Here are the photo set taken during the trip to Mountain Kinabalu from 15th May to 16th May 2013.

Notes before Day 1 hike:

This is the second visit to beautiful Mount Ophir (English name for Gunung Ledang) on labour day, same as previous trip, we ascended from Sagil (Johor) instead of Asahan in Melaka. According to our mountain guide Kelvin Tan, Asahan is a more nature trail compares to well developed Sagil trail.

Mount Ophir is a famous and very interesting place to hike, the management put a hard work to design and maintaining the trail, where you can see clear path, well stated check points, proper maintenance for rock climbing ropes and ladder.

The weather is pretty good, although not much of sun light but without rain on the day, we got 12 peoples in total that came from KL and Malacca. According to management, we are the only group to do day hike on morning, another big group in the mountain was overnight at the camp site on day before.

Broga Hill sometimes known as Bukit Broga or Bukit Lalang, where Broga is actually a place name and Lalang is blady grass in Malay launguage. With a low 400 meters height, ready trail and panoramic scene, it become local famous spot that attracts big numbers of visitors during weekends.

The fifteen time to the Broga Hill that locate at Jalan Broga, Semenyih. Takes only 30 minutes (50km) by driving from Kuala Lumpur to Broga Hill.

The hill is just nearby to University of Nottingham (Malaysia Campus), go straight from the University for another 5 minutes and you will reach hill entrance (an oil palm estate) at left opposite a rabbit park, GPS Coordinates: 2.939698, 101.902313

Exported trekking routes from Suunto Ambit in the format of .kml (Keyhole Markup Language), check here on how to import the route to Suunto Ambit.

You may contact me by e-mail for more information.

Went for a hike at Gunung Angsi (824m), located at Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan. Previously we took easier Bukit Putus trail, so this round we choose a different option which is ascent from Ulu Bendul and descent by Bukit Putus.

(rain heavily while crossing the river)

The Ulu Bendul trail is longer, consume more time, require to cross river streams and consist more nice scenes compare to Bukit Putus.

The expedition tooks us 6 hours 23 minutes (07:32 – 13:56) to complete, included few stops and half hour rest on the peak. The trail welcomed us with 2 hours of mid-heavy rain, lots of leeches, and fast river flow speed which make the expedition more adventuring.

(wet and slippery trail for 2 hours+)

Do take extra care at the 30-40 feet barren hill, make proper use of the rope, full attention and team work is required to make sure each and every team member climb up safely.

( scenery which can’t be seen at Bukit Putus trail)

We parked our cars separately at Ulu Bendul and Bukit Putus, so we doesn’t need to walk 3km back to Ulu Bendul (takes 35 minutes to walk). We just wash our shoes at the small stream nearby Bukit Putus exit and wait drivers to get their cars from Ulu Bendul.

(30 minutes away from the peak)

For more details such as map, trail route (export available), distance and timing, check on my Movescount: https://www.movescount.com/mymoves/edit/move8850155

The second time to visit Ayer Hitam/Air Hitam Forest Reserve at Puchong, a well known location for trekking and trail running. The trail is fairly easy, it takes within 2 hours slow pace to reach waterfall.

It sometime called as “forbidden” waterfall because you can’t simply enter without permission from UPM. Some hikers reported forest rangers do patrol around that area prevent unauthorized access and forbid peoples swim at the stream/waterfall.

In previous visit, we met a big group of UPM (Universiti Putra Malaysia) students picnic over there, fortunately this time we got to enjoy the waterfall ourselves. Here are some photos taken from the trip,

Movescount

Here are two moves recorded with Suunto Ambit. You can export route recorded and navigate with Suunto Ambit or navigation device such as Garmin, check here for guides to use Suunto navigation feature.

Details

View Larger Map

 (Image Source: mountaintorq.com)

Mountain Torq management provides 2 via Ferrata activities, Low’s Peak Circuit and Walk The Torq on UNESCO World Heritage site, Mountain Kinabalu in Sabah. After done the usual mid-night 2.30am route to the top and finish the sun rise show on Low’s Peak (top of mt. kk), this via Ferrata offer 2 alternative routes to descend instead of the same path that hiked up on mid-night.

It is recommend to choose the full set Low’s Peak Circuit which is longer path, consume a little more time, but full of excellent views and get experience of walking amongst the clouds.

Some of the Low’s Peak Circuit info as below:

Trip Images

My Experience on Low’s Peak Circuit

• There are 2 offices: one at KK park and another at Pendan Hut laban rata
• If you already take the Walk The Torq package, it can be upgrade by adding RM 160 right at Laban Rata, Pendant Hut office depends on number of crowds.
• A team will consist not more than 6 person includes a mountain guide, one participator will be the captain that walked as first and the mountain guide will be the last member.
• The activity starting point nearby the peak start from 7.30am morning and ending point at Laban Rata
• Faster descent to Laban Rata the better, especially when the clouds gathering and hinting to rain, speed up or to face more difficulty while rain. This is my second time to visit Mt. KK, May 2009 and April 2012, with total of four afternoons, the possibility of afternoon rain is 80% from 12:30pm to 6.00 pm.
• Therefore, it is ideal to finish up the via Ferrata activity not later by 12.30pm noon.
• It is a very safe and enjoy activity, just make sure you trained both upper body strength and legs so you can enjoy instead of suffer.c
• The KK Park office closed on 5pm, collect certificate and remember to buy a Mountain Torq T-shirt before it closed.
• Time recorded for each route,
  - 3h 55m ascent to Laban Rata
  - 2h 40m ascent to Low’s Peak
  - 5h 30m descent via Ferrata
  - 2h 20m descent from Laban Rata

Trip Videos

Mountain Torq information