IO – After more than 12 hours of travel from Hasanudin Airport (Makassar), we finally reached Latimojong Village, the last settlement at the foot of Mount Latimojong. The trip to the village is better done by a 4-wheeled vehicle as the road is narrow and steep, first uphill and then sharply downward. The village has successfully won our heart with the hospitality of its people and the beauty of their rural atmosphere. A deep ravine alongside of the road is overgrown with cloves, coffee and chili plants.
We started the climb at 8 am. Rain accompanied us from the time our feet stepped from the registration post. For those aged between 38 and 55, the combination of slippery, steep trail slopes up to 90 degrees (mainly from post 2 to post 3) and the raincoats we had to wear along the way proved extremely challenging. Of the climbers who had descended, some of whom failed to reach the summit due to unfavorable weather, we were informed that the weather around the peak was almost always covered with heavy thunderstorms and thick mist. We were lucky enough, as during our ascent we were accompanied by the boisterous chirping of wild birds that sometimes looked so tame, and when we were about to attack the summit, the storms subsided, while the wind was still very strong.
As one of the seven mountains that belongs to the “Seven Summits of Indonesia”, Mount Latimojong presents a very challenging climbing route, especially since the return downhill is as difficult as the path to the summit. This, the highest mountain on the island of Sulawesi, is almost always shrouded in fog and rainstorms, which not only add to the beautiful scenery along the way, but also offer challenges that are hard to overcome.
We had to wait several hours at the last post before attempting the summit attack; however, it all proved sweet in the end. Despite the light rainstorm, we reached the peak of Mount Latimojong to hoist the Red and White flag. We thank you, God. (Haris Winarto)