meanwhile, life coach Jensen Siaw helps her to prepare mentally.

If she succeeds, she will be the first Singaporean woman to reach the world's highest peak. The first Singaporean to do so was then National University of Singapore mechanical engineering student Teo Ken Kai in 2005.

The Singapore Women's Everest Team has meanwhile raised about $100,000, far short of the $500,000 it reckons will be needed for its project.

'We have been actively trying to raise funds through various means, such as appeals to government bodies, businesses and the public,' said co-leader Ms Sim.

'We are ramping up our fund-raising campaign so that we can make the climb next year.'

But the team has one concern: A successful bid by Ms Linda Tan means that its members cannot claim to be the first Singapore women to scale Everest. This may affect sponsorship. But Ms Sim hastened to add that the two bids are very different.

'Linda is going solo, so it is much easier for her to get funding,' she said.

'For us, we emphasise on being a team. Even though we had enough funding to send one or two members up, we would rather wait so that the whole team can climb together.'

If they succeed, they will still be the country's first women's team to do so.

Ms Linda Tan agreed that the two attempts are different.

She added: 'Funding is always a big challenge. I am very fortunate to have the support of my company and fellow life planners.'

sameng@sph.com.sg