mount amazing

we've just come back from a 4 day/3 night trek on mount rinjani. words cannot describe the stunning beauty of this volcano. we set out from sembalun, led by tal, a good friend of mine from the CDC and an expert rinjani guide. we trekked for 8 hours the first day to get to the crater rim where we set up camp 1. tal woke us around 2am for a light breakfast just before beginning the strenuous climb to the summit in time for sunrise. most of the way to the top was a narrow and loose path of gravel, on one side of you the active crater, and on the other a steep fall down to the green valley below. we wrestled with rinjani through the night, searching for something stable to grab hold of to help pull ourselves up to the top of the volcano, but there was no solid ground, and the peak proved ever elusive as each time we thought we had gotten close, turning the corner revealed a new leg of the climb. there were countless moments when i thought, "what am i doing? why did i sign up to put myself through this? this is not fun! this does not feel good!" but if i paused to question myself, turning my back on the mountain, i saw that the sky was an endless black, milky with stars. a cavernous and gaping mouth ready to swallow me whole. it was so dramatic, as if all else but us had ceased to exist. stretching behind and above me was a line of ants, our flashlights bobbing in the dark like lightning bugs, all of us making our pilgrimage to rinjani's summit. sweat and tears our sacrifice, silent awe our prayers at the high altar that was this breathing hole in the earth. and so i, we, continued on. slowly one edge of the sky began to melt from black to blue to purple, until it was on fire with the orange glow of the sun rising up. our sacrifices had been accepted, our prayers heard. the sunset was like none we had ever seen before. a 360 degree view of the horizon as the sun brought color back into the world.

the rest of the day was spent making our way down into the crater to the lake's edge to set up camp 2. we rewarded our weary limbs by soaking them in a natural hot spring near camp. we felt tired, but undeniably alive. we applauded our legs for the hard work they had done, getting us to the summit and back. we ate heartily. and then, we slept.

on the third day we trekked up the other side of the crater and over the rim for a different view of rinjani's majesty, stunning as ever, and then down its jungled exterior to make camp 3, laughing the entire way at our tired clumsiness. we stayed up late with tal and our porters, huddled around the campfire and singing along to all the western songs they had downloaded on their cellphones.

by the fourth and final day we were covered in dirt and our muscles were strained, but we were giddy. we had climbed rinjani and been amazed by its splendor. we capped the trek off with a motorbike ride. set and royal drove us and our packs to lombok's capital, mataram. we shared a late lunch all together and then said our goodbyes. parting was sad, but i was filled up with experience. everything i could have asked for from lombok it had relinquished to me.