Climbing the G7 Tropical Mountains of Malaysia

[mringkeith]

In Malaysia, it is common to hear about the G7 mountains among the hiking community. The G7 mountains are basically seven of the highest summits above 7000 feet in Peninsular Malaysia. Although elevation-wise they might be insignificant to those in the Himalayas or the Andes, the challenge posed by these 7 mountains are no less tormenting. The G7 definitely deserves deep respect from anyone who are attempting as they are not for the faint hearted and people have actually died while attempting to conquer their summits. The challenges posed by the G7s are very different from those posed by the ice mountains of Tibet or the 14ers of Colorado. Over here, elevation is not so much a problem hence its quite rare for hikers to face altitude sickness problems. However, among the problems that one can anticipate is such as getting lost in the dense tropical rainforest. This is indeed a very real danger as the Malaysian tropical rainforest is very lush and dense with flora.

On less trodden routes, one might even have to make their own trail through the thick vegetation. Though the mountains here don't see temperatures below zero, the fast changing mountain climate does pose a challenge. You could be trekking through the jungle floor in scorching hot and humid conditions only to be poured with torrential rain moments later at higher elevations. This drastic change in local climate and temperature can rapidly weaken a person's body hence causing him or her to easily fall sick. Not to forget the Malaysian rainforest is infested with blood sucking leaches which can suck up to 10X their original size! If you thought that by wearing anti-leach socks would solve the problem, you just thought wrong! Believe me that these sneaky creatures can some how find their way to the most delicate and private parts of your body!

If you don't mind the leaches anyhow, I'm sure you will definitely mind the sandflies as their sting will cause a severe itch that can send you into a scratching frenzy the whole night long!

If you are lucky enough or should I say unlucky enough (depending on how you see it) to bump into the occasional tiger or elephant or snake or bear or a combination of them, you are just in for another run for your life encounter.

So with this said, you probably will start to believe me that the G7's level of difficulty is indeed very misleading if you simply judged it based on its elevation.

There's more information about the G7 and the tropical mountains of Malaysia on my blog:

http://icheong2.blogspot.com/2014/12/th ... tains.html