Sharing The Passion For Adventure Activities With My Sons

Climbing Mountains As A Means To Strengthen Our Bonds

Adventure activities are indeed fun for those who are into them. Whatmore, if those activities are accomplished with friends and family who are passionate about them. From an early age of 13, I enjoyed activities such as jungle trekking, camping and climbing mountains. As I grew older and eventually became a father, I shared my passion with my sons and instilled in them a love for such activities. Ever since I became a father over 20 years ago; I dreamt and aspired to climb mountains, jungle trek and go white water rafting with my children. It is incredible that I have managed to do so many of these activities with my sons now.

In this post, I am going to share a summary of some earlier mountain climbs with my eldest son who is already in his mid-20's now. Below is a picture of us camping at one of the mountains in Malaysia when he was 9 years old.

Mount Ophir, Johore- Malaysia. 2007...

Teaching my son a bit about simple outdoor cooking

At this point of my writing, I had managed to climb 3 mountains with my eldest son. All the climbs were in Malaysia. Our first climb was in 2007 at Mt. Ophir. At that point of time, my eldest son, Aidan Bakti, was 9 years old and my second son was 6 years old. We went to climb the mountain as a family. On the first day of the climb, we climbed for 4 hours till the base camp area. We then made a decision to spend the night there. On the second day, I noticed that my children were tired. Therefore, I decided not to summit. The important thing was that there were tough enough to climb for 4 hours and then roughed it out in the wilderness, even at such a young age.

On our way down from the campsite.

Giving them a homemade card as a token of their achievement.

Mount Mat Cincang, Langkawi-Malaysia. 2012...

In 2012, my family and I went for vacation to the island of Langkawi, off the west coast of Malaysia. At that point of time, my eldest son was 14 years old. After discussing, we agreed to climb Mount Mat Cincang, the second highest mountain in Langkawi. The climb was not difficult but there were many steep slopes and mounts that we had to scramble up. This was different from climbing Mount Ophir, where the nature of the climb was more akin to trekking. We took 7 hours to climb, summit and descend the mountain.

On our way up. Although, the mountain is not that high; the climb was full of steep slopes.

At the summit

On the way down.

Mount Kinabalu, Sabah-Malaysia, 2017...

In March 2017, when my eldest son was waiting for his National Service, we climbed Mount Kinabalu. He was 19 years old by then and was prepared a higher and challenging mountain without me having to worry about him. Together with another friend of mine, the three of us climbed Mount Kinabalu quite easily. We were also fortunate because of the good weather that accompanied us throughout our trek for the 3 days we were there. There is a separate post on this climb.

At the start of our climb

At the summit

In Conclusion...

As someone who enjoys adventure activities, I knew that I would pursue such activities as I grow older. Preparation for such activities take up a lot of time. You need to prepare yourself physically, mentally and lots of planning go into such activities. These are all done in the midst of carrying out your daily responsibilities at work and at home. As a father, I acknowledge that I must spend, both quality and quantity time with my children. So, I exposed them to adventure activities too. This way we could have a common passion.

A trekking or mountain climbing trip requires a lot of preparation time. Hence, I includes my sons as part of the team. They are welcomed to give suggestions, comments and feedback for the success of each trip. This way, I guide them from the perspective of physical training, expedition planning and mental toughness. A lot of time is spent on all these preparation activities. This way we strengthen our father-son bond.

All these activities, trips and expeditions are mere means for us to spend time together. The main objective is the building of positive relationship between father and sons.