Klang Gates Quartz Ridge Expedition (East Ridge only) - 23rd April 2011
All the previous Tabur events have finally culminated into this expedition. Thanks and no thanks to the weather that day; thanks because it let us complete the entire East Ridge, no thanks for discouraging us from doing the West, and pelted us with thunderstorm and lightnings. The East Ridge was the priority due to many awesome peaks and moss carpets(Photo 1 below).
This trip was part of our Earth Day (22nd April) celebration, although it didn't happen on the exact date, which was a working day.
I have been to Tabur West few years back. Tabur wasn't really my kind of hills for a couple of reasons -- not hardcore enough and the torturing temperature under the sun. Thanks to MNS Pathfinders' vigour-always-in-him Chris Leo, I got to check out one of the most beautiful Tabur peaks i.e. Tabur Far East (http://goo.gl/eKYob). The journey is itself impeccably beautiful, as we walked through a private area which I called the Secret Garden(Photo 2 below). To date, it remains accessible.
Two reasons prompted us to do the expedition:
Before KLORR becomes visible (more below), and disrupts the natural beauty of the ridge and contrasts it with marvels of modern construction; and a complete traverse of all peaks as a matter of personal challenge, not solely "because they are there", as the famous saying goes.
Short chronology:
Jan 29: I joined MNS Pathfinder to hike Tabur FE. Like I have mentioned earlier, Tabur does not excite me. Reflecting back, I joined because I have not met Chris for a long time, and I thought that was a good time to catch up. Chris also introduced the initial part of the trail heading up to Extreme. That was not part of his event programme; but did so after a few of us indicated our interests to check it out, so we got to the wind passage just before the huge vertical rock wall (Photo 3 below).
Shortly after, the recce team was formed with me, Kin Hou, Chiu Wah and Peter Lau. We maintained the principle that all the recce trips till final expedition will be done by this team, all or none. The prerequisites to complete the expedition are the Extreme/Far East and Far East/East trails.
Feb 6: With the knowledge of Far East trail, we decided to recce up Extreme. Not successful. The guide posted in the blog by the previous group is no longer usable; the terrain has altered after so many moons. We did not turn back on the same 'paper' trail hoping that by going further away may lead us to another trail up. Nope, that didn't work out! After walking under the scorching sun and passing Orang Asli settlement, we ended up in Kemensah area, far from where we parked our cars near the trailhead. We walked a very long distance on this day.
Feb 19: Second recce. This round, Chiu Wah tied (donated) a used dynamic rope at the top after a narrow gap of two rock walls; we knew we will come back one day to complete this. We bulldozed through the large fern patch from the last successful point after the rope. We reached the top (but before the peak) in less than a hundred metres (Figure 1 below). Unfortunately, we did not lay tape markers for this last stretch (Photo 4 below). On the return journey, we took a bypass this round and walked a shorter distance (but still under the same "solar power" intensity) to a construction area in Tropika Kemensah; there, we had a car already parked there before the recce as part of our logistics planning.
Apr 2: This recce covers from FE to East (the final gap) and once again we threaded an entirely different path; that was after we hiked up all the peaks leading to the deep ravine(Figure 2 below). This recce was a success!
Apr 23: Klang Gates Quartz Ridge Expedition -- East Ridge only (Figure 3 below). Trip managed to join us but not Captain Ng who has to attend his Wataniah event in Shah Alam.
Two impediments halted us from continuing to the West Ridge: (1) The weather as described at the beginning, and (2) There is no continuous nature-type traverse across from the East to the West Ridge. The second reason is particularly demotivating as we wanted to do an end-to-end expedition completely on nature trail but which we knew this is not possible. That gap is simply a disconnect!
The day trip took us seven hours of leisurely hike and rest, and photography, with a traveled distance of about 6 km (Figure 4 below).
This earlier incoming storm did not hit us (Photo 6 below).
Bit of Background:
The entire ridge has a total length of up to 14 km and a width of up to 200 metres wide (Dr Ibrahim Komoo and Dr Syafrina Ismail in The Geotope of Klang Gates Quartz Ridge, Selangor, undated: http://www.ukm.my/wgm/pdf/2abstrak.pdf). The distance I plotted on Wikimapia gave ~ 12 km (Figure 5 below). Of course, this is just my research/findings without any scientific basis. Also, Dr Ibrahim mentioned that the development over the years that eroded parts of the ridge, as described by Michael Cheang inhttp://mcleon.tripod.com/quartz-ridge.htm.
About KLORR:
KLORR is KL Outer Ring Road which connects from Rawang to Cheras (see image 1 below), cutting thru you-know-where. We do not know how much "devastation" the construction will create and nature space taken off the map, so part of the reason for our expedition is to document the "before" scenes; and to ensure we traveled the entire ridge before parts of it, if any, are closed for access. More about it at The Star Online (titled "Path to destruction"): http://goo.gl/wfDgp.
Last but not least, thanks to my recce teammates Chiu Wah, Kin Hou and Peter. We were glad to have Triptipal with us too. Also thanks to Chris Leo who re-opened my eyes on Tabur!
To whoever who wants to do a trip there, may this note help...
Metta
Footnote: this post reproduced here with permission from Jimmy oddstuff chew.
Thanks Jimmy for allowing me to share out.
This trip was part of our Earth Day (22nd April) celebration, although it didn't happen on the exact date, which was a working day.
Photo 1: Moss carpet at Far East
I have been to Tabur West few years back. Tabur wasn't really my kind of hills for a couple of reasons -- not hardcore enough and the torturing temperature under the sun. Thanks to MNS Pathfinders' vigour-always-in-him Chris Leo, I got to check out one of the most beautiful Tabur peaks i.e. Tabur Far East (http://goo.gl/eKYob). The journey is itself impeccably beautiful, as we walked through a private area which I called the Secret Garden(Photo 2 below). To date, it remains accessible.
Photo 2: Secret Garden
Two reasons prompted us to do the expedition:
Before KLORR becomes visible (more below), and disrupts the natural beauty of the ridge and contrasts it with marvels of modern construction; and a complete traverse of all peaks as a matter of personal challenge, not solely "because they are there", as the famous saying goes.
Short chronology:
Jan 29: I joined MNS Pathfinder to hike Tabur FE. Like I have mentioned earlier, Tabur does not excite me. Reflecting back, I joined because I have not met Chris for a long time, and I thought that was a good time to catch up. Chris also introduced the initial part of the trail heading up to Extreme. That was not part of his event programme; but did so after a few of us indicated our interests to check it out, so we got to the wind passage just before the huge vertical rock wall (Photo 3 below).
Shortly after, the recce team was formed with me, Kin Hou, Chiu Wah and Peter Lau. We maintained the principle that all the recce trips till final expedition will be done by this team, all or none. The prerequisites to complete the expedition are the Extreme/Far East and Far East/East trails.
Photo 3: Tabur Extreme's vertical wall
Feb 6: With the knowledge of Far East trail, we decided to recce up Extreme. Not successful. The guide posted in the blog by the previous group is no longer usable; the terrain has altered after so many moons. We did not turn back on the same 'paper' trail hoping that by going further away may lead us to another trail up. Nope, that didn't work out! After walking under the scorching sun and passing Orang Asli settlement, we ended up in Kemensah area, far from where we parked our cars near the trailhead. We walked a very long distance on this day.
Feb 19: Second recce. This round, Chiu Wah tied (donated) a used dynamic rope at the top after a narrow gap of two rock walls; we knew we will come back one day to complete this. We bulldozed through the large fern patch from the last successful point after the rope. We reached the top (but before the peak) in less than a hundred metres (Figure 1 below). Unfortunately, we did not lay tape markers for this last stretch (Photo 4 below). On the return journey, we took a bypass this round and walked a shorter distance (but still under the same "solar power" intensity) to a construction area in Tropika Kemensah; there, we had a car already parked there before the recce as part of our logistics planning.
Photo 4: This 'ghostly' tree marks the junction of Far East / Extreme trail.
Figure 1: Tabur Extreme GPS track.
Apr 2: This recce covers from FE to East (the final gap) and once again we threaded an entirely different path; that was after we hiked up all the peaks leading to the deep ravine(Figure 2 below). This recce was a success!
Figure 2: Tabur Far East to East GPS track.
Apr 23: Klang Gates Quartz Ridge Expedition -- East Ridge only (Figure 3 below). Trip managed to join us but not Captain Ng who has to attend his Wataniah event in Shah Alam.
Photo 5: The expedition team. From left: Kin Hou, Peter Lau, Triptipal Singh, Yours Truly, Chiu Wah.
Figure 3: The complete GPS track for East Ridge.
Two impediments halted us from continuing to the West Ridge: (1) The weather as described at the beginning, and (2) There is no continuous nature-type traverse across from the East to the West Ridge. The second reason is particularly demotivating as we wanted to do an end-to-end expedition completely on nature trail but which we knew this is not possible. That gap is simply a disconnect!
The day trip took us seven hours of leisurely hike and rest, and photography, with a traveled distance of about 6 km (Figure 4 below).
Figure 4: The elevation profile of East Ridge
This earlier incoming storm did not hit us (Photo 6 below).
Photo 6: Incoming storm heading another direction
Bit of Background:
The entire ridge has a total length of up to 14 km and a width of up to 200 metres wide (Dr Ibrahim Komoo and Dr Syafrina Ismail in The Geotope of Klang Gates Quartz Ridge, Selangor, undated: http://www.ukm.my/wgm/pdf/2abstrak.pdf). The distance I plotted on Wikimapia gave ~ 12 km (Figure 5 below). Of course, this is just my research/findings without any scientific basis. Also, Dr Ibrahim mentioned that the development over the years that eroded parts of the ridge, as described by Michael Cheang inhttp://mcleon.tripod.com/quartz-ridge.htm.
Figure 5: The length of the quartz ridge
About KLORR:
KLORR is KL Outer Ring Road which connects from Rawang to Cheras (see image 1 below), cutting thru you-know-where. We do not know how much "devastation" the construction will create and nature space taken off the map, so part of the reason for our expedition is to document the "before" scenes; and to ensure we traveled the entire ridge before parts of it, if any, are closed for access. More about it at The Star Online (titled "Path to destruction"): http://goo.gl/wfDgp.
source: The Star Online Note the path of planned construction.
Last but not least, thanks to my recce teammates Chiu Wah, Kin Hou and Peter. We were glad to have Triptipal with us too. Also thanks to Chris Leo who re-opened my eyes on Tabur!
To whoever who wants to do a trip there, may this note help...
Metta
Footnote: this post reproduced here with permission from Jimmy oddstuff chew.
Thanks Jimmy for allowing me to share out.
