Climbing Mount Korbu With Some Friends

I made plans to do the Everest Base Camp Trek in 2018-2020. After doing the necessary financial calculations and planning, I decided that 2019 was the best year to embark on that trip with my sons. As such, as early as 2015, I had already planned and started executing my preparations. As part of my preparation, I decided to climb Mount Korbu in Perak, Malaysia in September 2018.

The initial plan was to go as a group of 5. However, eventually, only 3 of us went for the climb. There was Zakie Zahari (a former student of mine from 2014) and Patrick Ong (my old timer adventure buddy).

19 September 2018

10.30pm

That night, we had agreed to meet up at the office of the bus company located at Lavendar. Our bus was going to depart at 10.00 pm. We decided to meet at 9.30pm. I arrived just before 9.30pm and met up wit Zakie. Patrick, as usual was late and arrived only 10 minutes before the time of departure. However, the bus did not depart until almost 10.30pm, so it was all good. The bus that was going to take us was a 28-seater express bus that would only make 2 rest stops on it’s way to Ipoh.

20 September

4.30am

It was an uneventful trip up north. We drove for 465km (more like we slept through and the bus drivers drove us up). That journey usually takes 8 hours; however, that night, it took us only 6 hours to reach Ipoh. I was awaken around just before 5am and asked Zakie (who was awake) on where was our location. He said Ipoh. I was still a little dazed from my sleep. Then, it dawned upon me that we had reached our destination. Immediately, I roused myself and woke Patrick up. We had to alight the bus at that point. Otherwise, they will drive us to the next town.

Fortunately, the drivers were still hanging around for new passengers to board the bus and proceed to the next destination. We alighted and realized that we had to wait for another hour for our local pick-up to the mountain trekking trail-head.

On the bus with Zakie travelling to Ipoh.

6.00 am

Our local pick-up guy came and we made our way to the trail head. However, as were very early, he decided to bring us for breakfast at coffeeshop along the way. He told us that our guide will meet up with us at around 9am. So, we had another 3 hours before meeting up with our mountain guide. Since he had no work to do for the next 3 hours, he decided to accompany us. Whilst waiting for our guide, we spent an or so having brunch. We also bought some drinks and snack for the trek. Our meals were gonna be taken care of by our guide so we just bought some biscuits for ourselves. We had a good long chat with Kevin (our pick-up guy). I found out that he also organizes rafting trip. I thought that I might engage his services for my planned family road-trip in December.

10.00 am

Our mountain guide reached at around 10.00 am. Almost an hour late; which is considered early, as this is Malaysian time! Our guide is Ahmad from Silver Outdoor Sports (S.O.S) Mountain Guides. He is the same guy that lead my students and I for our Mount Yong Yap Expedition in December 2015. After going through the formalities and registering at the Ranger station, we began our expedition.

Taking a quick snap before we start on our trek.

Less than 15 minutes into the trek, we started the climb!

It is a given that climbing a mountain, we would expect a lot of climbing. However, for this particular mountain trek, the inclines were exceptionally steeped. There were numerous 60’-70’ inclines. There was also the unexpected necessity to carry our tent and food supplies. I recalled vividly informing the trek coordinator back home that we wanted porters to carry our supplies and cook our meals. I did not shy away from any price that was quoted as long as we did not have to carry our own logistical supplies. I did not know how there was a breakdown in communication such that our guide was also our cook and there was no porters to carry our tents and food items.

See the black tent that I had to carry! My bag also had other logistical supplies. I was definitely annoyed at having to carry the unexpected extra load.

It was exhausting!

There were also many fallen trees such that we had to crawl more than a dozen times!

We had to clear many fallen trees also like an obstacle course!

We trekked for almost 4 hours before we stopped lunch. The lunch spot though was exceptional. We rested next a low waterfall of about 10m. It was the perfect spot to rest, eat and recover.

Patrick taking a well deserved break at the waterfall on the first day lunch rest point.

After lunch we carried on for a few more hours of climbing. It was more of the same. Muddy trails with obstacles. There were many more slopes with steep inclines too. We only reached our campsite almost close to 7.00pm. We set up our tents. Whilst our guide made dinner for us, we went for a cool refreshing shower by the stream. As this was not the rainy season, the stream was rather small. It would be a reasonable size river if it was the rainy season.

Patrick taking a standing shower by the stream. It would be quite a nice sized river if it was the rainy season.

After our shower, it was time to rest and recover; to be ready for the summit assault the next day. We had dinner. Chit chat for a quite a bit. Then we retreated to our respective tents. I watched movies on my phone for awhile and went to sleep at around 10pm.

21 September 2018

We woke up late at around 8am. I was roused earlier around 6.30 - 6.45 am (my alarm is set at 6.30 am. But since I did not hear any sound from the guide's tent, I went back to sleep. I woke up again when I heard noise from the outside and I smelled food being prepared. When I emerged from my tent, the guide was preparing breakfast. Then Patrick and Zakiee woke up. Within the hour we ate and got ready. We set off for the summit at 9am.

Almost immediately, we had to climb a steep slope. This carried on for almost two hours. It was not that steep that we had to clamber with our hands but it was steep enough for our thighs to feel the burn.

Taking a 2-hr break at the mid-point to the summit.

For the final summit push, there were a lot of almost vertical climbs. Fortunately, there were ladders and ropes placed strategically. Nonetheless, it was still challenging.

At just before 1.00pm, we reached the summit of the mountain.

We had our biscuit lunch and then after about an hour at the summit, we started descending. Took us about 2 hours to reach back our campsite. We then decided to just chill that evening rather than rush all the way down.

Having dinner that night after a successful summit! That night we had a good night sleep.

The next morning, we de-camped, and started moving out around 9am. By midday, we were back at the beginning of the trailhead and then back to civilisation that is Ipoh for that night.