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Published: November 5th 2008
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Holy smoking Quads, Calfs & Shoes!!!!!!!
When I overheard a group talking about their climb and one guy said "When me & Chris approached a curb we both hesitated and looked at each other with dread" I thought 'Wimps'but now I completely understand!!!!! Let me take you back to the begining...............
So after the palarva of booking the bloody dorm beds on the mountain (As detailed in our last blog!) and after making it to the road just in time to catch the bus, we rollled up outside the park headquarters to a sign informing us that the accomodation in the park (night before climb) was rediculiously expensive!!! so without further ado set off down the road to sniff out some cheap beds for the night..........to our surprise manages to find a couple of pretty cheap bunks......Nice!!
Nic - So the climb: We opted for a longer route up the mountain as we felt like a challenge and wanted to go up and down a different way.....plus the fact that hardly any people do this route made it much more appealing. After an expensive minibus ride to our starting point "Mesilau", we set off with our mandatory guide
'Lasarus' at 8.45am.
It was an immediate ascent, no fannying around with slight inclines, and just as we thought we were getting somewhere we were faced with the steep descent of this "little mountain" that they'd put in the way before the real one!!....so back down to the river to start all over again, this time for real!! We climbed up and up, through varying degrees of vegetation, from jungle and up into pine forests, all the time surrounded by beautiful orchids and pitcher plants (Which were always a perfect excuse to stop and "admire their beauty" while hurridly trying to catch my breath!!!)
Dan - In case we didn't mention the mountain summit lies at 4095.2 meters above sea level and the rest house sits at about 3000 meters which is more than enough to start suffering from altitude sickness and roughly 30% of climbers don't make it to the summit because of this.
After 5 hours we made it to the lodge (pretty good timing considering the average for this route is 7) where we had the best hot shower in the world at 3000m it's pretty cold outside!!!! we agreed to meet Lasarus at
2.30am ready for our summit climb in time for sunrise (guess you know us enough by now, to know we looooooooooovvvveeeeeeeee a good sunrise!!!!!!!) so after a buffet meal (we scoffed as much as we could to get our monies worth) we bedded down at 7.30pm for the night, cold and tired yet satisfyingly full.
Nic - I need to have a rant here, sorry! (if only to help out anyone else planning to do this, and save them a lot of money!)
On each of my many occasions of calling the lodge to book mountain accomodation I asked if we could just book dorm beds because being the cheapies that we are thought that the all inclusive option was far to expensive. I was told each time that this was not possible and the cheapest package they could offer me was 208RM each for a bed in an unheated dorm and included 4 meals. Well, to cut a long story short, the two girls that shared our dorm had been into the office in KK and managed to book their beds with no meals for 60RM each....RRRRrraaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggghhh!!!
Anyway, back to the climb!:
2.15am and the damn
alarm tells us that we've been lying awake for almost 7 hours.....the other people in the resthouse for some reason decided they didn't need any sleep and so subsequently, we never got any either!
We dragged oursleves from under our nice think blankets and into our chilly damp clothes....Dan laughing as I applied layer after layer, of almost everything that I own for the year! and we set off to meet our guide.
2.45am and began the final leg of our ascent.....Soon catching up with everyone else who had left at around 2.30, and somehow finding the energy to overtake them. Every step was a mission at this point, trying to suck what little oxygen their is at this height from the freezing air. We soon found ourselves clinging onto the bare granite and hauling ourselves up the rock face using thick ropes. Thankfully Dan had the brainwave to use our spare thick socks as gloves otherwise I think my fingers would've snapped off and still be way up there attached to a rope!
Dan - This last part was tough, we had to keep stopping to catch our breath and fight off the sickness feeling. Anyway
3 hours later and with one almighty last push we made it to the summit in time for sunrise!! HOWEVER as luck would have it the summit was wrapped in clouds that morning SHAME!!!! but you do get a very big sense of achievement!! and now the descent!!! The REALLY painfull bit!!!
Nic - The only bad thing about making it to the summit in such a quick time, was that we were about an hour early for day break and so had to sit in the freezing cold and wind....yuk!
As soon as we realised that we weren't to be privilaged with a decent sunrise we grabbed our packs and set off on our return, it was way too cold to hang around, and there was a nice big buffet waiting for us at the resthouse for breakfast! The trick to going downhill, we've discovered is to go with gravity, and not go too slowly.....still kills you legs though and we had to stop quite a few times when they got too wobbly!
Dan - When we eventually got down we were so exhausted that I myself could hardly move........We had planned before the climb a
trip to Poring hot springs 40kms away where Volcanic spring water is channelled into pools and baths so that you can soak away the aches & pains of the climb - the best bath we've ever had (although at this point I would've killed for a go in my mums bathtub!!!)
Anyway back to KK now so more from then I guess.
Us
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dad john
non-member comment
hi
Great to hear youre news i'm so pleased for you both and great to speek to you. This last blog brings back memories of the 3 peaks do you remember the weather we had then and me draging you up the last peak Snowden Nice to know you found peanut butter and the way i eat it it's great!!!!!Hope all is well keep the blogs comming LOTSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS LOVE DAD JOHN XXX