Mount Rinjani

Rinjani is an active volcano in the Java sea, with an altitude of 3,726 meters, over 12,000ft high. Many years ago, I had climbed Mount Batur, and was very happy to be to see its giant caldera. Since I was close to Indonesia, after my Kokoda trip, I decided to climb Mount Rinjani, which is in Lombok Island, an island east of Bali.

To get to Lombok, I took a flight to Praya Lombok airport from Jakarta and it stops at New Yogyakarta airport.

Air travel in Indonesia is very common, and I found many types of airlines as there are many islands in Indonesia which makes air travel very convenient.

I could not find restaurants near Jakarta airport so I ended up with lunch of seafood Nasi Goreng next to the security gate.

Once I reached the Lombok Airport, I had to take a taxi which the organizer, had arranged. I was unprepared for a 3 hour drive which took me to the overnight stay arriving at midnight.

The plan called for a 4 AM wake up to go climb Rinjani. This was right after the Kokoda 8 day hike and I was still sore. I made a decision to delay the Rinjani hike by one more day.

However, as a pre-hike prep, I had a chance to see two massive waterfalls nearby which were spectacular and visited by many. The first waterfall was two level with a water landing towards the top.

The second waterfall was massive and it's water flowed with great force through a narrow enclosed channel for miles. I was astounded to see some boys lying on their backs in this claustrophobic channel enjoying a high speed water slide experience.

The mountain was visible from far distance and looked daunting. The next morning at 7am the tour organizer drove me 1.5 more hours to the start of the hike.

Before initiating the climb, each person has to stop by the medical testing center located a few minutes away from the start of the climb and entrance. Multiple health professionals serve to help climbers quickly and ask climbers their health history, measure vitals like temperature, blood pressure, VO2, check height/weight etc and pronounce if a climber is fit to proceed or not.

As I started walking, I saw many hikers being driven on small motorcycles to Pos2, I guess to save a couple of hours of walking, reach camp sooner and get more sleep as the summit attempt began at 2am.

You could also see the porters carrying the gear, one porter per climber. The gear included sleeping bag, mattress, pillow, tent, 4 water bottles, food prep equipment, vegetables, eggs, meat, rice etc. They precariously balanced the gear on a bamboo rod with load balanced at each end. Periodically, you could see them flipping the rod from on shoulder to the other. Most wore slippers and some walked barefeet.

After walking an hour and a half, I reached position one and was allowed a few minutes of rest.

In 20 minutes I could see position 2 at a distance and it looked pretty big and picturesque.

Before long, I was at position two, and saw that there were hundreds of hikers and as many porters/cooks making meals for every climber.

The lunch was served quickly and it was delicious and healthy. Tempeh, chicken satay, fried egg, fruits, veggies and big dollop of rice.

As I resumed walking, I got a glimpse of the steep terrain to hike in.

The sun beat down mercilessly but respite was coming. The clouds formed from the Bali sea water wafted towards the summit slowly engulfing us in the gentle velvety fog as well as a light breeze.

After an hour of walking, I was at the position 3. It was not much challenging and there were hundreds of climbers from various countries like Britain, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, Indonesia, Singapore, France, US and it was fun saying hello to each as they walked past.

Walking to position 4 started getting tougher. The sand was deep and did not provide enough traction so the shoe just went deep in the sand, and each step needed more and more effort.

However, I pushed through and soon I was at position four.

You could see that the summit seemed quite close from here, and the end of the day's hike was nearing. The only part remaining was to walk to the camp and wind down for the day.

The fog was rolling in more and more now and making walking conditions tolerable.

Towards the top, there were more monkeys to be seen. The climb started at 1,000m and the base camp was at 2,600m so I would have climbed about 5,600 feet for the day.

The walk towards the camp was slow due to the deep volcanic sand. Everyone around me was struggling.

The path had disintegrated at a point necessitating a makeshift, teetering ladder.

Finally reaching base camp, I realized my tent was another half mile up the hill, presumably to give a head start for the summit walk tomorrow.

The tent had an excellent view of the lake in the volcano caldera which was completely covered by the fog.

A quick healthy meal was served and I was told to pack the summit daypack and be ready to start at 1am. I guess the guide revised the time to increase the likelihood of making it to the summit before sunrise.

The summit was at 3,726m, so it was a 3,000 feet climb and was broken in three sections. The time allocated was about 4.5 hours so it seemed pretty manageable. I had been taking acetazolamide, the anti-altitude sickness tablet that I usually take for climbs above 10,000feet.

Section one was complete relatively quickly and I felt pretty good about summitting. Second section had three parts and the first part was steep but not unduly hard. The second part of section 2 was flat. The third part was hilly and had the volcanic deep sand but I could manage it.

The glimpses of impending sunrise appeared.

Third section began, and completely dashed my hopes to summit within the timeframe I was gunning for. The slope was extreme, and the terrain was very very hard because of deep volcanic rocks and dirt, which barely allowed me to take two or three steps before stopping. Each time I took a step, I was pushed down two or three steps backward.

I could see others struggling as well. And I could see many others overtake me, and with grit continue plugging away.

At times, I thought that I may not be able to make it and just wanted to sit down where I was.

However, I kept going on and made limited progress in each push.

Before I knew it, I was at the summit. I could see the other people who had reached much before me, struggling in the wind and cold, trying to stay warm, waiting for the sunrise.

I took some pictures and waited for the sunrise which was spectacular.

After spending half an hour taking pictures and videos, I started walking down which was no easy task. I and others were kind of dirt skiing. We let the shoes go deep inside the dirt and push the shoes down so that each step would be equivalent to two or three steps. However, I fell many times and the volcanic small rocks are very sharp.

In the sunlight, I could see the section 3, which I had traversed going up, which still looked very difficult going down.

After a while, I could see the dents on the ridge and I knew that base campsite was close.

The flat portion of section 2 was visible in the sun and looked awesome.

I got clearer pictures of the lake and the caldera, as well as the mount Batur, and 10k+ feet tall mount Agung, which are on the Bali island, which is next to the Lombok Island.

Also visible in the sun was the deep volcanic dirt I had crossed the previous day.

The beautiful, majestic, peaceful view made the whole effort seem it was worth it.