Ever since I am with eternity, I am really going active with mountain climbing. It is something that I have a big interest. You know that I have started climbing since I was 19 and had to stop because of some inevitable reason. I have climbed kinabalu, tahan, panti, belumut, ledang and now I can add a few more names to my already existing list of mountains. Mount datuk, berembun and siku are the new collection that I have added and not forgetting, bekelah waterfall. The list will grow in a few weeks time but I know I have to watch my budget as well.You know, I wonder at times if I hadn’t met eternity would I be active again. I knew I should be thankful that I have met her because she is responsible for rekindling my passion for mountain climbing.
I hope to do this for as long as I could with her because it is good to have someone you are very comfortable with doing the things you like together. I am so used to doing things with her nowadays that I find it odd and incomplete when she is not around. I really do treasure her diary, and I wish she knows although I always snap easily with her.I climbed the new collections of mountain with a friend of eternity’s brother whose name I shall call sammy to protect his identity. Sammy is a big guy with big tummy and chest. My first impression of him was that he must be some guy who’s tough and rugged with a good stamina. He seemed like the guy who will be the last man to reach every campsite and the summit of a mountain not because his slow or weak but because he’s just the kind that would make sure anyone didn’t left behind or got lost. In other words, he would always be the last man in a group.
However, my good impression of him slowly deterioriates after trekking with him three times. His attitude turned me off and I did not think highly of him anymore. I didn’t notice it the first time I trekked with him but after awhile, I realised that he was actually just trying to show off when he hasn’t really got anything to show off. The first time I trekked with him, he talked about mount stong non-stop. I figured that he must be quite an experienced climber and has about more than five mountains in his list of mountains he climbed before. I was wrong and it turned out that he had less than my expected figure. That explains why he only talked about mount stong to us. I am not trying to underestimate neither am I trying to belittle him. It is just that, he acts and talks like a very experienced mountain climber when he is not and that really annoys me.
He always wants people to listen to his suggestions and ideas when they are not at all practical. Worse of all, even though he does not say it officially to us, he seems to want to form his own team or club and sadly, he thinks that eternity and I are willing to be his pioneer team or club members. He suggested that any balance of money collected from every trip will not be refunded as the money will be used to buy equipments. I really do not know for whom the equipments are for as I already have enough equipments of my own. The idea is fine if every one of us agreed to form a club or team of our own. But since none of us agreed except for him, I just find that the idea is not right. Any balance of money must be refunded accordingly and if he feels like buying anything, he should be using his own money instead. Then again, this explains why he hasn’t had any basic equipments. I rest my case about the equipments now.
When we were planning to climbed mount datuk, he suggested for us not to bring anything except for out water bottles. In my mind, we were going to climb the mountain in the wee hour in the morning and from what I have heard, it usually takes about one to two hours of climbing depending on your speed. We were to leave for mount datuk at eleven at night. With one to one and a half hour of travelling, our estimated time to reach the base of the mountain was one to two in the morning and we were going to climb once we got there. It doesn’t take a professional climber to know that he will reach the summit before the sun is up. Surely any average person would be able to tell if it is going to be cold or not up in the mountain in the wee hour in the morning. Unfortunately, sammy couldn’t tell and he brought nothing at all with him except his water bottle hanging from his belt. He thought that I brought too many things and commented on my heavy backpack. He made a couple unpleasant remarks about eternity’s and my decision to carry stuffs up in the mountain.
His remarks and comments made me wondered before the climb if he really knew what he brought with him. I remained silent and waited till the end of the climb. We reached the summit at half past four in the morning. The wind was happily blowing at our direction. While I was unpacking my bag, he asked for a ground sheet, I gave it to him and continued to set up my air mat to sleep. Eternity and I slept quite comfortably as we had our sweaters and windbreakers on. In the middle of our sleep, what I had expected turned out to be true. Sammy complaint of how cold it was to another of our friend.
Eternity and I pretended not to hear and continued sleeping. I didn’t want to offer him a layer of my sweater because I felt he didn’t deserve it. I wasn’t trying to be selfish but he was proud with me before and that annoyed me. It was so silly of him to suggest to us not to bring anything and how I was glad we didn’t listen to him. I am so glad that from the few mountains I have climbed, I have gained a couple of experiences and I managed to put it into good use. Most of all, I am thankful that eternity and I did not become victims to sammy’s silly and impractical ideas.
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