Thoughts on Gunung Kinabalu

It's turning out to be a devastating year for mountaineering. After the deadly quake in Nepal that killed thousands of people and scores of mountain climbers, Sabah was shaken by a magnitude 6 tremor, which caused massive rockfalls and landslides in Mt. Kinabalu, killing at least 19 hikers, including several children from Singapore. Hundreds of people were trapped near the summit as the trail down got swept away.

Stranded climbers, awaiting rescue (photo from Zuma Press)

[Plan C] Saturday Climb in Atimonan

It was a warm, mostly sunny day at the walls of Tinandog in Atimonan. The first chance I got, I took off my clean shirt and changed to my climbing singlet. I wouldn't want to get my only shirt soaking in sweat on the bus ride home.

Cece and I weren't supposed to be there that weekend, but the universe has other plans for us. Out plans got cancelled. But I don't regret it. I've been longing to go back here since last year. As always, Pastor Noel is there to welcome us warmly to his playground.

Cece at Yema

[New Gear] New shoes, enough motivation?

Last weekend, while nursing my bruises, I got a package which I hope would rekindle my training fire. Inside were a new pair of Five-Ten MoccAsyms and a set of Omega Pacific quickdraws. The whole weekend I've toyed with these items in every way, most eager to try them out. (Atimonan was waiting for me. That would have been a great first climb for these gear. But life has other plans.)

Mercury in Retrograde

Last week was particularly "un-awesome" for me. Stock market is down. Pickup nearly stalled in a busy intersection because it ran out of fuel. Later on I found someone keyed my car door, leaving very nasty scratches. To top it off, I crashed my bike to a pickup truck on my way to work. I was too battered I had to cancel our Atimonan rock trip last Saturday. While Mercury's retrograde is said to affect electronics and big decisions, I think it had some influence on my week.

It's just one of those days, I guess. #Ouch

A photo posted by Dennis Lopez (@dencius) on May 27, 2015 at 10:49pm PDT

Hot humid climb day

So many missed opportunities for rock climbing happened in the last year. I've used plenty of excuses, and all of them seems lame (buzzword of the moment) in hindsight. Just to be different last weekend, I took on the invite of Ian to go to Wawa and feel the rocks again, despite still nursing a nasty sprain I got two weeks ago.

Back to wasak. #Wawa #AngHeat #noupperbodystrength

A photo posted by Dennis Lopez (@dencius) on May 8, 2015 at 9:17pm PDT