Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

August 24, 2023

2877m

Sumatra, Indonesia

Gn. Singgalang and Gn. Marapi are the twin “ultras” dominating the south side of Bukittinggi in West Sumatra. The latter is considerably more difficult, so Adam and I decided to do Singgalang first. This would be Adam’s 150th global “ultra”. The main attraction of Singgalang is a lake (Telaga Dewi Singgalang) but the true summit is behind the lake and rarely visited. There’s an ugly communication tower built on the summit and the trail beyond the lake is in some poor conditions. One would have to crawl under or above many downed logs and the terrain is slow and tedious even by the jungle’s standard. There are two trails to access the upper part of this mountain. Deividas had done a great job testing and demonstrating the difference as he ascended one and descended the other. Thank to his trip report Adam and I would take the one that starts from Padang Laweh, the newer and the more northern of the two.

In the previous day our driver took us to the “basecamp” at Padang Laweh but we didn’t actually go to the basecamp. Instead we visited a local house where a ranger lives, and did the registration process slightly unofficially. The driver also helped us to secure two ojeks (motorcycles) at 6 am. We then went back to the hotel in Padang Panjang. The following morning we showed up in Padang Laweh at exactly 6 am. They promised us that the ojeks would be waiting for us slightly uphill from the ranger’s house, but after a few kilometers of driving we were still unable to locate them. We then drove back down to that house and were told the ojek drivers were late by about 20 minutes. This honestly should be expected based on our experience in this country, so we paid them and didn’t make too much of complaints. We did require them to show up at the trail-head no later than 12 pm to pick us up, but the commitment of these guys seemed rather sketchy. I wouldn’t worry too much as by one way or another we should be able to find ojeks for the descent in the middle of the day. The drivers were actually quite skillful and the ride was thankfully not stressful.

We were dropped at a “welcome gate” but the ojeks went further, all the way to the trail-head. The grade of the last ~30 m elevation would be too steep to take a passenger so Adam and I just walked. Despite being late these people knew what they were doing. They pointed out the not-so-obvious start of the trail and it was correct. We soon merged to Deividas’ GPX track and a short section of tall grass later we entered the jungle. After the mud madness on Kerinci and Talang I was expecting the same kind of adventure here, but this trail was definitely easier than I thought with only a few notable spots. About 1/3 of the way up the trail made a sudden rightwards traverse and the section following this traverse was steep and technical. Lots of 3rd class moves on tree roots were required, and to descend we had to down-climb facing into the slope. There’s one fixed rope but I think the diameter of that rope was only 3 mm. There’s no way for us to trust that rope so we both climbed and down-climbed that pitch sans aid.

About 100 m under the lake’s plateau we came to a large opening area. Below this area was a camp with several tents. Those people were about to start their day and it seemed like they would carry their camp up to the lake for another night. Adam and I zipped past them. That opening section offered some unobstructed views back towards Gn. Marapi and this was the most scenic section of this entire ascent. The goodness eventually came to an end as we dived back into the jungle. The trail quality had degraded here with sections of crawling and large puddles of mud, but at least the path was clear. After a slight descent we made to the lake, which was actually not disappointing. The scenery was fine, and the groups camping there welcomed us. The trail from the lake to the true summit was quite adventurous with lots and lots of fallen logs and the logs were all extremely slippery. Up until that opening area we had been cruising, but beyond that we had to slow down by quite a bit. The trail was easy to follow, but slow-going and tedious. Eventually I reached the true summit which was entirely obstructed by that communication facility. I spotted a side path traversing to the right (east). It was obviously going downhill and not leading to any high point, but Adam was behind so I decided to check it out. This was the correct decision as the path led me to a small opening area with some views. About 10 minutes later I heard Adam yelling so I yelled back, and another minute later Adam showed up.

Due to the high frequency transmissions we opted to descend immediately and take the much-needed break at that lake. Descending those slippery logs required the uttermost caution. I took a spill on the way up, but avoided falling on the way back. The rest of the descent was still slippery and I apparently had let my guard down. I took several spills and I had to blame the mud for filling in the treads on the bottom of my shoes. I made sure to stay concentrated and didn’t take more spills. Our round trip time was under 5 hours but was much longer than I thought, that we didn’t get back to the trail-head until 12:30 pm, half an hour later than the ojeks’ supposed show-up time. Not to my surprise they were not there, but at least there were people. In about 10 minutes we got two ojeks ready but we did have to walk down to that “welcome gate” as this uppermost section was too steep for passengers even for descending. Our driver was waiting at a different location but these ojeks knew where to head to. The driver had been busy trying to arrange registration for Gn. Marapi (two days after) and he had been extremely helpful. We found the correct persons to arrange ojeks and do the registration cheaply, and then went back to the hotel for a much-needed rest day afterwards. The weather forecast was not looking promisingly for the following day anyway.