PINE TREE HILL

My first blog entry on Pine Tree Hill was last year on July 22. My planned trip to Pine Tree Hill was cancelled then.

When a friend posted on Facebook that he's going to Pine Tree Hill, I jumped into it by inviting myself in. The reason I said I invited myself in was because there was no invitation extended to me. Being a 'muka tak malu' myslef and the fact that Pine Tree Hill was in my list of mountains to climb this year, I asked my friend whether I could join him and his gang! The answer was a resounding Yes!

This trip was going to be back-to-back with Gunung Ledang of which I did last week. My energy level is good and my health, couldn't be better, so I made all the preparations to Pine Tree Hill. Amongst others, I got my sweater ready just in case the weather becomes too chilly!

I left my office earlier last Friday and headed down to Rawang straight away using the old road. Much to my dislike the road was jammed a few kilometers after Selayang heading down to Rawang! I was worried as I needed to reach the gate by 7.40pm before it closed for the day. Thank God, I reached there at 7.15pm! It was already dark and I had to be very careful going up the narrow, long and winding road to Fraser's Hill.

We met up with the team leader who told us that we'd gather around 8.30am the next day to go to Pine Tree Hill.


The next day, we gathered at Puncak Inn and left for the starting point in 5 cars. I thought there weren't that many of us but I was surprised when the final headcount was done, there were 23 of us. Majority of us were first timers at Pine Tree Hill with the exception of one guy, who was on his first climbing trip!

After a short briefing by the team leader, we started the hiking at 9.00am. We were told that it'd take around 5-6 hours to complete the climb. The climb to the summit itself will take 3 hours and we were told that we'd also cover Twin Peaks, which was just 30 minutes away from Pine Tree Hill!

For the first 3 km of the trip, we had to go down and up of steps made of planks and concrete. It's very helpful for us especially when the land surface was wet. However, when we came back using the same route, the steps proved to be very challenging!

Our team leader was going very fast and he and his gang was like 30 minutes ahead of us. At times, we were clueless with the next trail to take. And we didn't even know that we have reached the peak for Pine Tree Hill!

Instead, 7 of us proceeded to go to the next peak, Twin Peaks which was 30 minutes away! We reached Twin Peaks after climbing for 3 hours 15 minutes!

It was very hot at the summit as there were no shades, after taking some pics as proof that we have been there, we took refuge under some shades and had our lunch. Lunch was made up of pita bread with beef serunding and apples! One of the team members shared with us her home made tuna & egg sandwich!

After about 30 minutes, we left for the base and met up with the team leader who waited for us at Pine Tree Hill. He explained that he had to go very fast as one of the younger boys in the group was leading the way and he didn't want him to get lost. We knew it then the place that we met several climbers earlier on was the peak of Pine Tree Hill. And unknowingly we went straight to Twin Peaks!

A must pose under the hot sun!

When we finally made it to the starting point, the time was 4pm. We completed the climb in 7 hours. There were quite a number of us, who did it in slightly more than 5 hours!

I was there to recce the place too so that I can take my colleagues to go there. Based on what I have gathered, my colleagues should be able to do this mountain! It's simple yet challenging enough!