In Reply to: Climbing Mt. Agung? posted by dickkyboy on Wednesday, 8. February 2006 at 15:05 Bali Time:
Following is message from my son who has climbed it...
I climbed Mt Agung last September. Hike overall took 14 hrs, which is apparently much longer than the Batur climb (guy from Kintimani told me that Batur took him only 3hrs). There are different paths up Agung that can be climbed but if you wish to reach the summit, you need to take the path from Besakih temple, which is the one we took.
In order to get to the top close to sunrise, we walked through the night. Took transport from Kuta at 11pm and arrived at the deserted temple 1am and met our prearranged guides. Encountered no machette wielding maniacs, just a pack of feral dogs who come out at night in the temple. After that, there wasn't much animal life on the entire ascent and felt safer on the mountain than anywhere else in Bali.
Well made path for 1st hour then becomes very slippery due to gravel. Climbed on all fours in many places or pulled ourselves up by grabbing branches, roots, etc. One of our group rolled his ankle and had to hobble back 2 hours to the temple. Rest of us climbed through the jungle by moonlight - had to be 1 day after full moon as it is forbidden to climb the holy mountain if moon completely full.
Jungle thinned out and we arrived at "base camp" just before dawn. Cooler than elsewhere in Bali but we were hot from climbing. Two of our party could not go further as they had been smoking heavily on way up and took insufficient food (just a pack of kit kats between them!) and they struggled with the thinner atmosphere at that height. The remaining four of us left them to sleep (until they were woken by mountain monkeys throwing rocks at them!) and continued along the rocky, barren path to the top.
Breakfast at summit 7am. Incredible view, saw inside of crater, shadow of Agung on cloud below, Batur, Abang, Batukaru and even peaks on Java far to west, NE coast of Bali 3142m below us, Rinjani on Lombok to east. Started getting hot in the sun so we headed back down to base camp and shade of jungle trees.
Collected friends at base camp and proceeded to "surf" down the gravel slopes in many places. Have to control speed, my friends fell and were badly grazed. Passed mountain monkeys and ascending party on our way down. Return trip tiring and hard on the knees and dragged on towards the end but good to see the jungle by day. Besakih temple no longer deserted when we got back at 3pm - very hot and packed with tourists!
Recommend taking:
- Sufficient food for energy... I had 3 steak breadrolls, cold pizza, mangosteen, yoghurt bars and chocolate - ate it all.
- Adequate water critical, suggest 8+ litres per person - at least your pack gets lighter later in the trek! I also took a few cans of Pocari Sweat and drank it early in the climb while it was still cold.
- A good prearranged guide.
- Camera as views are awesome... if possible also a video camera, got some great footage of our trek.
Also suggest leaving food and water in your vehicle for the trip back to Kuta as you could be hungry and thirsty (or buy some at Besakih).
Any questions? Email me at woggle_woggle@hotmail.com
Happy climbing, Carlos