Highlights from Mount Rinjani, Summit 3 726m

About that volcano. We trekked to still active volcano, Mount Rinjani 10.09.2016. Trekking was my dream and probably one of the craziest thing I have ever done. Volcano is in Lombok next to Bali. Before our trek last eruption was just a month ago and second month after. As you can see, We were lucky to trek there just between of those.
 

Mt. Rinjani from airplane

Green Rinjani Trekking Company. We took trek called 2D 1N in Deluxe package and it cost to us 220USD each (195€). Differences between Deluxe and Standard packages wasn’t that big, so just in case we took better ones. Maybe little bit more snacks and drinks, smaller groups, trek chairs and better mattresses. 220USD included EVERYTHING for three days. (pick up, drop off, foods, accommodations, guides and porters.)
 

 
From their website you can find few different hotels where you can choose what you want for the first day at Senaru.
Websites:http://www.greenrinjani.com/ , best keep in touch is via Whatsapp : +62 819 1603 0327Trekking season is from april to december and after that rain season starts. At rainseason it’s not safe to go up there anymore. 

Our guide Adi

Day 1. At the first day they picked up us from Lombok’s airport and it took 3hours by car to go to Senaru village. In Senaru we went to Green Rinjani’s office where we got cold cola’s, banana pancakes and fried rice meals. After our dinner we had a quick meeting about the trek with our guide Adi. We spend our night in Pondok Senaru hotel.
 

At the office

 
We spend night at Senaru Pondok hotel. It was good basic hotel with nice views to the jungle.
 

 

 

View to the jungle.

Swimming pool at Senaru Lodges

Day 2. We woke up about 06:00 and after quick breakfast our journey to Sembalun Lawang beginned. It took one hour to get to the Mount Rinjani registration center where they keep track of people who goes to the mountain. Remember to take your passport number with you to the registration center. (Registration fee was included also into our package)
 

 

 

Registration point

Our trek started from 1051meters in Sembalun lawang. That point we were still just laughing and talking without worry. First stop was in POS1 (Pemantauan 1300meters) and it took about one hour to get there. Terrain was still savanna and and morning was very hot. Our next stop was in POS2 (Tengengean 1500m) where we got our lunches. Our porters made incredible good meals there and we were resting there about an hour.
 

Let’s go

Still laughing

Savannah

Porters preparing food

Mie goreng, chicken, tempe and tofu 🙂

Feeling great after dinner

Clouds

Restin

POS3 (Pada Balong 1800m) was just before first days steepest climb. We were already quite tired after 5 hours hard work under burning sun. In front of us we saw terrain which was like gravel rhizome nightmare. We ate a lot of sugar during our trek and especially sugar glucose pills were exellent for give us some extra boost.
 

POS 3

 

 
That last climb before basecamp lasted for three hours. It was definately the most hardest part of the first days work and we took lot of sugar pills during this climb. 

In 2000meters you can find shops:D

We arrived to basecamp (Sembalun crater Rim 2639m) at 4p.m. Scenery was just magical and air already thinner and colder. Small narrow bath was already full of tents and we were actually sleeping higher than clouds.
 

Basecamp – Sembalun Crater Rim

Wanders and warriors

Toilet tent

Strong portiers carrying our tents

 

 

 
While sun was setting down the temperature was doing same thing. That point I was very happy about my warm clothes. Before we went to sleep we talked about next days climbing. First day trekking was 8 hours and we went to sleep 7p.m.
 

Tent

 

 

 

 

 
Day 3. We woke up 2a.m and we had light breakfast at the camp. Morning was very cold and after few hours sleep in tent we weren’t at our best. Topias didn’t feel so good and had little feeling of pressure in his lugns so he didn’t even try to continue from basecamp. Viljami and I decided to continue and lighted up our headlamps.
 

 
At 2:30a.m we were only able to see other peoples flashlights going up to the mountain. Our morning task was three hours climb and it devided into three parts each lasting an hour. First part was again steep gravel rhizome and it was hard. Next one was on craters side and is a fairly easy but long trek. Third part was just killer! It is very steep and difficult and also there are many loose stones, and as you take two steps forward you will slip one step back.
 

 
At this last part I was already giving up, but then our guide Adi gave me his hand and said that we have to get to see sunrise from the summit. I took Adi’s hand and together we continued to the top. I felt every feeling you can imagine to feel in whole world from sadness to joy.

 

 
At the end I saw the summit and feeling was just great. Sunrise was amazing despite weather was only 3degrees anymore.
 

Winners

 

 

 
We took many photos up there and just tried enjoy of the view even it was freezing.
 

Adi

 
The funniest part was just starting.. going down. It took only one hour to go down and it was basically like downhill skiing. View was exellent as we were skiing down and sun was already warming up a little

On the way down

Crater and Lake Segara Anak

Viljami going down fast

In basecamp we were resting and eating and Topias was feeling already better. After breakfast we started our climbing down. It took 5hours to go down and paths were very slippery.
 
Aamupalan jälkeen oli jo aika pakata varusteet, sekä aloittaa viimeinen laskeutuminen. Tämä viimeinen osuus kesti noin 5tuntia. Alaspäin meno basecampista otti tosiaan aika paljon polvien päälle, koska laskeutuminen oli hyvin epätasaista ja joka askeleella piti varoa liukastumista soraisessa mäessä.
 

 

 
We arrived back to Sembalun village around 3p.m. and we got a ride back to Green Rinjani office. We took nice showers and continued straight to spend a night in airport hotel. We had booked flight to Bali for the next morning and we thought that is better to travel that 3 hours car drive at same day.
 

 
What to bring? If you consider trek like this you should really now what you are bringing with you. We got a good list from Green Rinjani and it looked like this:

• Torch or Flashlight (headlamp is the best)
• 1pair champ shoes/trek shoes are good
• Toiletries
• Sun block/lotion, hat/cap, sun glasses
• Spray for muscle/balm
• Insect repellent (in our trek we didn’t need)
• Camera, Handy cam (Manual or Digital)
• Small towel (in our trek we didn’t need)
• 2/3 pieces of T-Shirts
• Long trek pants/wind proof
• Windproof Jacket
• 2 pieces of shorts
• Trek stick/like (optional) (we rent from village)
• Sandals (optional)
• Swimming suit (optional) (in our trek we didn’t need)
• Binocular (optional)
• Extra trail snack
• Fishing Gear (optional) (in our trek we didn’t need)
• Garbage Plastic can (optional)
 

My add onns:
• Good gloves
• good cap
• Few pairs of good trekking socks
• Scarf because there is a lot of ash in the air
• Sugar!

Note :
prepare your day back not more that weight limit. Climbing with heavy back is hard.