Conquering Gunung Nuang

I was thinking of something to do this weekend. So, I rallied up my brother to go "hiking" Gunung Nuang. This is the tallest mountain you can find in Selangor (1493m). To go there, we drove up to Pangsun, and parked in front of Puncak Niaga's gate.

I brought along a pack bag as well, filled with 1.5 liter of water, 2 100 plus cans and some bread. Actually, I only have some vague idea of what to encounter. I estimated the time up 3-4 hours, from some of the blogs I read. I wore a pair of Power shoes...which will prove to be a challenge going up and down. My younger brother wore Nike racing shoes, and those had thinner soles.

As we started our journey, we met with some chinese guys from KL on bikes. They were going up the peak as well, but they had a good head start as they rode up the hill. So after paying 2 bucks, we started our trekking. Now, I didn't really want to start running, but the thought of reaching the peak in time, made us ran the path. It was quite a climb, with ups and downs. The road was filled with loose gravel, and with my inadequate shoes, made the run pretty hard.
My brother ran as well, and he would always be ahead of me.

Soon, we reached the end of the open road. This time, it would be criss crossing jungle terrain to Camp Pacat. We moved along quickly as well, with some minor runs up. It was pretty exciting as this is my actual first run in the jungle or hashing. You've got to always keep your eyes on the next step. There's rocks, roots, dirt all the way, but it was fun.

Before we reached Camp Pacat, we met with Tony and his gang. They had started earlier. Choy, who is from the group wanted to ascend the peak while the rest will only reach Camp Pacat, so now we got 3 guys. As we move our way up, my brother is way ahead, while Choy and myself struggled with the difficult terrain. Some parts of the path, is 80 degrees climb up. So, you've gotta haul yourself up. And then keep on moving.
Not much of a run here, because the elevation has went up tremendously. The air was also colder, and mistier. But thank God for the excellent wheather. If it was raining, our journey would be much harder.

We reached Puncak Pengasih after a hard climb. My brother was nowhere to be seen. I guess he had moved so fast up. Occasionally there were climbers going down. I asked if they had seen him. The answer was always yes, which kind of relieved the feeling he's ok.

After puncak pengasih, it's downhill, and after that some uphill. I finally realize I was at the peak, when my brother yelled, that we were already there. And yes, we had truly conquered the peak. According to my watch, it took myself 2hr 50 minutes. I reckoned my brother took less than 2 and half.

The view at the top was kind of disappointing. The view is covered with shrubs, and bushes, so can't get a good view of the surroundings. But from there, we could see the dam. Choy decided to make off earlier because Tony was waiting. We rested for another 15 minutes before descending.

Now here is where the fun begins. We were practically running down the slopes. And my brother will always be in front. It was kind of hard to get used to. I finally figured out, that to move fast, you got to make sure your feet is well placed on either a rock, or roots, and not in between the spaces. Put one feet nudged between roots, and you'll tumble down into the abyss. My problem was compounded by the Power shoes, which has a thick sole, and not much grip. And yeah, my knees keep on getting pounded so much, but gladly not much pain so far.

Finally we managed to beat Choy by 10 minutes back to the ticketing counter, but this is one of the heck of an old man. Tony and the gang was already waiting there.

Overall, it had been one heck of an adventure. I'll surely run here more often for the feeling is different than running on road. You get to smell and experience the lush tropical rain forest at its' best. I've got some intention to do Sabah Climbathon this year, so this will be a good training ground.

Total time up and down: 5:36 (inclusive of 30 minutes on the peak).


Funny...based on this info, it's slightly higher than 1500 meters

Taken from http://markas.bintang3.net/viewtopic.php?p=47333&sid=bf0635888c6a14f71c448e7ccdd5434c



The starting path...

My bro and me...the path is still runnable



Bamboos hang slightly along the way...

The end of the road for bikes.

The dam...now who would have build a dam so far up?

Look at the value of this tree in timber....or..look at how tall the tree is.

Resting to take a drink...

Not a great idea to be hit by those accidently..

Tony's gang...before camp pacat

Now...where's the pacat (leech)?

This picture is taken while ascending up the almost vertical slope...

At the peak...nothing to see folks...

Yes..you are the best...at 1493 meters..


This is the best view from the top...You can see lake pangsun from here.

Some footage on the way up..


At the summit