Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Why was i so stupid to think that after 2 months of roughly no climbing I can go and do f**ing campus board?! Why why why?! So here it is... literally 5 days back into climbing and my right shoulder muscle or nerve (not joint) is injured, to the point that I cannot lift my bag or comb my hair sometimes. I just stop midway because of some sharp pain. Shits! this just goes to say that indeed i need to take it easy. Maybe that training is for our strong girls, but not for me, at least not yet. I hate my stupid head for trying.

In which she rambles

Whoa! After the half marathon on sunday we had PT for training on monday. Mmm ... This involved hanging on campus board, conditioning (pull-ups, push-ups, crunches) and yes! running 5 km ... I mean cmon! It was horrible! the whole day yesterday I literally dragged my feet and I had to go home around 4 to sleep because I could not take it anymore :) I'm back though, today is climbing training and tomorrow night after my late class I will do some stairs climbing cum heavy backpack. Yey!! For PT I did not do pull ups because I am still afraid that my elbow will pop out, but i did reasonably well for campusboard hangs and for some of the routes Alvin gave us (for one of them i couldn't even start though)... Alvin is our new training supervisor, he's kinda stiff, doesn't seem to understand our way of training and joking but i think/hope we'll break him in soon :))

Work related stuff: I have been very very busy ... I will be buying my plane ticket soon and I still haven't told my supervisor that i am leaving for one month and a half ... There's this guy that is sleeping in the lab and that snoops around desks ... I really hate that, so i'm planning a very very nasty joke for him, something in the lines of building a robot and leaving it on my desk and when he comes too close maybe the robot says something and sends an email to everybody in the lab :)) or only to me and him :) Geekish revenge, what can I say?

Also, wouldn't it be nice if fat was like dark matter? Still weighing but invisible? So we could all be slim but still weigh our god given mass? How cool is that? But then again people would not be able to hug each other :)) everybody will have an invisible boundary from which other people would bounce :))

This is a picture from one of the last routes i climbed in Romania. I'm posing such that I scare my mom (silly me). We had to do this route two times because the first time the wind blew my chalk bag away and M. wanted to go back and get it. I didn't, because I have my new colorful chalk bag that i won for boulderactive and I wanted to use it but couldn't because i was feeling remorseful towards my old one (!!), so losing the old one would have been the perfect excuse :)) I am stuck now with my old one, but it's ok, we've been through a lot together.

Army half

Just a short post because my feet are aching a bit [no, I am not writing with them, but still]. Competed in the army half marathon today (that is 21 km to you). Woke up at 3:45 am to get there around 4:30 am. Race started at 05:30 am. I never stopped, which is an improvement from my lonely runs. There were so many people running next to me that it was embarrassing to stop, so thank you all. There was this short guy that kept on sprinting then walking, sprinting and walking, what a silly way to waste energy ...

The first lady finished in about one hour and a half (according to Marian) and I finished roughly in 1h 55mins. Pretty reasonable considering I was aiming for 2hrs 30 mins. Congrats to everybody there, especially those veterans .. There was this granny-like woman that finished in front of me, respect man!

[Granny like woman ... sheesh! I think I need some food and a lot of sleep]

Before and after

You gotta love those before and after pics. They always show a [very] ugly before pic and an extremely nice after version. It's never the other way around even though it would be a more realistic approach. So, here's my before and after pic. Notice the hair man, the hair!!! My hair was a lot of trouble while climbing and mountaineering so i decided that it was time to chop! chop! It's much easier to take care of it now ... even though in the mornings I look like a punker :) I will post a picture soon :).

The story part III. The giant

Now of course it was NOT my desire to spend the following perfect days hauling equipment from base camp to Zermatt and then traveling to Chamonix, France. In Zermatt I went to the guides' office and ask if Matterhorn is climbable. As you can see from the photo it is almost completely white, which apparently means that it's not climbable, especially by novice mountaineer intermediate climber like myself (seems the problem is not getting up, even if there are around 1200 m of climbing, but getting down, because you cannot find the rappel points in the snow). This left me in tears outside the office, but let's not talk about this now ... [Did you know that Dufourspitze costs 400 euros to climb with a guide!? Not including a preparation climb which you have to do before, which is around 200 euros ... Matterhorn is around 1000 euros to climb!!]

Thus we decided that Mont Blanc (4808m, the highest in the Alps) will be doable - it being covered in snow is no biggie, unless there's avalanche risk - so we had to leave for Chamonix. Proposed route: again, start from 2300 m, go higher than the Gouter refuge (3800m), camp there and then in the same night attempt the peak. The slope is much much more steep and our backpacks were nearly as heavy because our stove was misbehaving so we had to carry water to save some time on the cooking (we had to melt snow otherwise). Plus at one point you have to cross a slope from one rocky point to another and there are rocks that fall from above, which means that you literally have to run for it and you are wearing crampons and your heavy backpack. Then it's just climbing, sometimes using ice axe but always with crampons (even though you are rock climbing).

We arrived in the camp around three. M. started building a wall to protect the tent from the fierce wind, and I started cooking! Yey!! It took me about one hour, one hour and a half to get the water boiling, and then M. around two hours to make the tea for the night ascent. Which means that, instead of eating two times (once to replenish our lost energy on that horrendous climb and once for the climb ahead) we only ate once.






We woke up around one thirty am, had some tea and some horrible cookie (too sweet) and manage to leave the tent around two. We were so drained of energy that the first slope up the Dome du gouter (4302m - we climbed it on the descent from Mont Blanc) got that horrible cookie flowing upstream, which made me really dizzy. When I saw two spanish climbers turning back though, and thought at what they must be feeling I decided that I didn't want to feel like that and moved on! Yey!!



There were a lot of people ahead of us, but because of the wind they decided to wait in the Valois refuge (4400m i think), which got us around the first ten on the summit around six o'clock!! There were some nice steep and sharp ridges to climb but after the dufourspitze one, they seemed so easy...

We spent around twenty minutes on the summit (the wind was very fierce) and then around nine we were back in the tent. We fell asleep as we were, I was wearing my harness, my sunglasses, gore-tex suit, everything except rope and boots :) We woke up around twelve and by five we were down at the train station at 2300m waiting for the train for Houches, then into a supermarket for some cheese and bread [mmmmm] then to the camping site and then to sleep!!! Whoa!!


The next day we went to visit Chamonix. I liked it much much better than Zermatt. Maybe it's the latin feeling or something ... but I just loved it. And all the equipment stores!!! Omg ... there were in Zermatt also but very expensive ... here they were quite reasonable ... mmmm ... Didn't buy anything, except some tshirts and a pair of merrell shoes that were on sale and unfortunately too small for me in the end ... alas ...

The story part II. In which I get burned

On tuesday on a window of good weather we decided to go up towards Dufourspitze. We were walking pretty good and settling in our rhythm as a team, the weather was stupendous, there was just one problem: because of the heavy snows from the past few days, we had no tracks. None! Nada! Zip! Zilch! And it's not like you have signs showing you the way or some special rock that does not get covered by snow or something ... So instead of taking a right and going up what seemed a hill full of crevasses and cornices we took a left and proceeded up an easier (ok, ok, lazy also) slope. We realized we were up a cornice when the snow under M. went "whoop", so M had to come back really fast and we had to get out of there. At least we knew that was the wrong way ...

Our nightly ritual had become getting up at two am in the morning, sticking our heads out of the tent and assessing the weather. This happened also on the night of tuesday to wednesday. Weather was better but still foggy, so we resumed sleep. In the morning the weather was super nice, so we decided to hurry up with breakfast and go up Gorner glacier for some crevasse surfing and some training.

When we came back to the tent we saw four teams coming down from the direction of Dufourspitze. "Shit!" I say to meself, "they have climbed it!". The four teams were british, japanese, hungarian, and polish. M. talks to the british and finds out that the snow was too big and they got tired of breaking it so they gave up. I spoke to the polish team and they told me that they got lost (was it by following our tracks? :D) and that the weather was foggy and when they got just below the first ridge (Doufourspitze just bellow the summit has one 70 degrees ice and snow slope, one ridge, one 60 degrees iced snow slope, another ridge and then a climb up the summit block) they saw an avalanche and decided to retreat.

Excited as I was, not even talks about avalanches, big snow and all that could turn me back now ... I knew we were going to climb that night and that was that!! We woke up around two am, ate, dressed and at first wanted to wait for other teams to go first (it's easier to follow somebody's tracks) but since nobody was coming (we could see no lights from down below) we decided to go for it. It was my first time climbing at night and it took a while for my body to get used to it... Initially there was some low alpine clouds but when we got above them the weather was flawless. My right leg fell into a small crevasse but other than that everything was ok. I saw the most amazing sunrise of my life: Matterhorn and Liskam** were all red, everything else was dark blue and orange ... Amazing!! (no picture of course)

Just as we were going up the corniced slope we did not want to go up two days before, a very strong wind whose first customers for the day we were, started to blow. My feet started to freeze (note to self: salomon blue boots - don't know the model - are not fit for high altitudes) and then my hands (could put windstopper gloves on) and then M. started to feel very very very cold on his back. Reason?! The day before when we were walking up the glacier he unzipped the ventilation zippers on his gore-tex and forgot them open!! We had to stop for him to take out his harness, gore-tex, put a polartec on, put the gore-tex back on, harness on, gloves on and so on... I froze to death in the process ...

So we started going up the iced 70 degrees slope. At one point i wanted to take M's photo but the battery had frozen so i put another one inside the d200 but it was frozen also. Took one and put it just under my chin thinking i could warm it up (but I lost it on the summit, i think it fell in Italy). Instead M. took this photo of me*. After this slope we got up to the first ridge. This is where I forgot about the wind, the cold, and about putting sunscreen on our faces.

Now you see, because of the heavy snows in the last days, the ridge, instead of being your ordinary, garden like variety of rocky, granite, ridge on which you can easily scramble, we had your not so nice granite rocky ridge covered with a lot of snow (puffy snow, that is). Which means that when you are stepping on it you cannot tell whether you are stepping on the rock or into immortality, and you only have 1000 m or so on your right and on your left to fall upon. It's true that it's snowed up and you don't realize that you are this high, the only hint being that you can see people down there almost one inch height. So, instead of both of us going at the same time through the ridge, M. had to go first with me sort of belaying him [by sticking my ice axe into the snow, a crab in there and belaying from it]. Needless to say that M weighs around 30 more kgs than me which meant that if he fell my belay station was useless. It did not help that he said: "Claudia, if you want us to live, when I fall you jump on the other side of the ridge". I am a clumsy person by nature and every move I do is thoroughly rehearsed, so chances of me jumping on the right side of the ridge were very slim. So instead I would analyze (I was way beyond the point when I was thinking "omg we're going to die, omg i don't want to die, we also have to come back this way, there's no escalator at the summit, shit shit shit") the possible directions of fall and put myself behind boulders: if he were to fall, i would hit the boulder and hopefully be able to hold him. This is how we went through the second ridge also. Other teams (japanese and british) were pilling up behind us, but none wanted to go first, leaving to us the honor of being first on the summit.

Yey!!! I was so so so happy and relieved to be on the summit! I nearly hugged the japanese, and the british team (one british guy and his guide), I told the guide congratulations :)) The guide also complimented us [gulp]

And the view, ah the view!!


The first picture is of the japanese team descending, you can see Matterhorn on the left, Dent Blanche (the white one) and Weissorn (all are piramides). The next picture is of Nordend which we thought we could do that night, but we were so shacked after the 8 hours ascent and the 4 hours descent that we couldn't do anything more ... So Nordend with its ridge remains a dream. This is another picture of the japanese descending, and these are the british (guide and client).

Now, remember my previous picture where my face was burnt? This is where it happened... We forgot to put sunscreen, the wind was blowing, the sun was so strong, plus it got reflected from the snow ... Plus my nose was runny and I couldn't blow my nose because it hurt, so because of the wind blowing all the mucus froze on my nose [groce, you did not want to know this] leaving my nose and cheek encrusted [if you wish ... yuck!!!]

*will upload picture when i get home
**Liskam is the big wall behind me in the picture with me holding the flag next to the summit cross. It has a climbable 1000 m ice wall - the route is rougly where my left fist is :)

The story part I. I get there but I am not lucky

Two hours after I'd arrived in Bucharest I was at my place packing things for the trip to the Alps. Very happy to see my mom and my dog but anxious to get everything out of Marian's backpack and put all my climbing gear in. At that time I was still missing ice axe and crampons, but M. was bringing them down. By the way, M. was already on his way to my place for us to get going. I think it took us about four hours to leave my place. Everything was nice and packed in the car and off we went. We left my place around 6 pm, managed to get out of Bucharest around 8 pm and get to the border by 3 am, which is quite a long time if you know how M. drives. I slept in the car almost all the way to the border, but was fresh by 5 am when we got to Budapest. I drove on the autobahn until Stralzburg and M. took over and drove till Tasch. Our destination was Zermatt, but cars are not allowed there so we camped in Tasch (actually in Randa, which is close to Tasch, but nevermind).

The weather was extraordinary, as you can see from these two pics. Of course, knowing my luck, it was bound to get shitty. The plan was as follows: Dufourspitze, Nordend, Liskam, Weisshorn, and Matterhorn. The last three are listed as AD (assez difficile - sort of difficult), while the first two are listed as PD (peu difficile - a little difficult) - this of course changes depending on the weather.

The next day we were supposed to meet some guys from the Arad branch of the Explorer club at the basecamp at 3100m on the Gorner glacier. Now, there is a refuge on the Gorner glacier at 2900m called Monte Rosa Hutte, but one night there costs around 50 euro, so the practice for most east europeans is to haul all the camp gear (tent, sleeping bags, mattresses, stoves, food, cutlery) to 3100 m and camp there. Basically, while going up and down the slopes that lead to Monte Rosa and our camp, you can tell by the size of the backpacks who comes from eastern europe and who doesn't. Guess where do I come from? :)

You can actually tell from the picture that the weather was turning shitty. You have to trust me on this: behind that rock you can see Matterhorn on a clear day! The guys from Arad were already attempting Dufourspitze. I think they were very silly to rush it. Normally what you do when you first reach the mountain (so you are not acclimatized) is go up to the 3100 m camp, rest there, the next day in the morning walk a bit higher on the slopes then at night attempt the peak.
[Why do you start your climb at night? To ensure that the snow bridges over the crevasses are frozen. If you start your climb during the day you stand a very good chance of finding them bridgeless and thus difficult to cross.] So the guys from Arad rushed it and attempted and climbed Dufourspitze from the first day they got there, which was good because the weather forecast was nasty for the next 5 days, but bad because it left many of them deadly beat [one of them nearly had a stroke because after they got down to Zermatt he drank two or three beers. Sheesh!!!!]

So the weather was turning bad and we were looking at five days stuck in the tent. We roughly had food for 5 days, but what to do with the boredom? Needless to say that stuck in the tent means STUCK IN THE TENT, just go out to go toilet and that's it!! For entertainment we had M.'s ipod, the D200 camera and it's manual plus a book with all the 4000m alpine peaks. Ironically, I spent 5 days reading about peaks that I never got a chance to climb. Everyday we would get about 2 hrs of good weather which allowed us to walk around, walk up towards Dufourspitze, up on the Gorner glacier, etc. In one of those hikes (when i say walk, i generally mean walk up on at least 50 degress slopes) the weather was pretty good but there were no tracks (because of the heavy snow fall on the previous night) so we lost the way to Dufouspitze: instead of going right and up a slope, between some seracs, we went left and nearly stumbled on a cornice. We had to return to the tent because the weather was returning to normal (i.e foggy with high chances of snow). The forecast i got from Marian's text messages was confirming what we saw: 60% chances of rain, 40,30,10,0,0!! (the last zeroes were on sunday and monday, this was tuesday, alas!)
You can imagine my happiness when the clouds lifted for the first time and I could see all those huge mountains surrounding the plateau!! It was amazing!! I felt so small and yet so happy and content! I always get this feeling when I see big rock walls, can you imagine now that I saw 2 thousand meter rock and snow and ice walls? mmmm
This is me looking professional. Dufourspitze is those rocks somewhere in the backround, roughly 4-6 hours from where I am standing. The amazing thing is that everything looks so close but it's damn far once you start walking towards it.
And of course ... being snowed in is always a pleasure, but not when you have 7 days left and you haven't climbed anything.

I know ...

I've been bad and promised the Alps story but I have barely managed to shake off the bloody jet lag, so please please please forgives me. I have uploaded the pictures here (in case you're bursting with curiosity). You can deduce from the pictures that we've climbed Mont Blanc and Dufourspitze and that I was badly burned (see portrait). Circumstances of aforementioned burn and climbs will be related in detail tomorrow. Over and out.

PS. In this picture I am not crying but laughing at my reflection in the lens.
PS2. Getting sun/snow burned is definitely one of the most effective peeling therapies: my zits were gone! (they're back now, though ...)

Honey, I'm home!!!

ok boyz and girlz, I just returned!!! I have been computer free and internet free for the past month! It has been great! Watch this space for amazing stories (so modest I am!!)

Bbyez!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, I happily announce that you and the whole Internet will be rid of me until the 20th of July. Take care, climb and surf safe, love thyself and all that!
I hope to see you all alive and well on the 20th!!!

A lot of things

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy it's been so long since I have blogged! This is probably going to be my second last post for the following weeks. So, first things first. I have done so much shopping this past week that it's going to last me (i hope) for the next months, when I need to save, save save!!!

I have bought: 2 handbags for my mom (one was not appropriate for wear in winter, apparently the handles have to be long), 1 perfume for mom (on sale) because I got desperate that I wouldn't find a good handbag, 1 rheumatic oil for grandma, 2 pairs of slippers for grandma and grandpa (very good for wearing around the yard), for grandma still have to buy chocolates from Amsterdam, a lot of Nikon D200 related accessories for M., one pair of base layer gloves for me, one sun hat for me, and a perfume on sale. Speaking of the D200, it's AMAZING!!! The design, the versatility and the way you can see that they have really thought about things makes my D70 (aka Bobby) seem like amateur work compared to M's D200 (aka Mr. Tan - yes, I name my cameras!)

Mr. Tan and Bobby are going back to Romania with us, which is going to be Thursday, 5th of July, 23:00. And Mr. Tan is going with M and I to the Alps. Omg omg omg I am finally going to the Alps!!!! The plan is making my mom want to kill me, but nevertheless. So, I arrive in Bucharest Friday, 13:20. And I am leaving for the alps on the same day, around 18:00. Which gives us around 4 hrs to: get home from the airport, pack, eat (omg it's been so long since I've enjoyed mom's cooking), hug, kiss, calm Bingo (my dog), fetch M. from where he is going to be, and leave for Switzerland. It's pretty tight, but it usually is with me. I still have to buy: 1 40l backpack and 1 pair of windstopper gloves. Or is it polartec gloves? I have no idea, must check.

Speaking of the Alps. Yes!! I am going! Finally! I am not at all trained though!! Yey! I spoke to M. yesterday and he mentioned Dufourspitze (4634m) for warm-up, Weisshorn (4504 m), and another one I can't remember, and last but not least, if the weather is good, if we are fit, the Matterhorn. I hope these mountains will take pity on my wretched soul and allow me to reach the top. I hope I am fit enough for that, too.

I ran half a marathon on Sunday!! Yey! I hope I hope I am trained! Enough for now, I should be starting to pack. Laters!

There must be a reason ...

why I'm so sleepy. Let's see: could it be that I've spent my nights (till 1am generally) watching Wimbledon? Or the fact that I have been overdoing it with my training? I haven't eaten as many fruits as I normally do? Hm ...

1. Watching Wimbledon
I normally am a very early riser: I wake up around 6 am by myself. Of course, this means that by 10-11 I am in bed, snoring. [Gee ... I hope I don't snore!] For the past week I have been going to bed around 12-1 am.

2. Overdoing with training
Haven't done anything unusual, but I do remember failing to hydrate and eat after my 17 km on Sunday.

3. Not eating enough fruit
Ok, fruits and veggies are my thing!! I must eat them or else I feel heavy and tired. I ate 1 chocolate yesterday - I don't eat chocolate or anything sweet except once every few months when I suddenly need sugar. So there, I ate one chocolate. And one bag of jelly fruits. And one (three) slices of pizza last night. Ok ok, I got it!

That's it, I am going home to recharge my batteries. Training programme for today: climb (17-1900), run (19:00), tennis (20:00). I need to sleep.

Breakthrough

Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday I finally registered a breakthrough with my climbing. Yey!! Now, I know this is not much, but but but see for yourselves:

Last time: climbed till tile 14 on the 6a+ route; subsequent tries got me to tile ... 4
Yesterday: climbed till tile 24; subsequent tries got me to tile ... 30 !

Last time: after two tries I was pumped. And even though i love pump, this one was kind of ugly, because whenever I wanted to return to climbing my fingers would freeze (it's in the mind, I know)
Yesterday: I was still good to go for climbing but I had to go running with a friend! And I had forgotten my sensor at home, so that run was not counted. The things I do for friendship ... yesterday's run would have gotten me my 300th km. Ah well... today is also a good day for ... HIKING!!

I keep daydreaming about how my alps trip is going to be and how my subsequent around the country with mom in the car will be! Although initially I planned for the two of us to take a really long trip around the country, I think I will take mom climbing. Yupii!! Still have to talk to M about that, because he will be the one providing accommodations. Over and out, resuming daydreaming.

How to get a day off

Based on my oh so optimistic training schedule, on Saturday I was supposed to do 10 pull-ups (assisted, of course, now i cannot even do one by meself), one session of conditioning and also hiking in the morning. All sounds nice and dandy, I was even content with having to jog to school and start from there, since I had left my backpack there. What I didn't count on was spending the evening with my flatmates at a cafe owned by a dear friend of ours, playing darts till midnight!! Whoa!! Can you imagine how many hikes I went on the next morning? Maybe about 5-10 snoozes on the right side, and 15 on my left side... After all the guilt and self bashing, I decided to run in the evening. What I didn't count on (again) was that Saturday was shopping day!! Yay!! I never knew that shopping can be so exhausting (to the bank account and to oneself)!!! When we were having dinner around seven I finally declared Saturday a day off:) and enjoyed it to the max with a good book and a very nice sleep.

I made up for it yesterday, when, after a light shopping session, I ran. Yup, I ran. 17.5 km, which is my personal best! I would have made it 20 something but around 8 km the sidewalk started to get running unfriendly - it was full of houses and their driveways were interrupting - so I had to turn back. This new formula of running until you reach half way and then turning back is much better than doing two rounds of a given length, which is at most 5 km. Plus i run near the botanical gardens and some jungle formations, so it's a bit more cooling and not so crowded. And I managed to run at a constant pace of 5min/km, which is not tiring at all compared to my usual 4:20-4:30/km. Feeling good about myself, I leave you to work.

Excited!!

In exactly 2 weeks I will be on my way home!!! How cool is that?! I can tell you how cool it is: it's so cool I can't focus on my work and I'm losing patience with everybody around me. Also I keep making plans of what to buy for whom: for mom another bag (tell you the bag incident below), for grandma rheumatic oil or similar plus candies from Amsterdam, for grandpa maybe a bottle of wine, for M. camera plus lense (from his money, of course).

For mom i need to make a list with all my mountaineering equipment that needs to be checked and found for me tot take to the alps - the reason for this is twofold: first, they might not be in order, so I would need to find replacements, and secondly, do you know how it is when your mom decides to go through your stuff and arrange it? And then when you try to find something YOU CAN'T FIND IT because she put it somewhere ELSE?!! This has left me with a serious issue with finding things: whenever i lose something i ask marian to search for it because otherwise I get very very nervous.

So yeah, the dog incident. My dog, whose name is Bingo, is a very smart and loving dachshund (yeah i know). He knows what mom's patterns for going out are: he knows when she is going to the market, to work or anywhere else where she could take him but she won't. Now this last part is of course cause for revenge - if my mom leaves the house to go anywhere (except work or market) without first taking him to the park, it's showtime!!! In his young days he used to have a fetish for the cable of the cable tv (used to chew it at two ends then take it out from behind the furniture and leave it in the middle of the room). Then of course it was the period of looking into the oven, or the sink (helped by the cat), or even destroying plants. Now, in his old age, he is content with only pulling bags from the clothes hanger and chewing them (not much, just enough to ruin them). And it so happens that he destroyed one of the bags that my mom bought from here when she was here this past new year's.

Kinabalu!

You know the one important thing that was NOT on my list but was absolutely important? A book! (and no, lonely planet does not count!) Anyhow, here's the story ...

Took the air asia flight from Johor Bahru (07:21) (to get to the JB airport, i took the bus from kotaraya terminal). I met an english girl called Miranda who was headed for Sabah and Sarawak for this month (going to climb kinabalu on the 26th - go girl!!), afterwards meeting some friends in australia, going to new zealand and then for THREE months in South America, whoa!!! We got to Kota Kinabalu on time and managed to board a bus (no 16) that apparently goes from town to the air asia terminal (not listed in the lonely planet guide book, good to know). In town, Miranda and i part and i head for the bus station and board a cab/4wd to Ranau that drops me off at the park gates (15RM).

There, after paying the park fees (15rm - entrance, 7 rm-insurance, 100rm - climbing permit, 80rm - guide), I went to change my reservation from the hostel at Timpohon gate to the one at Mesilau gate, because i wanted to do the Mesilau trail instead of the Timpohon one. It's 2km longer, but it's much much nicer, wilder and not crowded at all!!! At the resort reception, Surprise!! Apparently i had not made a reservation not even for the timpohon hostel - i had reservation for the Laban Rata (lodge at 3300m) but not for this one - but they have free space at mesilau! So no need to argue there. I buy a shuttle ticket for the Mesilau gate, but end up in one of the staff's car who was going there and dropping me off! Some australian guy also give me tea, noodles and some gloves: no, I was not begging for them, he just wanted to get rid of them and also was happy to ensure that i got to the top!

At the Mesilau gate i had a lovely lunch/dinner and walked around a bit. I started the trail next day at 8:10am. Did i tell you there were female guides? Yes, I had seen one the previous day at the Timpohon gate, and what do you know, she chose to guide me! The first thing she told me was "slow and steady". Well, I steady but I not slow! The trail is magnificent, much nicer than the Timpohon one which I descended on. You can see the Kinabalu ridge, bonsai trees, pitcher plants, and it's not so wide as the one descending to Timpohon.
We met with a german botanist on the way who was so absolutely excited that you have [insert name here] forest here, and that higher there's [insert forest name here] forest, and that this place is full of white orchids (saw three on the other trail) and rhododendrons and pitcher plants (pictured)! Yey!

Managed to get to Laban Rata in roughly 4hrs and 5 minutes (yes, i counted, it was important, ok?). And i got there first (i overcame an english couple that had left from timpohon gate) - arrived at 12:15 but check-in was only at 1. My guide decided that it will be ok if we leave at 3am instead of the 2-2:30 am period, and i was left by myself until that time. I took pictures, ate lots and lots of raspberries (a bit more on the sour side, but good!!!), played with the squirrels, cooked some noodles in my hut (I was all alone there, as in timpohon also). There were only large groups that stayed together so i could not interact with anybody. Went to bed, and at 2:50 started to descend to laban rata (my hut was higher) to get my guide (Rumia). Of course i was passing everybody that was going up!! So Rumia and I were the last to leave. After passing some guys that were stopping to rest, i ended up behind two english guys. Now, I would not have minded the misogynistic comments ("some bimbo turning back", "yeah, well, what do you expect", etc), but the part when one of them farted and didn't say sorry really got the best of me.



So I started to pass by everybody, with Rumia following behind. Around 3500 you get to this plateau (30-40 degrees inclined) with many false peaks. This is where i lost Rumia and overtook the last 10 people that were ahead of me (except the english couple, who was first on the peak). I walked ok, constant but with heavy breath, but one sip of water cured it. I got to Low's peak and froze my ass off with the English couple till sunrise. Beautiful pictures! Rumia later told me that she could have walked as fast as me but didn't want to freeze on the summit. Smart!!


Got down and started descending to timpohon. Managed a whopping 2 hrs and 30 minutes till the gate but was left with incredible pain in my calves and thigh muscles that lasted for 2-3 days (I'm ok now). Got to KK (a guy driving a pirate taxi took me from the bus stop opposite the park to kk for 15 rm) and then to the airport (bus no 16) and was left to kill my boredom (remember, NO BOOK?!) for 6 hours till my flight.


Things will be ok in the alps i think, i just need to get back my strength in my arms (especially my left arm) - i have started doing pull-ups and climbing. CLIMBING SUCKS!!! I now need special novice routes: whatever routes the girls are doing, i get big jugs and extra foothold, just for me!!

Flickr pictures here. Picasa ones (350) here.

Kinabalu list

Yup! The time has come for me to go kinabalu! Yupii!!!! I will be leaving on tuesday and coming back on thursday. It's about time i made a list of things to take. What better place to keep it up than in your blog, you might say... So here goes nothing!
[Draft]
- leftover cereal bars - give you energy - check
- torchlight - check
- sunglasses - check
- polartec jacket - check
- gore-tex jacket (in case it rains) - check
- 1 pair trekking pants, long (for the last stretch) - check
- 1 pair short trekking pants for the first parts - check
- 2-3 changes underwear - check
- 1 dry fit tshirt (first part) - check
- 1 cotton tshirt (Second part) - check
- pink cap :) (can be easily spotted)
- 2 changes socks (1 pair short, 1 pair long) - check
- lonely planet guide
- ipod - check
- bobby (that's my camera) - must charge!
- moneyz (unfortunately) - check
- passport + green card - check
- phone
- watterbottle - check
- elbow guard - check

If you feel that i've forgotten anything, pls comment!

You hear and see a lot of things ...

at conferences. I saw an inspiring thing and I heard the silliest, stupidest thing all in just one day!

First, I saw a blind professor giving a computer science talk. It was amazing! I didn't even realize he was blind until I heard the reader that read him what was on the next slide. You don't even realize how complicated things can get, like for example he could not integrate a video in his slides (must insert then change property - or is it drag'n'drop in powerpoint ?) and he had to alt+tab (reader aided) to a directory and open the movie from there. Or, when glitches happened like an empty slide he would have to go back and forth a few slides just to get back on track. It was so inspiring to see somebody deal so well with a thing like that, not giving up and continuing to do what (I suppose) he loves. Needless to say he was very smart and funny.

[Warning! Geekish comment coming!!]

And yes, girls and boyz, Microsoft is planning to take over the High Performance Computing (HPC) market!!! Their spear is the Windows 2003 Cluster shit something. Motivation? As given by some general manager something or other at Microsoft, and I quote: "we want to hide ssh calls from the user. they don't want to learn so we are totally hiding it from them". Wtf?! "We offer complete integration with Microsoft products, like Excel (is Excel HPC!??!!? sheesh!!) and Active directory". Brrrr! Anyhow, it gave me a good laugh and it was a great end to the day. Go M$, go!

FS = 0, E = -5, T = -15 => FSET = -20

Whoa! I'm so so tired after the Pumpfest competition this weekend! I still don't know exactly what the results were cause I had to leave to see the pirates. I know that San is second for the intermediate women (FINALLY! Welcome to open, girl!) and that probably Edwin (the new boss) is first for intermediate men. Whoa! I guess we're good, man!

I haven't posted anything lately because these days I have to attend a conference. Today it was in my plan to stay @home and sort out the 400 pics from Pumpfest and go to the conference later (around 11), but my supervisor wanted us to leave together from school at 08:30. Yup. Which means that i have to wake up at seven and come to school. Yey!! So here i am fast blogging.

I am so happy to announce you that last week i ran around 40 km. I did not run this weekend because of pumpfest and this absolutely atrocious muscle ache in my thighs due to my 60 plus knee bents done on the spur of the moment (i haven't been doing those in about six years or so). On monday i hiked my hill five times and for the third and fourth time i managed to slowly run half of it (carrying my 17kg backpack). For the fifth time i ran nearly 75% percent of it. How cool is that?! Yesterday did my 10 km then played tennis. Tennis was bad ... I sucked at it before stopping to play and now i suck even more. Nevermind, practice will resume on thursday.

And I have been saving the best for last! Ladies and gentlemen ... I have resumed climbing! I say, I have resumed climbing! Taking into consideration yap's, kesheng's and teck chew's advices (given at various moments in time), I am taking it very very very slowly. As in I have climbed for 15 minutes both on monday and on tuesday. It's very little, but but but but it's sooo goood ... And so difficult on my ego! Because, needless to say, I am so lousy at it like I've never been before. I have lost my confidence, I keep worrying "what if i fall". And that's the good part of it. The bad part is that finger strength (FS) = 0, E(ndurance) = "never knew there is such thing", T(echnique) = - infinity. I have to endure my humiliation and stick to it.

Gotta go!

LATER EDIT: of course i hit "publish post" and ran for it, only to find upon returning 9 hours later that the blogger interface said "your request cannot be processed, please try again later". Sheesh!!

IR iz philosopher

There is a word that really disturbs me when I hear it: "expat". I resent being called an expat because it has such an aggressive meaning, at least for me. I think this is because you can divide it into "ex-pat", where "pat" is the first part of a romanian word meaning country (or latin word for that matter, "patria" = lat., country). My country has not disowned me and I have certainly not renounced my citizenship to my country. I don't feel less of a romanian or more of a singaporean by living in Singapore. What does living abroad make you? Confused, at least! Do you carry a part of your country with you wherever you go? If yes, how do you carry it? Is it in language? In habits and upbringing? In friends and community?

If it's in language, then I am totally losing it. I am starting to feel that when I start to talk or write in Romanian it's like I am recovering from a stroke or similar. My thoughts are starting to form themselves in a mixture of english and romanian that is disturbing me when I start to talk in either language. Maybe it's because of all the books in English that I have been reading. Maybe it's because I haven't had an intelligent conversation with my romanian peers (Marian excluded) for months. Maybe it's because I should be keeping this blog in romanian (or start a new one?). I still have to figure it out.

As for friends, gimme a break! It's almost useless trying to keep in touch with all my friends from back home, so I limit myself to a few, and then only through YM. As for friends here, I suppose acquaintances is more of a better word. Friends as in you-can-wake-me-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-no-matter-what-
pat-on-the-back-kick-in-the-ass are very hard to come by. Most people in the romanian community*, or at least with those I have come to know, unfortunately generally occupy themselves with gossiping about others. It's hard to make friends when gossip is your only subject: you run out of gossip material, you cannot confide because you know you end up as gossip material, and it's so puerile it's annoying!! So you're left with acquaintances, maybe go to a movie sometimes, out to dinner, maybe sometimes shopping (though very seldom - I think it's more comfortable to shop with friends) and stuff like that.

Community is out of the question, by the above reason. I think a defining trait of romanians is that most of them are more preoccupied with what others are doing (or with how badly the others are doing) to take a good look at themselves.

Maybe you are a citizen of your country no matter where you go by your habits and upbringing. By the food you eat, by what you think is polite or impolite, by the way you greet people or the way you give presents. Who knows? Maybe you're a citizen of your country by the way you remember your country long after you've left it. I remember the smell of silver fir trees and snow on a very cold winter morning, on a balcony in a house overlooking a troubled river, in Lacu Rosu, Romania.

*[As for making asian friends, it's hard enough to be an ang moh here, let alone one that always speaks her mind, and can be thought, by some local standards, well ... nuts. Nevertheless, I have found more compassion and friendliness in my asian friends than in my romanian acquaintances here]