For sure my body wasn't ready for this. It was way too early to have breakfast and get dressed in full gear at 3 am! It was pitch dark and yes it was very very cold!
We were almost one hour behind the most of the climbers as our guide decided there would be too much waiting and he was sure we would get to the summit before sunrise - we had 2-3 hours to get to the top.
It felt so much harder to take each step. I was already puffing after 10min or so. You could really feel the air getting thinner at this height. Plus you couldn't really see what's ahead of you...
Still a bit of a walk till the summit...
Unlike the walk on day 1 the last 2km or so was very steep and most of the path you needed to hold onto the rope to pull yourself up. I was very pleased I had a very good pair of climbing gloves on.
We were divided into 3 groups, Peter, Phil, Simon and Isabel had a much faster pace so went ahead. I found it easier to walk by myself at my own pace so was alone and Rowdy the guide and Amanda stayed together. Lots of the climbers thought it was very strange for a little Japanese person to be climbing the mountain alone and asked me lots of questions. But it made me feel safe having people talking to me :)
This photo must have been taken around 5:30 am when the sunrise started. I was still 120m away from the summit where there was a flat platform. I decided to stay at this spot instead of pushing myself to the summit to see the sunrise from there. There were only a couple of people around me so I had this awesome panorama view to myself.
In no time it got lighter and I was surrounded by breathtaking views!
After quite a long break (the view was too amazing to just carry on the climb straight away...) I finally decided to hit the summit - then my team appeared and took this cool photo for me! They had already been at the top and were on the way down. I felt so lucky to catch them at this spot :)
Yeaahh!! Group photo time!!
Well this is how steep the last bit was, can you see the small dots at the top!? Yeah that was where I was heading...
But hey, it was so worth it. Look at this awesome view!!! I was there after sunrise so the lighting was completely different from what the rest of the team had.
Here are some photos Peter took. Sunrise shots from the Peak. Amazing ha!?
I really didn't want to go down - I finally reached the top after two days of walking, you know. But it was very windy and cold so I couldn't stay any longer.
The walk down was ten times easier - I guess my body was getting used to the thin air plus I was full of adrenaline!! I purposely made myself stop every 15min or so to enjoy the view and look back where I had been. On the way up it was too dark, I couldn't really see where or how steep the path was.
The summit looked so far away already...
Again I was by myself most of the way back so I had to talk to my gummy bear to keep him company.
I came down quite a bit but still I was way above the clouds!!!
I was back at Laban Rata around 9am. I had some breakfast (yes, second time for the day!) and got ready for check out. To my surprise it was very easy for me to descend - I was almost running!!
Again we had amazing weather all the way down to the bottom and I really enjoyed being in the greenery looking at plants and birds. It almost felt like I was in the NZ bush somewhere :)
And guess what? This is what hit us when we completed the climb and needed to get into the van to go back to the registration office. We got soaked!!!
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