Merdeka Climb to Gunung Angsi

Yesterday, as the nation celebrates its 51st Merdeka I decided to go for a climb to Gunung Angsi (820m/2706 ft) together with Ken Meng, Zenon and Tan. We agreed to meet up at 8 .00 am but there was a slight delay as some of the roads were blocked due to the Merdeka Day parade in Seremban.

We commenced our ascend at about 8.45 am. Felicia/Chong and gang were already at the summit as they had camped overnight. Texted them that we are on the way up. The weather was cool but the humidity was very high as usual. Just before reaching "Panjang's resort", we caught up with 2 chaps who said they weren't going all the way up but only half-way.

Reached "Panjang's resort" after about 20 mins and met panjang and 2 others. Apparently, panjang had spent the night at his "resort". We continued with our ascend. There were stretches when the cool mountain mist became very thick that visibility was barely a few feet. Due to rain the track was damp and at certain stretches slippery too.

We finally reached the summit after about 1 hour 45 mins. Chong was calling out for me and said we were late. They had already 'broke' camp and getting ready to descend. Felicia saved 3 pieces of her home baked cakes for us. Felicia said the view from the summit at night was nice. Could see the lights of Seremban town and a bit of the fireworks display on the eve of Merdeka.

While we were at the summit another group of KLites came up from the trail from the Ulu Bendol Forest Reserve. The first chap said it was tough and it took him 3 hours to reach the summit. We told him there's a short-cut route which he wasn't aware as it was the first time he was climbing gunung angsi. Later, another group from KL came from the same trail that we took. This weekend we met quite a number of people at the summit.

Before we descend, thick mist was blown across the summit. It was windy too and Zenon asked for my Malaysian flag so that he could attach it to his stick and wave it for a photo shoot. It was a nice scene and the other climbers borrowed my flag for their own photo shoot.

Our descend was slow and we met several climbers from KL who were on their way up. Made a joke at one of them that the summit was closed due to thick mist ....

Our descend took about the same time as our ascend. After short breather, we adjourned to the noodle shop in Dusun Nyior.