Asianshark Adventures: Tahan Trekking Club

I was teacher in-charge of a CCA (school interest group) known as the Tahan Trekking Club! Yes there was a club named after the mountain. Apart from other smaller mountains such as Ophir and Stong, summiting Gunung Tahan was seen as the milestone in their club experience, a graduation climb. These young men and women, 17 years old, would scale Gunung Tahan after just 6 months of intense training, the mountain that strikes fear even into seasoned trekkers. And they would only take the Classic Trail, Kuala Tahan to Kuala Tahan, all 110km.

The tradition of the club dates back to 1976. Then, the new Hwa Chong Junior College wanted to set itself apart from the rest and make a name of itself and decided to send a group of 8 boys 2 girls to scale the highest peak in Peninsula Malaysia. Led by its founder Dr Quek Jin Jong, who was Assistant Head of Physical Education, they embarked on a 7-day journey into the unknown. None of them had any trekking experience, they weren't even sure what kind of shoes to use. In an interview with Dr Quek many years later, he recalled a moment when the trek almost didn't happen. As the team camped in the Taman Negara national park, just near the start point of the trek, some of them encountered a man whose upper body was covered in leeches. The blood on his body was enough to stun them into thinking twice about setting foot in the forest. Dr Quek recalled, "At that point, if I had said, 'Let's go back', I think the rest would have readily gone back home." He didn't, so they stayed, to complete the trip and started a legacy.

Clockwise from top left: 3rd batch, 1978, 3rd batch crossing log bridge, 29th batch in front of minimart

Trainings were taken seriously, where mistakes seldom go unnoticed

New members on an orientation climb to Gunung Ayam

My first Gunung Tahan climb with this bunch of enthusiastic students started in 2006. Together with 2 graduated seniors, 4 girls and 2 boys, we set foot on Gunung Tahan once again.

The traditional shot in front of the mini mart

Strangely, memory has a unique way of highlighting certain moments and blurring out the rest. This trek has to be my most memorable and impactful experience thus far, yet apart from a few highlight scenes, memories of the rest of the trek has faded. This trek will always be remembered as the one whereby I trekked up on foot and returned down by chopper. One of the students had suffered from over-exhaustion and hypothermia after summiting and collapsed while on the way down. Without any stretcher, we made a make-shift one with a hammock and carried her to the campsite. Her body was shivering and cold like a block of ice. Finally with many layers of clothing and setting a big fire beside, her senses finally returned. That was just the beginning of my 2D2N nightmare.

The next day she was looking fine, but we decided to rest one more day before continuing with the down climb. Once night fell, she would slip into unconsciousness and hyperventilate. Armed with just basic first aid and CPR, "look listen feel" was all I could do as we watched her unconscious being lying in the tent, hyperventilating uncontrollably every 5 minutes. Given the situation, we decided to evacuate her by the quickest possible way, which was by chopper. Communicating with park rangers in an emergency is another challenge altogether, coupled by the almost non-existent handphone reception. Finally the chopper arrived the next day, picked us up and brought her to the hospital. This was almost 36 hrs after the incident, any longer and we would have run out of food.

Back from the mountain, at the mini mart again

Fast forward a few days, we finally returned to Singapore by train. Handing the student back to her dad, I felt like a huge boulder was finally lifted off my back. I will never forget the joy in their faces upon seeing each other, no need for any word to be spoken.

My 3rd Tahan climb in 2011, with the 36th Tahanners.