Climbing to the summit of Mt. Ophir was no easy task. In fact, I found it to be the most physically demanding task that I have ever done in my whole entire life. After endless buckets of sweat, feelings of insecurity, extreme tiredness, many injuries and a near death experience, I am at last home safely to say that I have managed to push beyond my own physical limits into a different world altogether.
My whole body aches really badly. Every step I take hurts. It seems that every single muscle is either torn of frayed or just feeling terribly sore. Even as I type this, the rough sand that has managed to make its way in between my fingernails make it painful to type. Nicely, just as where my thumb hits the spacebar key, a piece of sand has managed to carve its way into my nail bed, giving me a stabbing pain every time I press the space bar. I guess overall, the experience was all worth it. Very tiring, at the same time, very satisfying.
I've cuts all over my body, bruises from slamming against cave walls, overtly strained both muscles on my shoulder blades. I can't even lift my left arm beyond my neck without a sharp muscle spasm of pain shooting through my body. I've rope burn marks on both palms and I've sprained both ankles. My knees feel really week and my legs are shivering from all that physical exertion. Went I got back to Singapore and lay in my bed. It hurt. Back pain every where from carrying my heavy backpack. Almost feels like my first week in NS again.
In the space of about three days, I've learnt quite a great deal about myself and others, as well as the meaning of never giving up and to endure as well as to excel and achieve the task set out before me. Best of all was that I was not forced to go, I went on my own free will. Given a few opportunites to give up during the trip, yet strangely I steadfastly, and perhaps very stubbornly refused to give up.
Physically, I'm quite poor in fitness. I was never on any sports CCA in school at all. I couldn't even pass my NAPFA 2.4km run ever. And thus far in my entire NS life, I have yet to actually officially pass my IPPT. But I don't even care at all. For the most part of my life, I've taken my health for granted, despite knowing how important it really is. I've not been eating well or exercising well for a long period of time and this has to change after this trip.
One thing about climbing up the various slopes on the mountain is that I can't just give up, because I have to keep up the pace with the rest, despite being the slowest climber in the whole group, as well as doing my best to adhere to the timed limits of daylight. Even as I climb and feel the same way just before I give up running on a 2.4, I know that I can't stop climbing up the slopes even as my leg muscles burn and my heartbeat races past 160 a minute. Too slow a pace and every step is a painful long drawn out process. Too quick and I tire easily.
I sweated so much that my whole shirt was soaked in my sweat. I have drops going down my face all the time no thanks to the high humidity and high temperature in the rainforest climate. Yeah, I sweat so much it even soaked through my pants. All this whilst carrying a 25kg backpack. It is very heavy as my bag is the only one that can accomodate a 6 men tent that weighs around 9 kg. Add a few bottles of water as well as canned food, clothes and equipment and it almost feels like I've become a tortise.
Overall, the whole trip went smoothly. No mishaps or anything. Immigration from Singapore to Johor was really smooth. Basically, our team of about 8 persons had to take a bus ride from Queen Street all the way to Larkin Station in Johor. At Larkin (Reminds me of VINCE LARKIN), another 3 hour bus ride to Segamat, approximately 200 km away. And after that, an hour's ride to the nearest bus stop to the mountain. From there its a half an hour walk to the very bottom of the mountain.
What makes ophir so outstanding is its waterfall. The water is crystal clear, very cold and very clean. However it rained heavily on the way to the mountain. So the waterfall resembled something like brown canal water. It was wet and slippery everywhere. In fact, very slippery as I fell down so many times that I lost count. Even the very initial trek on the parts of the mountain that are open to the public lasting half an hour already made me very tired, with sweat falling all over my face and soaking my shirt.
Beyond the public area at the base up to about 50m above sea level are metal barricades that only allow serious climbers to pass through after paying a small fee. We were probably the last group to pay 10 ringgit per person to the tune of 80 ringgit. Future groups our size will have to fork out about 326 Ringgit as Mt. Ophir is actually having a management change, and thus increased prices.
The climb up was extraordinarily tiring. Just to scale a mountain about 1267m high requires a journey that goes up and down and up and down for about at least 20 km. It was only after I completed the entire course that I read that Mt. Ophir is considered to be 6th toughest mountain to climb in malaysia. For a beginner climber like me with zero experience and practically nil fitness. I would say it is a miracle I actually made it to the top. The climb was very steep most of the time, having to be on all fours, attempting to scale 60 degree slopes most of the time.
As so many people climb Mt. Ophir, the slopes and tracks are severely eroded. The soil erosion is so bad that in some areas one step and I could see a visible sinking of the surface that I was standing upon. Other parts were so badly eroded they were nothing more than barren slick slopes that offered practically no grip at all. At other places, you could see the tree roots, but almost no soil around the roots. Almost as if the whole tree had been plucked out of the ground and put back gently. This made the way up very tricky. Many times, I had to stand on one tree root, grap a few other roots with my hands to haul myself up one step.
Other parts of the slope had steps that were about over a metre high each. The steps having eroded away so badly they resembled 80 degree downhill slants. Each step almost looked like one tiny cave in the track going up 60 degrees in elevation. Towards the higher parts of the mountain, the erosion was terrible. The entire slope was gone leaving nothing but a steep outcrop of rock that went up 80 degrees and the whole thing had to be scaled by means of ropes and tree trunks placked against the stone surfaces.
It would be very hard to describe how hard some of the surfaces are to climb. For most part of the stone surfaces, they were extremely rough and I got many cuts and bruises attempting to climb them. The ropes were of poor quality, often burning my hands and when the ropes went over sharp outcrops of rock, they were severely frayed to the extent of being almost breaking. I would say that the erosion is really the worst part as it made it very very difficult even to climb the normal slopes. With the rain, most of the surfaces became very slick, resulting in many bad falls for me alone. I fell so much that my sleeping mat (tied outside my backpack) was torn up by the rocks in little shreds each time.
Safety was also an issue. I feel that the way I took up was too long an circuitous and it crossed over too many danger points. Once,I slipped and fell and in my attempt to break my fall, I grabbed the nearest branch to me. It happened that the entire branch was covered in spikes and the spikes just sliced through my fingers, causing substantial bleeding. I guess when I fall with a 25kg backpack, I don't really have much chance to break my fall, not to mention that my shoulder joints hurt from all the falling. At other parts, it was so narrow, maybe just 40cm across. To my left, a steep drop going down 100m. To my right, a sleep rise going up 200m. And that part of the ground was very loose and slippery!
Even walking on the rocks was no joke. They were so slippery that I fell down a few times on them. On other occasion when I had to climb ropes on the rocks, I grazed my fingers really badly, and because the ropes were of very poor quality, the often moved in odd directions when weight was placed on them, resulting in me slamming against the granite surfaces on both sides. It was a really painful journey.
Then came this part where I almost died. An extremely steep rock surface. A solid 85 degree slope going up for 50 meters that had to be scaled only by rope. One slip and it wout be a 1070 meter drop down. This is ridiculous, the path up is so circuitous and yet it takes us to a part where its just 90 degrees up for 50 meters when there obviously is an easier albeit longer path up. I climbed up the rope, but my fingers were too tired and too weak. The slippery surface of the rock didn't help and before I knew it, I was dangling about a thousand meters up with a 25kg backpack on two weak hands on a useless piece of rope that was wet. I was basically sliding down the rope once I lost my footing and this burned my palms very badly. I almost dropped off the rope if not for the quick thinking plan of Uncle Yeo to quickly scale up another rope to break my fall. I fell off the rope but managed to land safely because my fall was broken. It was terrible. In the end, everyone resorted to tying the rope around my waist and hauling me up. My palms were bright red after that as I gave thanks to the Lord for my safety.
It took two days to go up to the mountain. The first 2/3 of the journey was basically steep and slippery eroded pathways in the jungle. Then last 1/3 was purely rope climbing on rocky surfaces. Steep wouldn't be a good word to describe what it looked like when I was at the base of any one slope and looked up. The rain made it worse as the surfaces became very slippery and muddy. It was a very very tough climb up. I saw many groups before us give up and descend. Many groups chose not to climb with their backpacks as the surfaces were too steep to do so with additional loads.
For the first night we camped at a small waterfall. I managed to take a swim in a small pool of water there. The water was icy cold. For the most part of the journey, we drank the water from the waterfall. When collected in bottles, the water had a slight yellowish-brownish tinge and I could see all the little tiny bits of sand floating inside. Thank God, no one fell sick, or it would have been far worse. Yet I could say that the water has this slightly sweet taste to it that actually made it taste nice.
After climbing like crazy, we actually managed to reach the summit of the mountain and we were the only group to do so. Thus we camped at the summit for the second night. After us and with the new management in place, no groups will be allowed to camp on the summit anymore. It was dangerous. Just about 3 meters of allowance here and there before it was a 70 degree drop off on both sides. The worst thing was that it was terribly cloudy, so we could not see the sunset.
Uncle Yeo woke me up at about 6a.m. It was very very cold at the summit thanks to the wind. I could see that we were above quite a number of clouds at that altitude. Yet I guess everything became worth it as I glaced upwards - to see a sky totally covered in stars. I counted maybe 350 of them. Stars everywhere. Enhanced by a couple of lone fireflies. I could see a couple of constellations. The stars really look like diamonds in the sky. Very beautiful.
Even though it was very cloudy, we still managed to see a little bit of the sunrise, no orange or red, just pure shades of dark blue turning into light blue that expanded across the horizon. After that we descended. If climbing up is tough. Then climbing down is even tougher. It might be slightly fast and a lot less tiring, yet I can say that it is dangerous as it is very hard to get a secure and firm footing when descending on big steps each more than a meter in height with a big heavy backpack and tree branches blocking the way all around. My feet sweated so much that it became white from all that moisture and pounding on the slopes. Heading down took about 8 hours.
I was so happy once I returned to civilisation. Coke tasted really really really good. A great and tremendous experience indeed. Will continue and update of this post in my next entry.
My whole body aches really badly. Every step I take hurts. It seems that every single muscle is either torn of frayed or just feeling terribly sore. Even as I type this, the rough sand that has managed to make its way in between my fingernails make it painful to type. Nicely, just as where my thumb hits the spacebar key, a piece of sand has managed to carve its way into my nail bed, giving me a stabbing pain every time I press the space bar. I guess overall, the experience was all worth it. Very tiring, at the same time, very satisfying.
I've cuts all over my body, bruises from slamming against cave walls, overtly strained both muscles on my shoulder blades. I can't even lift my left arm beyond my neck without a sharp muscle spasm of pain shooting through my body. I've rope burn marks on both palms and I've sprained both ankles. My knees feel really week and my legs are shivering from all that physical exertion. Went I got back to Singapore and lay in my bed. It hurt. Back pain every where from carrying my heavy backpack. Almost feels like my first week in NS again.
In the space of about three days, I've learnt quite a great deal about myself and others, as well as the meaning of never giving up and to endure as well as to excel and achieve the task set out before me. Best of all was that I was not forced to go, I went on my own free will. Given a few opportunites to give up during the trip, yet strangely I steadfastly, and perhaps very stubbornly refused to give up.
Physically, I'm quite poor in fitness. I was never on any sports CCA in school at all. I couldn't even pass my NAPFA 2.4km run ever. And thus far in my entire NS life, I have yet to actually officially pass my IPPT. But I don't even care at all. For the most part of my life, I've taken my health for granted, despite knowing how important it really is. I've not been eating well or exercising well for a long period of time and this has to change after this trip.
One thing about climbing up the various slopes on the mountain is that I can't just give up, because I have to keep up the pace with the rest, despite being the slowest climber in the whole group, as well as doing my best to adhere to the timed limits of daylight. Even as I climb and feel the same way just before I give up running on a 2.4, I know that I can't stop climbing up the slopes even as my leg muscles burn and my heartbeat races past 160 a minute. Too slow a pace and every step is a painful long drawn out process. Too quick and I tire easily.
I sweated so much that my whole shirt was soaked in my sweat. I have drops going down my face all the time no thanks to the high humidity and high temperature in the rainforest climate. Yeah, I sweat so much it even soaked through my pants. All this whilst carrying a 25kg backpack. It is very heavy as my bag is the only one that can accomodate a 6 men tent that weighs around 9 kg. Add a few bottles of water as well as canned food, clothes and equipment and it almost feels like I've become a tortise.
Overall, the whole trip went smoothly. No mishaps or anything. Immigration from Singapore to Johor was really smooth. Basically, our team of about 8 persons had to take a bus ride from Queen Street all the way to Larkin Station in Johor. At Larkin (Reminds me of VINCE LARKIN), another 3 hour bus ride to Segamat, approximately 200 km away. And after that, an hour's ride to the nearest bus stop to the mountain. From there its a half an hour walk to the very bottom of the mountain.
What makes ophir so outstanding is its waterfall. The water is crystal clear, very cold and very clean. However it rained heavily on the way to the mountain. So the waterfall resembled something like brown canal water. It was wet and slippery everywhere. In fact, very slippery as I fell down so many times that I lost count. Even the very initial trek on the parts of the mountain that are open to the public lasting half an hour already made me very tired, with sweat falling all over my face and soaking my shirt.
Beyond the public area at the base up to about 50m above sea level are metal barricades that only allow serious climbers to pass through after paying a small fee. We were probably the last group to pay 10 ringgit per person to the tune of 80 ringgit. Future groups our size will have to fork out about 326 Ringgit as Mt. Ophir is actually having a management change, and thus increased prices.
The climb up was extraordinarily tiring. Just to scale a mountain about 1267m high requires a journey that goes up and down and up and down for about at least 20 km. It was only after I completed the entire course that I read that Mt. Ophir is considered to be 6th toughest mountain to climb in malaysia. For a beginner climber like me with zero experience and practically nil fitness. I would say it is a miracle I actually made it to the top. The climb was very steep most of the time, having to be on all fours, attempting to scale 60 degree slopes most of the time.
As so many people climb Mt. Ophir, the slopes and tracks are severely eroded. The soil erosion is so bad that in some areas one step and I could see a visible sinking of the surface that I was standing upon. Other parts were so badly eroded they were nothing more than barren slick slopes that offered practically no grip at all. At other places, you could see the tree roots, but almost no soil around the roots. Almost as if the whole tree had been plucked out of the ground and put back gently. This made the way up very tricky. Many times, I had to stand on one tree root, grap a few other roots with my hands to haul myself up one step.
Other parts of the slope had steps that were about over a metre high each. The steps having eroded away so badly they resembled 80 degree downhill slants. Each step almost looked like one tiny cave in the track going up 60 degrees in elevation. Towards the higher parts of the mountain, the erosion was terrible. The entire slope was gone leaving nothing but a steep outcrop of rock that went up 80 degrees and the whole thing had to be scaled by means of ropes and tree trunks placked against the stone surfaces.
It would be very hard to describe how hard some of the surfaces are to climb. For most part of the stone surfaces, they were extremely rough and I got many cuts and bruises attempting to climb them. The ropes were of poor quality, often burning my hands and when the ropes went over sharp outcrops of rock, they were severely frayed to the extent of being almost breaking. I would say that the erosion is really the worst part as it made it very very difficult even to climb the normal slopes. With the rain, most of the surfaces became very slick, resulting in many bad falls for me alone. I fell so much that my sleeping mat (tied outside my backpack) was torn up by the rocks in little shreds each time.
Safety was also an issue. I feel that the way I took up was too long an circuitous and it crossed over too many danger points. Once,I slipped and fell and in my attempt to break my fall, I grabbed the nearest branch to me. It happened that the entire branch was covered in spikes and the spikes just sliced through my fingers, causing substantial bleeding. I guess when I fall with a 25kg backpack, I don't really have much chance to break my fall, not to mention that my shoulder joints hurt from all the falling. At other parts, it was so narrow, maybe just 40cm across. To my left, a steep drop going down 100m. To my right, a sleep rise going up 200m. And that part of the ground was very loose and slippery!
Even walking on the rocks was no joke. They were so slippery that I fell down a few times on them. On other occasion when I had to climb ropes on the rocks, I grazed my fingers really badly, and because the ropes were of very poor quality, the often moved in odd directions when weight was placed on them, resulting in me slamming against the granite surfaces on both sides. It was a really painful journey.
Then came this part where I almost died. An extremely steep rock surface. A solid 85 degree slope going up for 50 meters that had to be scaled only by rope. One slip and it wout be a 1070 meter drop down. This is ridiculous, the path up is so circuitous and yet it takes us to a part where its just 90 degrees up for 50 meters when there obviously is an easier albeit longer path up. I climbed up the rope, but my fingers were too tired and too weak. The slippery surface of the rock didn't help and before I knew it, I was dangling about a thousand meters up with a 25kg backpack on two weak hands on a useless piece of rope that was wet. I was basically sliding down the rope once I lost my footing and this burned my palms very badly. I almost dropped off the rope if not for the quick thinking plan of Uncle Yeo to quickly scale up another rope to break my fall. I fell off the rope but managed to land safely because my fall was broken. It was terrible. In the end, everyone resorted to tying the rope around my waist and hauling me up. My palms were bright red after that as I gave thanks to the Lord for my safety.
It took two days to go up to the mountain. The first 2/3 of the journey was basically steep and slippery eroded pathways in the jungle. Then last 1/3 was purely rope climbing on rocky surfaces. Steep wouldn't be a good word to describe what it looked like when I was at the base of any one slope and looked up. The rain made it worse as the surfaces became very slippery and muddy. It was a very very tough climb up. I saw many groups before us give up and descend. Many groups chose not to climb with their backpacks as the surfaces were too steep to do so with additional loads.
For the first night we camped at a small waterfall. I managed to take a swim in a small pool of water there. The water was icy cold. For the most part of the journey, we drank the water from the waterfall. When collected in bottles, the water had a slight yellowish-brownish tinge and I could see all the little tiny bits of sand floating inside. Thank God, no one fell sick, or it would have been far worse. Yet I could say that the water has this slightly sweet taste to it that actually made it taste nice.
After climbing like crazy, we actually managed to reach the summit of the mountain and we were the only group to do so. Thus we camped at the summit for the second night. After us and with the new management in place, no groups will be allowed to camp on the summit anymore. It was dangerous. Just about 3 meters of allowance here and there before it was a 70 degree drop off on both sides. The worst thing was that it was terribly cloudy, so we could not see the sunset.
Uncle Yeo woke me up at about 6a.m. It was very very cold at the summit thanks to the wind. I could see that we were above quite a number of clouds at that altitude. Yet I guess everything became worth it as I glaced upwards - to see a sky totally covered in stars. I counted maybe 350 of them. Stars everywhere. Enhanced by a couple of lone fireflies. I could see a couple of constellations. The stars really look like diamonds in the sky. Very beautiful.
Even though it was very cloudy, we still managed to see a little bit of the sunrise, no orange or red, just pure shades of dark blue turning into light blue that expanded across the horizon. After that we descended. If climbing up is tough. Then climbing down is even tougher. It might be slightly fast and a lot less tiring, yet I can say that it is dangerous as it is very hard to get a secure and firm footing when descending on big steps each more than a meter in height with a big heavy backpack and tree branches blocking the way all around. My feet sweated so much that it became white from all that moisture and pounding on the slopes. Heading down took about 8 hours.
I was so happy once I returned to civilisation. Coke tasted really really really good. A great and tremendous experience indeed. Will continue and update of this post in my next entry.
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