A Southeast Asian Odyssey 2,3
© September 2007 Adam Helman
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"Hello MISTER!"
1 A Southeast Asian Odyssey 2,3 © September 2007 Adam Helman |
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| Detailed Map (recommended) |
Lombok Island, June 20... "We must go down", shouts the Indonesian guide.
Clasping my hands as in prayer,
"I beg you that we continue" - then rub my fingers in the manner known
worldwide to mean "You'll get more money".
We continue to the summit of Gunung Rinjani, highest mountain of Lombok
in the Indonesian island archipelago.
The conditions are horrific until leaving the summit ridge some 1,500 feet below:
who would imagine that fingers could numb a mere eight degrees from the Equator?
Back at high camp the guide notes he never took clients under such
hellacious conditions...and never would do so again.
Sumatra, July 12...
"Ini tidak puncak!" - "This is not the summit!", I shout to the lanky guide.
He is surprised that Robert and I are unsatisfied. After all, this subpeak,
overlooking a grand view of the summit craters and much of Sumatra, is ample reward
for every other hiker in these parts.
Peering north Robert and I and spot a heavily forested ridge that appears higher
on the opposite side of the bleak, barren, cratered landscape.
"Kami pergi disana" - "We are going there", I say, pointing north.
The guide thinks we are crazy, and, as nearly all Indonesian men do, sits down
for a smoke.
Robert and I return an hour later, thwarted by an entangled mass of brush that's
impassible without a machete. We have lunch while friendly Indonesian students
make their way to the false "summit", and, as always, engage in a round of conversation
and photography.
Apart from a zealous desire to reach the mathematically highest point of ground,
what else do these two tales have in common?
Prominence - a way of measuring mountains that accounts for their vertical
relief rather than sheer elevation. It is an objective measure of "impressiveness".
A list results - "Earth's Fifty Finest" - the planet's 50 most prominent peaks.
Bob, Robert, and I visit southeast Asia to climb four of them.
Falling 300 feet short (as in story one), or reaching a subpeak (story two), are insufficient.
Such efforts count for nothing to a prominence-oriented peakbagger.
This overwhelming, single-minded pursuit of settingi tingginya - "the very highest",
determines the entire itinerary.
We spend five weeks in Malaysia and Indonesia pursuing
the most prominent peaks they offer.4 Lying along the Pacific Rim of Fire,
these volcanoes are very big indeed. In so doing we climb the highest peaks
on several large islands - peaks whose prominence is ensured by being island highpoints.
All-told our journeys prove a cultural adventure for its own sake -
often traveling where no (western) tourist normally sets foot. This suggests learning
Indonesian is essential knowledge for making critical arrangements
with guides, porters, and local transportation.
Meteorological, social, and gastronomic factors color the palette.
I urge you to read on, sharing an adventure that is, to my knowledge,
unique for a western traveler.
Rinjani summit ridge,
near white-out conditions.
In the abyss, yellow/green rock
stained by toxic, sulfurous fumes.
Gunung Kinabalu - Borneo highpoint
and Earth's 20th most prominent mountain.
Bob Packard atop Gunung Kerinci,
Sumatra highpoint and the last
of our Earth's Fifty Finest summits.
4Puncak Jaya, the New Guinea highpoint, is not visited owing largely to expense.
Expeditions to this peak typically exceed $10,000 per climber.
A Note on Organization
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Adam prepares supper in the Gunung Raung jungle as the local guide watches attentively. |
ach volcano has a unique story, described separately and in chronological sequence. In contrast, for instance, my 2006 account of climbing Aconcagua is arranged by topic, as, in that case, only a single (yet major) effort is involved. I could do similarly here, but, again, that would detract from the individuality of each peak climb.
There are specific topics best described independently of the timeline because they arise on several occasions. Thus Appendix A details transportation, Appendix B health issues, and, most importantly, Appendix C describes food and drink.
Appendix D is a trip summary as posted by Robert as an E-mail message from an Internet café on my birthday in Bukittinggi, Sumatra. Robert communicated our progress in this manner as the journey proceeded.
Appendix E is a nuts-and-bolts trip review from Bob as composed within days of our return to America.
Finally Appendix F provides GPS-derived latitudes and longitudes for key waypoints on several ascents - valuable information to future climbers.
5This on-line mail group discusses and organizes climbs of Javanese volcanoes.
6By Rob Dickinson, this review of large Java volcanoes is valuable reading.
7This mountain-oriented website contains several descriptions of southeast Asian peaks.
However the articles on Gunung Raung and Gunung Marapi (Sumatra) are misleading in that the routes described
do not reach their true summits.
