Last Saturday, Jimbo joined a group of 35 other people to climb Gunung Ledang for the second time. It’s been more than 6 months since the last climb. In that time, he has forgotten how tough the climb was! 
This time he did not take many photos and those that he took did not come out well (if you ever want to buy a new camera, buy the Canon, which was Jimbo’s old camera and not the Panasonic Lumix which is his current one).
Let’s dispense with the statistics first.
1. Time started ascend: 0810
2. Time reaching peak: 1300
3. Time to peak: 4 hours and 50 minutes (previous record 4 hours 30 min)
4. Time started descend: 1430
5. Time reaching base: 1730
6. Time to base: 3 hours
7. Total water consumed: 5 liters (inclusive of 2 sips of chlorine treated river water)
8. Food consumed: 1 energy bar, uncountable number of sweets, 6 bananas and half a pack of fried rice
This climb has a few ‘FIRSTS’.
1. It’s the first time Jimbo decided to wear a singlet instead of a T-shirt (the weather has been so hot!!!), which prompted some rather strange comments, like:
a. Do you sun tan a lot? (actually Jimbo swims a lot)
b. Doc! I see you are wearing bare-back today!
c. Bagi you, (the climb) ok-arr, sebab body you ‘sedap’ (a comment from a fellow male climber from another team who was (Jimbo hope) trying to tell Jimbo that the climb is easy for Jimbo because he is fit). Jimbo hopes he did not imply in anyway that his body is ‘delicious’!!! *Sweat*
2. It’s the first time Jimbo climbed wearing Toric contact lenses, prompting some strange remarks as well, such as:
a. Doc, have we met some where before? (from a young climber who previously climbed with Jimbo in the Angsi climb!)
b. Doc, you look 10 years younger!
You judge for yourself, here is a pic below:
3. It was the first time Jimbo saw a cockroach the size of his middle finger, about 3 inches long!
4. It was the first time he forgot to bring his rain coat and in accordance to Murphy’s Law, it rained! No, actually it poured cats and dogs for 1/3 of the descend, rendering Jimbo (and everything else on him) soaking wet! The rain made the trail wet. slippery and dangerous. Quite a few climbers slipped and fell, but thankfully without much damage.
5. It was the first time he caught on camera one (of a few) people who blatantly vandalized the metal plaque at the peak of the mountain. This guy here below is but one of the few who used keys and other metallic stuff to leave their marks at the peak.
I think what he wrote was, “I’m a blardy ass”
6. It was also the first time he encountered a bunch of obviously newbie climbers (from that tiny little red spot down south). Jimbo and company were descending the mountain at rapid speed until they were obstructed by a group of climbers walking slowly down the narrow trail in a single file. They were literally crawling down the mountain. Wondering what was holding up the team, Jimbo inquired and discovered that one of their fellow climber was injured with a sprained ankle and she was hobbling right at the front of the entire team, while the others just slowed to a crawl behind her.
When asked if we could overtake them (it was already past 3 pm at the time and at that speed, there’s no way Jimbo and team could make it back to base before night fall), the last guy of the other team turned around and said curtly, “Well, we have an injured friend and so you will just have to wait…at least until we come to a wider trail”!!!
Jimbo knew there will not be a ‘wider trail’ until at least an hour later. And so, he did a ‘first’ in his entire climbing career:
7. Jimbo mumbled lots of “excuse me, excuse me” and overtook the entire team from down south (Jimbo apologise to the lady whom he accidentally ‘pushed’ aside with his bag, if she happens to read this, he didn’t mean it; he was merely trying to get ahead to keep an eye on 3 young kids from his team who went ahead of him).
Jimbo reached the injured lady at the head of the human convoy and managed to ask how she is and offered her some pain-killers which she declined and so Jimbo and team moved on.
What the team leader of that team from down south should have done is to get 1 or 2 climbers to stay with the injured climber and allow them to descend at their own pace, while letting the others from the team (and other teams) to pass. At the same time, he should either inform the guide or get some of their fastest and fittest to rush ahead to base and get help. It was foolish and dangerous to slow the entire team (and other teams) down because any delay would result in descending in sheer darkness down the slippery and wet terrain and exposing everyone to dangers.
8. It was also the first time that Jimbo and team was delayed by an alleged ‘call of nature’ episode. A fellow climber (Jimbo can’t name names but she is one of his friend on Facebook!) had a sudden urge to do a ‘big’ one while at the peak. A similar episode has happened to her during the Nuang climb. In that climb, Jimbo was also producing ‘bio gas’ by the ton, so he could understand the feeling.
We were descending at good speed when the guide in front suddenly called us to a halt because, according to him, the lady wanted to “ease herself some where in front of the trail” and that she has requested for “some privacy”.
And so we halted.
And we waited.
5 min…10 min…15 min.
And then we got worried. I mean, no one can possibly ‘crap’ so long right?
And so we called out, “Are you ok?”
No answer.
“Are you there?”
No answer.
Then Jimbo dispatched a team of lady climbers to go ahead and so they went, calling the belatedly-wanting-to-do-big-business-lady-climber’s name aloud but they could not locate her!
And then Jimbo’s phone rang.
“I’m ok. I’m somewhere far down the trail. Near a river. I’m heading on first”, said the un-locate-able damsel in gastrointestinal distress.
And so we started the descend again, a good 15-20 minutes lost, with our eyes constantly scanning the trail in case we step on some freshly deposited human organic matter.
At the end of the climb, when met, the now-much-relieved-from-gastrointestinal-distress damsel swore that what she told the guide was that she wanted to run ahead and eventually reached base to ease herself. She swore she did not contaminate the mountain trail!
Oh well, it’s a case of ‘he-says-she-says’, so it will forever remain a mystery. Did she crap or did she not crap on the mountain?!!! LOL!!!!
9. It was also the first time that Jimbo hardly took any pictures on such a long trek. Here are a few of the nicer pics Jimbo took:
The pillar has been painted and a new plaque fixed on it. It wasn’t there during the first climb.
10. It was also the first time that Jimbo found crystals on his way up the mountain. A fellow climber commented that it’s a gift from the princess of the mountain. Jimbo stumbled upon these 2 rocks on the ground while navigating between CP6 and CP7. They were just there, shining away in the sunlight.
Lovely, aren’t they?
Yup! All in all, it was a good and memorable climb.
Will Jimbo do it again?
Probably not.
Mon, 250509 @ 0700
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