...was what ODAC24 climbed as a batch for the whole of last week, or technically speaking, from Wednesday to Saturday for the ascent and then the descent of the beautiful mountain called Gunung Yong Yap - 4th highest mountain in Peninsula Malaysia. Incidentally, this is also my first real mountain climbing experience.
But don't be fooled. All of you might be saying, "Chey, I climbed Mount Kinabalu before, highest in the WHOLE OF MALAYSIA. PWNZ JOO KKTHXNUB." I learnt plenty of lessons through this journey, together with my batch, and one of them is that the difficulty of mountain climbing is not just by height, its by an amalgam of factors: Just as
For one, I witnessed my limit. Not just the physical limit, I have reached that far too many times. It's a mixture of all my limits put together that I witnessed, for the very first time. Physical, mental, psychological, everything. And it happened while I was climbing to the summit, through muddy, thorny, and obstacle-filled terrain. If I were to compare the climb to a 2.4km run, it just feels so different. For a 2.4km run, we know when we are reaching the finish, we know all we have to do is to persevere and push on until we can get to the end. But for climbing a mountain, even if the end seems so close (that is, if you can see it - I totally could not due to tree blockage), it can actually be a very long walk away still. I reached the point where I was panting, and usually at this point of physical exhaustion during a 2.4km run, I would just will myself to go on because the end is near in sight. However, this time, I just couldn't. I did not know how far more I had to go on. I did not know what I would be pushing for. I did not know what sort of obstacles the mountain would continue to throw at me as I pushed on. I pushed on, but fatigue sets in simply because I reached my limits. One could say that I probably felt tired due to a range of factors: Ran out of water, did not eat much at all, was losing body heat quickly without knowing it, thin mountain air (these really happened by the way)... But those are simply physical factors, while what I felt was really a breakthrough for me was my mental strength and psychological perseverance. I found my limit for those finally, because they have not really been truly tested before, be it in a jog, during gym, while doing a test. I am glad to say that I kept pushing until I emerged victorious at the top, along with everyone else, with joy and
Undeniably, being fitter in the physical sense does help out in climbing a mountain. For example, the group which climbed before us reached the summit in 4 hours, making it look so easy. We took, say, in between 7-9 hours? Being fitter, stronger, hardier does help in climbing a mountain, but I truly believe that mental strength also plays a pivotal role in mountain climbing. Now I know what to work on to become a better mountain climber personally.
Wearing the same set of clothes for the entire span of six days before I got the chance to bathe was also a truly excellent experience. In fact, my shirt became so dirty that my mother decided to just throw it away :/ "EEEW, so dirty," might be what you would be thinking right now, but it's actually more practical to do so than to change clothes everyday, and then get it dirty again at the end of the day. Saves weight, saves effort in washing, and saves the trouble of changing as well. XD Me and Syafiq truly hardcored the entire expedition, walking through treacherous terrain in our shorts, while everyone else wore their track pants. Truly very proud of that, and I have the multitude of sandfly bites, cuts and scratches (all gotten ON THE LAST DAY! GRRRR!) to show for it.
Everyone worked hard in planning for this expedition for the past few months, and it would have been sad to see rain douse our happy moods and plans. Thankfully, this time there was no rain at all throughout the expedition, making things much easier for us. I shudder to think what would have happened if it had rained (super ultra soft soil... landslide?! AAAAHHH!), but thankfully the weather was nice and sunny all the way through. The temperatures were of course cold, and I was practically sneezing for the entire first day as I fought to acclimatise and get used to the sudden change in conditions my body is used to (I'm extremely intolerant of the cold ><). Night time temperatures are crazy low no matter where you are, in the town or at the summit, even though it becomes unbearable at the summit. Next time I should follow advice and bring the 50% polyester and 50% cotten shirts (made in China! WOOOO!) instead of wearing 100% cotton. Nearly froze to death up there -.-
Technically, I feel all of us have improved definitely with all the basha pitching practice we had, although it was not enough to stop our basha from toppling at the summit -.- However, we got through just fine in terms of technical skills, cooking included as well. Happy to say that me and Syafiq cooked OMGIMBARICECOOKERSTANDARD rice, and of course plenty of other stuff that we managed to cook up. In fact, we brought too much food - pancake mix was alot of extra weight to carry for Siyun ><>
Anyway, we had fun, and it's now time to look forward to Sea Expedition - Codename: SEX.
Presenting to you, ODAC24: 
ivan fed the world.