You might notice a lack of photo’s, that’s because I spent the
last two days shrouded in mist. So obviously the scenery was rubbish but the
experience was interesting. I paid 850 Ringget ($260) for 2 days and 1 night. I
was picked up at 7.30am Sunday morning, along with 2 men we were driven two
hours to the bottom of the mountain to meet our guide ‘Nice’. He quickly handed
us our packed lunch (sandwiches and fruit) and joined us in the taxi to the
entrance of the national park. Five hours later we had risen to 3272m (you
start at 1866m) and walked only 6.5km, the altitude makes your heart pound and
of course it becomes more difficult to breathe but a nice slow ascent means no
headaches. The climbers we met descending sadly informed us that they were not
allowed to climb to the summit due to bad weather. Laban Rata turned out to be a very well run
well stocked restaurant but the hotel part had no heating or hot water. We tucked into a 4.30pm dinner then in bed by
6pm, amazingly I slept at this time. I did wake up around 10pm and heard the
sheets of rain pouring down outside and snuggled in feeling sure we wouldn’t be
allowed to make the ascent either. Before I knew it the rest of my dorm was
stirring at 2am to get a report from their guides and eat a first breakfast. I
was right the ascent wasn’t possible and I really wasn’t that fussed, the
conditions were pretty terrible. Suddenly 3.30am it was on and we only had 2
hours to get to the summit to see the sunrise, a little more than 2km away and an
ascent to 4095m. With only the light of my head torch to guide my way (thanks
Steve and Julie for that birthday present) I start the lonely arduous task. I quickly
realised that I was severely underequipped for the journey. My wet weather gear
was a 5 Ringget pancho, my warm clothing was a huge sweater, gloves and hat
borrowed from Lucy the owner of the homestay I was based in KK, I did have good
shoes but they were soon completely drowned in water. After a couple of flights
of stairs I got to the ‘white rope’ initially this was used to absail up the
face of a rock but mostly it was the only source of guidance. Our team of three
quickly abandoned each other, the Italian was determined to be first to the
summit, the lovely guy from Hong Kong and the guide were really slow going and
I was plodding along in the middle. I was checked in at the summit hut and the
cold really set in, at 5.40am I had 200m to go the viewing point and if there
had been a sunrise I would have missed it by 10 minutes, the Italian descended saying he couldn’t
stand it any longer, as the arrangement was to descend as a group this meant I
had to turn around (thank goodness) we descended with the pale morning light
giving us some confidence. Back at the
hotel I scrambled to find my dry clothes and after a quick second breakfast
headed back to bed in an attempt to warm up. The descent was a muscle tingling,
knee crunching 4 hours, I was grateful that Lucy had convinced me to take a
hiking stick with me as I am happy to report my knees are fine and only have
only slight muscle soreness in my thighs, though this may grow as the day goes
on.
