29 April 2012 Batu Caves Rock Climbing Trip (^^)/

It took me a very looooooong (typical sabahan!) time to finally decide to have it a go for this trip or not. I have too many plans already that I was afraid I couldn't make it for this one. But outdoor climbing is just so tempting especially when you heard so many stories about the place that your friends are going.. So yeah.. went to www.airasia..com and got me tickets as usual!

So.. This is the picture taken inside the bus from LCCT to One Utama. We went to Camp5 on our first day. I was there until 4.30pm and did some bouldering and lead climbs. The routes were awesome with many many types of handholds. But some handholds are just far off in some of the routes that I finally gave up. I'm quite a scaredy-catwhen it comes to lead climbing. I hate the swing when you fell off and it's just too tiring to restart the climb after you've fallen!

 We headed to Damai Cave as early as 8.30 am on the second day. It was cloudy that morning; just nice to early start the outdoor climb. I was so psyched when I saw the wall! It was huge and tall and and and wow! I guess I was so excited because my last outdoor was on September last year and I've been training for a month for this trip.. I was also excited to see the result of my crash training hehe

Me signature pose! \(^^)/

There are actually three sections for climbing in Batu Caves; the Damai wall (the site we were in), Nanyang and Nyamuk. The Damai part consist of easier routes and harder ones can be found in Nanyang and Nyamuk. The rest of the climbers went to Nanyang and Nyamuk on the 4th and last day of the trip. I went back earlier T_T

  

Actually, I only did an outdoor lead climb onc ewhich was my last climb in Kuching before we head back to KK. I don't know why I was so confident to do lead climb that morning. But that day it was slightly different from the one that I did in Kuching. See all those dangling metal thing on my waist? Those are called quickdraws. In Kuching, those things were already attached to the bolts but on that day I have to bring them up with me, attach them to the bolt and clip in the rope.  

 

Manage to clean the route \(^^)/ Yeehaw!!!!!! I did 5 more lead climbs after that and one top rope at a 6b+ route. I'm not going to upload too many pictures of me climbing. They are just rocks and my backside.. :P

The heat can be deadly in the afternoon. There's nothing to shade you as you climb under the sun. I can still hold the rocks but it was my feet that was hurting. The soles of climbing shoes are made of rubber and they absorb heat. I swear I felt my feet burnt! When I took my shoes off, my feet were so red! The pic above actually shows the cracks on the sole.

That night we spent a few hours bouldering in Madmonkeyz. I was too tired and only tried some routes. made some new friends too :)

This is our group photo. This is actually the right side of the Damai wall. I did 2 lead climbs at this part of the wall on my last day there. The routes were harder than the left side since there were more crimps at this side.

Hurm.. Damai wall is exciting but in terms of difficulty, I think Batman cave's  routes were tougher because it is an overhang. I love this trip (^^) I'll come back to Damai again to finish up the routes and will also try Nanyang and Nyamuk some day :)

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Parasailing & Flyfish! (^^)

Another thing that I was excited about Mida's trip to Sabah was that we planned to do water rafting in Padas River. It is among the best spot in Malaysia and some even said it is among the best in South East Asia; the rapids range from grade 3 to 4...

But.. When we reach Beaufort to ride the antique train to Tenom, we were told that there was a land slide and we have to cancel the trip. I was sooooooooooo sad. But of course, I already have a backup plan in mind (^^)v

 

Me, in front of the Beaufort train station. We actually woke up at 5.00 am that morning. You have to depart early from KK to Beaufort to catch the train to Tenom that departs at 7.30am. I kept telling Mida along the way that I was excited about riding the ancient train.. 

So, we went island hoping instead! \(^^)/

This activity was actually scheduled on Sunday; that's the day after we descend from the mountain. And luckily we went that Thursday because our leg muscles were aching after the descend.

We were lucky to arrive at the jetty just before 10.30am because the next boat after that was at 1.30 pm.We bought 2 tickets for transfer to 3 islands and that cost RM43/person. We paid RM60/person for the parasailing.

We did the parasailing in Sapi island. Firstly,you have to wear that blue yellow thing that looks more like a giant diaper. It actually looks like a giant harness but I don't know why I can't figure out how to fasten it haha

At first, I'd wanted to do it alone but the guy at the counter told us it would be boring to do the single parasailing so we took the double parasailing package. And yes, you will enjoy it even more if you have a partner beside you because you can chat as you hover and enjoy the scenery.. And also it is more exciting to scream together as you go up and down during the parasailing haha

It's not scary at all but we screamed a lot.. Maybe because it is more fun to scream though there's nothing to scream about haha Or I think we were just too excited that we screamed a lot

We parasailed for a good 15 minutes and throughout that the guys had let us up so high that we can see all the islands and slowed down the boat a bit and let us dip our legs into the water. We were told to bend our legs when dipping them into the water. I still can't think of the rationale of that, though.

This is one of the dipping. Well, during this, half of our body was dipped.(^^)/ FUN!

Our smiley face parachute!!!!

In Manukan we decided to try the flyfish. Paid RM60/person. The person in charge told us this would be extreme and tiring and we might fall into the water. I guess he was trying to scare us but we were not threatened by his warnings, of course. Siap reply dengan angkuh lagi "Bole bha kalo extreme. We like extreme!"

A chinese couple tried it first before us. It looked scary because the boat have to stop for like 5 times because the girl fell from her seat (not a very proper seat, of course. Just this bump on the buoy where you can sit on). There's also a handle for you to grip on.

This ride also goes for 15 minutes. When we didn't fall after a few minutes spin, we noticed that the boat went faster and faster. The buoy flew and was in a vertical position many times. To me, it was more like riding a mad bull. I've never held a handle so tight like that before. It was like holding for dear life though it was actually to avoid from falling into the water and we really want to prove to the guy that we are EXTREME haha

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Via Ferrata 21st April 2012 \(^^)/ Love it!!!!!!

Like I said in my previous post, the idea of doing Via Ferrata just sort of popped out from thin air when a friend told me he was going to do it early April.. Guess what.. He had diarrhea the day before his climb and cancelled the whole trip!!!!!!!

Via Ferrata cost A LOT ok! The price varied depending on the travel agent. Ours cost RM 1660. My friend who cancelled his trip paid RM 1500 but another friend of mine who did via Ferrata a few days before us paid RM 1070 (-_-"). I'm not sure if they allow walk-in because from what I heard, you must book through a local travel agent because the company is actually a company based in Singapore.

If the trip is cancelled, there'll be no refund. Other reasons that can cause cancellation other than the climber being unfit are, failure to reach pendant hut before the briefing (3.30 pm-4.30 pm) and bad weather. It was very clear why weather is important when we reach Laban Rata.  Those rocks definitely will turn into waterfall when it rains. A HUGE WATERFALL!

Via Ferrata is nothing new in Europe but is still unpopular in Malaysia though ours is actually the world's highest Via Ferrata. Via Ferrata is actually in Italian which means 'Road of Iron'. The history of Via Ferrata goes back to world war II where it was first built to ease military men when moving about the mountains in Europe during the war. So, in Europe there are like hundreds of Via Ferrata and according to our dorm mate, Joe, you can just buy yourself a guidebook and explore it with a bunch of friends. You also need the right equipment, of course :)

Via Ferrata consist of fixed cables, ladders and bridges. There are two routes in Mt. Kinabalu, 'Walk the Torq' and 'Low's Circuit'. Walk the Torq is a shorter route suitable for those who are keen of trying but too afraid to do the extreme. This route is only about 400m long. Half vertical and half horizontal.

Low's circuit, the one that we did, is 1.2 km long. 300m vertical route, 300m hike in the forest (forest ka tu ah??) and another 600m horizontal route.

So as you can see, the basic gears are a harness, two slings with an automatic lock carabiners attached to each end and a dynamic rope.. 

For your attire, please refer to the above beautiful models picture.. Hehe 

You will need a pair of sport shoes with good gripping sole, thick clothing since it will be quite windy and a pair of sunnies to shade your eyes from the sun (and untuk bergaya!). As you can see, Mida is wearing a pair of jeans and actually I was wearing another pants inside. When it gets too cold, you can feel your leg stiffen so it is important to wear just enough cloth to insulate you..

                                                

Another important thing is you must be someone who is not afraid of heights. But, lets say you still want to challenge yourself despite your fear, you can still proceed of course but it'll definitely take a longer time to finish. And as a consequence of that you'll be late for your descend and most probably you won't get your certificate because the office, which is at the entrance of Kinabalu Park, closes at 5pm.. Have to come another day to get it. Get me? The time to finish also varied depending on your fitness, pace and level of confidence. If you're not confident, your pace is of course will be slower. The longest time ever to finish was 13 hours. Bear in mind, the weather is unpredictable there.

So actually, there are three of us including Hillary the trainer who was behind the camera. We tied the rope to our harness and were 3m apart from each other. So as you walk, the two carabiners will be attached to the steel cable while the rope is to be slipped into that loop. The sling is elastic and the dynamic rope also has some degree of elasticity so this will give you lesser impact if you fall.

Via Ferrata is actually safe. You just have to be confident and you must trust your gears.After a few meters from the starting point, we were asked to do lean back like in the picture. You just lean back without holding the sling. I did this quite a number of times during my climbing trips so I didn't hesitate. But surprisingly Mida only hesitate to let go of her hands for a few seconds. Berani ni orang!

O ya, I  forgot to mention that the trainer will always be the last person in the line. As you can see, in our group I'm the leader. Remember I mentioned that we have a cut off time during our ascend so that we reach Pendant Hut just in time for the briefing. Well, the briefing was to brief climbers on the 'actions'. We were trained on how to attach carabiners and how to put the rope inside the metal loop. For the leader, it's carabiners first followed by the rope. As for the rest, it'll be rope first followed by carabiners.

In the vertical route, there's actually a few meters horizontal route like this one. This part is so so so vertical! 

                                                                                                           

This is another part of the vertical route. You go down those ladders for a few hundred meters. There are parts where you have to change sides. One thing about this via Ferrata is it is built according to the size of Frenchmen. So the ladders can sometimes may be too far apart. For a person like me who is a shorty, I sometimes need to really extend my body so that my foot can reach the next foot hold. But you can also step on the rock because it's rough so the friction is excellent :)

You can rest for a few minutes at this flat surface that's just enough to accommodate around 5 climbers at one time. We got to enjoy lovely view from there because the sky was so clear. Not too cloudy. We were actually sitting at the edge so memang feel!

This is the suspension bridge. This is our first frightening encounter during this activity. The plank is quite far from the rock, so I really really have to spread my legs to get onto to the plank. It was shaking when I was trying to attach the carabiners to the bridge's cable. And when both my legs were already on the planks, I looked down and saw this deep ravine!

To be honest, my knees were shaking!!!!!!!!!

And when Hillary joined us on the plank, he deliberately shook the bridge!!!!!!!!! We were screaming on top of our lungs!!!!!!!! Sangat scary.. (-_-")

This is the 3-cable suspension bridge which was less scary or maybe we already got used to it (cepat kan  kami immune? :p) We even jumped on it! (^^)v

 

 This is the last suspension bridge before the horizontal route

 This is a part in the horizontal route. Not many pictures during the horizontal route, though. It was getting foggy.

  

 We're all done!!!!!! (^^)/

  

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