Thursday, July 05, 2007

I have volcanic rock in my shoes and my legs ache

Here are some photos from our climb up Gunung Rinjani. It was really difficult. The top section of the summit is all loose volcanic gravel. Every step you take your feet slide backwards. It's a scramble for the last hour of the summit climb.

We climbed to the crater rim on the first day, spent half a night, then got up at 3am to start the ascent to the summit. Yes 3am. WTF. It took a very long and painful 3 hours, but we made it for sunrise. Was it worth it? Yes. The view was amazing.

After sliding down (pretty scary) back to camp we ate breakfast and then started the trek down into the crater. We ate lunch by the lake, and then climbed out the other side. I was at the summit at 6am, and on the opposite rim at 6pm. That's a long day!


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