2007 December
Mt Kosciuszko, NSW
Australia's highest mountain, 2228 meters
3 hours (to summit and back)
Post Script
A re-visit to Mt Kosciuszko and Mt Townsend
was made from Dead Horse Gap in 2011 April.
Refer to my blog and photos in:
http://mntviews.blogspot.com/2011/04/kosciuszo-muellers-peak-townsend-nsw.html
A much better way to enjoy the beauty of
Kosciuszko Nation Park
is to do a circuit walk ...
- Starting from Charlotte Pass.
- Head north to Blue Lake.
- Then climb:
Little Twynam
Mt Twynam
Carruthers Peak
Mt Townsend
Mt Kosciuszko
- And back to the car ...
Thus bagging the 3 highest peaks of Australia
(Kosciuszko, Townsand and Twynam),
all in one day.
Photos and write up on such a trip are in:
http://mntviews.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/kosciuszko-townsend-twynam-carruthers.html
Prolog
This Christmas,
met up with the Kai family at Thredbo,
and went for a walkie on the roof of Australia.
In the past,
we always met once a year in Melbourne.
This time, it is a pleasant change
from the usual routine.
Mt Kosciuszko
2228 meters, that is how high,
ooops, I mean how low Kosciuszko is.
Ah well, Australia doesn't have high mountains.
Kosciuszko is the highest we've got.
There are many ways to reach the summit.
Easiest is to take the Kosciuszko Express Chairlift
at Thredbo.
In summer, this is the only chairlift operating.
Get off at the top station,
then follow an eco-friendly raised mesh walkway
all the way to the peak.
Total walking time is around 3 hours,
level-ish walk almost all the way.
Well, that was how we did it, too simple !
Pictures
1) On the Kosciuszko Express Chairlift.
- Looking back towards Thredbo
2) On the same chairlift.
- Looking towards Eagles Nest station,
the top station
3, 4) Eco-friendly raised mesh walkway.
- Round hill in the middle of the 2 pictures:
Mt Kosciuszko, 2228 meters
5, 6) Scenery around the roof of Australia.
7) Lake Cootapatamba.
- Australia's highest named lake
- You can take a swim,
but the water would be very cold.
8) Me (left) and Kai at the summit.
Mt Townsend
Mt Townsend, Australia's 2nd highest mountain
is only about 2 hours away one-way northward
(5-km's walk, one-way).
We didn't climb it this time.
My knees weren't feeling well throughout this year.
But one day, I hope to be back here again
and climb Mt Townsend as well.
Keep tracking this blog !!!
Post Script
Made it to Mt Townsend a few times since.
2 of my blogs and photos:
- From Charlotte Pass:
Little Twynam
Mt Twynam
Carruthers Peak
Mt Townsend
Mt Kosciuszko
https://mntviews.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/kosciuszko-townsend-twynam-carruthers.html
and
- From Dead Horse Gap:
Mt Kosciuszko - Muellers Peak - Mt Townsend
https://mntviews.blogspot.com/2011/04/kosciuszo-muellers-peak-townsend-nsw.html
2007 June
Diamond Head Crater, Hawaii
1-hour hike (to and back)
Prolog
When in Honolulu,
you must and you should and you just have to
hike up the Diamond Head Crater.
It is Hawaii's premier natural landmark
and is recognized around the world
as a symbol of Honolulu.
Getting there by public transport
To get there, take the Blue Line Trolley.
Get off inside the Diamond Head Crater.
You know you are inside the crater
when the Trolley passes through a tunnel
drilled through the crater wall.
The track
The track is steeped in history.
You walk on the same path
as the US soldiers did during WWII.
They trudged daily up this trail
to the summit (232 meters)
to look out for Japanese warships.
The track consists of many switchbacks,
steep stairways, long dark tunnels,
and a spiral stairwell.
When you reach the top,
you are presented with a magnificient panorama
- of the Oahu coast
- Honolulu city
- and Pearl Harbour
!!!
Pictures
1) The track starts here.
- The summit is the first peak
on the left of the 3 humps.
2) Zooming to the peak.
3, 4) You can see the zigzag swtichbacks
in these 2 photos.
5) There are 2 of these long dark tunnels.
- There is no light inside them.
- I think the authorities want to recreate
the atmosphere as it was during the war.
- It is quite safe to walk in the dark ...
You can hang on to the rail.
6) And there are 2 of these looong stairs.
7) And a circular stairwell.
8, 9) Need to bend down to get through this hole.
- Here is a tip: Don't wear a mini skirt.
- If you insist, then put on underpants.
10) At the summit.
11, 12, 13, 14)
Breath-taking views of the Oahu coast and Honolulu.
15) You can make out shape of the circular crater.
- The small black dot near the centre of the photo
is the road tunnel through the crater wall.
2007 June
Mauna Kea, Hawaii
Easy 10-minute climb
Taking a breather from heavy duty climbing ...
Prolog
After seeing an article in a magazine about
red hot lava flowing out from a volcano in Hawaii,
I just had to fly out to see it.
Although friends suggested the red hot girls
on Waikiki beach would be far more interesting.
Anyway, since I was in Hawaii,
I just had to climb Mauna Kea,
highest mountain in Hawaii at 4200 meters,
and higher than Malaysia's Kinabalu.
( Kinabalu is one of my overseas climbing trips.
See this link:
https://mntviews.blogspot.com.au/2009/03/2005-sep-malaysia-kinabalu.html ).
Road to Mauna Kea
In typical American fashion,
a beautiful road was built all the way to the its top.
No wonder so many Americans are so fat.
They don't need to do much exercise !!!
This road is described as narrow and treacherous
in the Mauna Kea Visitors' Center website,
but that is because they have never seen
some of our Aussie roads !!!
It took only about an hour and a half to drive
from Hilo, a coastal town
on the east side of Big Island,
to the top of Mauna Kea.
The road doesn't quite reach the summit.
You need to park the car,
then take a 10-minute walk.
Mauna Kea summit
Aside from a few astronomers
working on their telescopes,
there was no visitor at the top ...
very quiet.
This was amazing !!!
I had only climbed two big mountains so far ...
Kinabalu and Kilimanjaro.
Both had heaps of people paying heaps of money
for climbing permits
and braving the torturous hikes to the summit.
In contrast, here,
one can visit such a big mountain
in the comfort of a car for free,
yet there was not a soul around ... amazing !!!
Just proves when a thing is free,
no one wants it.
Put a large price tag on it
then everyone thinks it is valuable
and wants a piece of it !!!
Road side scenery to Mauna Kea
Scenery is beautiful !
1, 2, 3) Road side scenery.
- On the way to Mauna Kea
4) The 4-wheel drive I hired.
All car hire companies stipulate you can't take
a 2-wheel drive car to Mauna Kea.
You must hire a 4-wheel drive.
Mauna Kea summit
5) Mauna Kea is in the distance.
6) This is Mauna Kea.
You can see the 10-minute track
leading to the summit (from a carpark).
Because of the short drive from the coast
at sea level to here at 4200 meters,
you can feel the effect of low oxygen level.
Each step in the walk takes some effort
and some panting.
7) Mauna Kea again.
You can just make out me walking towards
the trig at the summit.
8) The trig marking the summit.
Scenery around the summit
Fantastic scenery from the summit !!!
9) This pic from the summit is like a moonscape !
10) Another view.
11) One more view from the summit.
The white blot in the centre is a telescope.
Video from the summit
A 360 panoramic video from the summit is in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_CWREdCZdc
2006 February: 6-day trip
Kilimanjaro via Rongai Route
Tanzania
Organiser
The trip was organised by World Expedition.
They arranged a bus transfer
from Nairobi in Kenya,
to a hotel in Marangu in Tanzania,
at the foothill of Kilimanjaro.
So my first stop in Africa was Nairobi in Kenya..
Health checkup by a young doctor
Prior to the trip,
World Expedition wanted to know
whether I was healthy wealthy and wise.
The wealthy part was easy ...
I just had to pay up fully for the trip.
The healthy and wise bits
needed a doctor's signature.
So off I went to see my local doctor
who happened to be a young chap.
When told he needed to certify that
I was of sound mind and sound health,
he sent me packing to consult a specialist,
at the same time muttering that an old man
like me who wanted to climb Kilimanjaro
should have his head examined.
Geez, just because I am older than him,
doesn't mean he can call me old ...
I hate young doctors !!!
By a female doctor
Anyway, I panicked.
A specialist might find some skeletons
in the closet ...
like iron deficiency or some technicalities
that would ground me from climbing
high mountains.
And besides, it would take ages
to book a specialist.
Our Aussie health system was a bit of a mess.
So I went to see a female doctor
in the next suburb instead.
And also took along my
Kinabalu climbing certificate.
The Kinabalu certificate did wonders.
It was a beautifully printed piece of paper,
full of Sabah's colourful fauna and flora.
The doctor saw it and she loved it.
And I helped along by exaggerating
that Kinabalu was high.
"Very Very High", I emphasized,
even though it is a mere mole hill
compared to Kilimanjaro.
Without asking too many questions,
she signed that I was of sound mind
and sound health.
Phew !!!
I loved female doctors !!!
Nairobi
Back to Nairobi ...
It was a depressing place.
Groups of seemingly unemployed men,
standing around streets doing nothing.
I dared not step outside the hotel.
Isn't Nairobi's nickname Nai-Robbery
or Night Robbers or something similar !?!.
Glad I was out of the place and on a shuttle bus
to Marangu the next day.
Decide on a route to climb Kilimanjaro
Usually I don't sleep well out of
my own bed at home.
So I chose the shortest possible route
for this climb,
to get it done as quickly as possible,
knowing that I may manage only
2 or 3 hours of sleep per night.
Well,
the shortest route was Marangu Route - 5 days.
I gave this the flick because I was warned
it was a horror track, too dusty.
Rongai Route
The next shortest route was the Rongai Route,
6 days.
It tackled Kilimanjaro from the North side.
So I picked this one.
But if I were to do Kilimanjaro again,
I would choose one the routes which approaches
the mountain from the western side ...
because you would get a marvellous view
of the large white ice field on the western flank.
Whereas the other sides are quite
barren and brown.
It is a pity.
Photographs of Kilimanjaro from 30 years ago
showed a beautiful white ice cap
around the entire mountain top.
Global warming has since melted away
much of the ice.
Our group
At the hotel in Marangu,
I met the other 10 climbers in our group.
They were a friendly bunch of people.
And throughout the climb
we encouraged and supported each other,
which helped to explain why
all 11 of us made it to the summit.
Although one young female of our group,
Pippa, attributed her success to Milo ...
because she always scooped in
10 spoonfuls of that stuff into her cup
whenever she had a drink.
Sort of like Popeye gulping down
Spinach to get his strength ... haha !!!
The trip
As for me, it was a piece of cake ...
very easy to hike to the top.
From various blogs on the internet,
it sounds as if one needs to be a
super-fit human being.
Could it be because all the authors
liked to jazz up the difficulties
to make their stories interesting ?
One reason why I find the climb easy was
because the guides walked very slowly.
So slow that if it was any slower,
we would be walking backwards.
This slow walk was called "po-le po-le" in Swahili.
And throughout the climb,
the guides kept reminding us to "po-le po-le".
Actually, because of the low oxygen level,
it was quite impossible to walk fast
without getting into heavy panting.
On the way down, I saw a group of
one-legged amputees on crutches on their way up.
The guides said this was quite common.
They also said they had taken
groups of blind men to the top.
So I think any reasonably fit person
should be able to climb Kilimajaro.
Some photos
1) Photo taken at Namanga, a town right on
the border between Kenya and Tanzania.
- After the immigration check on our luggage,
the bags were loaded back on the bus.
- Note that all baggages were put
on top of the bus.
- The red bag in this photo is mine.
2) Our mass tent
where we had our dinner and breakfast.
- Note the Milo can on the middle of the table
which Pippa liked so much.
3) Me ... on the Rongai Route.
- Kilimanjaro, the volcano, is in the background.
- Its top is a crater created by a volcanic explosion
eons ago.
- Hence the summit is not a cone shape.
It is simply the highest point on the crater rim.
(On the left side of this photo)
4) The porters ... they were amazing ...
flimsily dressed and not afraid of the cold.
- In the morning after we started our hike,
they packed up our tents,
carried all our stuff on their head,
and overtook us.
- By the time we reached the next camp site,
they already had the tents properly set up.
For the record:
There were 31 porters + 4 guides + 1 cook
+ 11 of us climbers.
5, 6) The camp site on day 3 at Mawenzi Tarn.
- The white stuff was snow from
previous day's storm.
7) Our group at the saddle point
between Mawenzi Peak and Kilimanjaro.
- Leading guy was the chief guide.
- Scenery was desert-like
because we were at 4500 meters.
At this altitude, nothing grows ... too cold.
The 5th day was the summit day.
On that day, we waked up at midnight,
had a small meal,
then started the climb at 12:30am.
We were in luck, clear sky, hardly any wind,
no wind-chill factor to worry about.
When we reached the top at 5895 meters,
the temperature was a mild -5C at 9:30am.
8, 9) Ice fields seen from the summit.
10) Kibo Crater.
- Name given to the crater at top of Kilimanjaro.
- In the photo, you can see
a part of the crater rim and the crater floor.
- This crater is huge.
I suspect to circumnavigate it on the crater rim
will take about 12 hours.
11) We were walking on the crater rim
and we were almost there.
- The knob in the distance is
the highest point of Kilimanjaro,
called Uhuru Peak.
12) Me ... at Uhuru Peak.
- Highest point of Kilimajaro, 5895 meters.
13) Giant Senecios.
- We are going down the mountain
on the Marangu Route.
(We went up the Rongai Route,
but we went down on the Marangu Route
on the South side of the mountain.)
14) A view of Kilimanjaro from Horombo Huts.
Farewell by the porters & guides
on morning of the final day
15) Porters and guides, singing and chanting
to farewell us.
- The word "Kilimanjaro" kept coming out of
their mouths.
- But all I could hear was Aconcagua, Aconcagua
as my mind drifts to my next big climb.
Comment
For someone like me who was new to mountains,
the scenery on the Rongai Route was fantastic ...
both on the trail and on the summit.
Every one should make a pilgrim to this mountain
once in his/her life time !!!
2006 January - Day trip
Mt Bogong
Climb up and down The Staircase Spur
Vic, Australia
Post Script
( Note: I revisited
Mt Bogong (+ West Peak) in 2011 March.
Trip report plus better pictures are in my blog
http://mntviews.blogspot.com/2011/03/bogong-vic-australia-west-peak.html )
Prolog
Mt Bogong is Victoria's highest mountain
1986 meters.
I know, I know, it is only a mole hill
compared to other mountains in the world.
But it does require a long uphill hike
all the way to the summit;
and hence good for an exercise climb
as I'll be heading for Kilimanjaro next month.
Actually I had been training regularly
since Nov last year.
This consisted of walking for hours
up and down the stairs of a multi-story carpark.
But it was getting a bit boring,
so climbing Mt Bogong was a refreshing change.
And besides, I needed a real mountain
to test out a few things ...
like the hiking boots, the Gortex jacket,
and of course my stamina.
I was new to mountains.
My only big climb to date was Malaysia's Kinabalu.
There I wore a pair of runners.
But proper hiking boots are a bit heavier,
and I would like to know
how well they can handle rough terrains.
Mt Bogong
For the record, the walk to the Bogong summit
was an ascent of 1400 meters.
No drama happened.
But just like Kinabalu,
it was a hard slog all the way.
Climbing would be
a truly great wonderful experience
if it weren't for all that damn climbing.
Bill, my climbing partner, and I
reached the top in 4.5 hrs.
This was similar to my time in Kinabalu.
There the 1st day's walk
was also an ascent of 1400 meters
and I did it in just under 5 hrs.
The summit of Bogong was just a pile of stones,
nothing special there.
The important thing is I can now proudly proclaim
I have been to Victoria's highest peak.
This sets me thinking ...
How about climbing the highest peak
in every Australian State and Territories?
Can't be too hard, right ?
After all, our highest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko
is a mere 2228 meters.
Some pictures
1) Mt Bogong is near the town of Mount Beauty.
- On the outskirt of the town is this sign
pointing to the mountain ... 1986 meters.
2) There are a few foot tracks to the top.
We take the Staircase Spur trail.
3) Strange looking plants.
(If you know its name, please let me know.)
4) Tasman flax-lily pods.
5) Spitfire / Sawfly caterpillars.
- Doing naughty things 😊😊😊
6, 7) Two views to Mt Bogong.
- Top of Mt Bogong is quite a flat plateau.
8) Almost at the summit.
We can see the summit cairn.
9) The summit is a neat pile of stones.
- Bill ...on the left
- Others ... from another party
Post Script
I revisited
Mt Bogong (+ West Peak) in 2011 March.
Trip report plus better pictures are in my blog
http://mntviews.blogspot.com/2011/03/bogong-vic-australia-west-peak.html
