Mountains

Lugnaquilla is located in the Wicklow Mountains, and is the highest mountain in Ireland outside of County Kerry. Standing 925 metres-high with a prominence of 849 metres, Lugnaquilla qualifies as a furth and is the 63rd highest mountain (with a prominence of at least 600 m) in the islands of Ireland and Great Britain, sitting just one place ahead of Galtymore. Lugnaquilla is also known as the 'Lug', but despite the name

No matter how early one goes to bed, one can never get enough sleep in Laban Rata (elevation : 3272m). 'Supper', which is a simple and light meal of bread, rice or noodles, is served at 02:00, and the hike to the summit starts in darkness not too long after. I joined a long procession of hikers that were armed with headlamps and bundled in jackets, that made their way up the trail, all of them eager to make the 1.5

Mount Kinabalu (elevation : 4095 m) is the highest mountain in Malaysia (both by prominence as well as sheer elevation), and is also the highest mountain between the Himalayas and the island of New Guinea. Based on topographic prominence, Mount Kinabalu also happens to be the 20th highest mountain in the world, but only the second highest mountain in South-East Asia behind Puncak Jaya (elevation : 4884 m)

The hike to Mount Gerah (elevation : 2103m), the 13th or 17th highest mountain in Malaysia (based on prominence or sheer elevation respectively), almost always covers its sibling-peaks as well: Mount Bilah (elevation : 2077m) and Mount Bieh (elevation : 2073m); and is always referred to as 'GBB'. While the GBB hike normally begins and ends at the Temiar settlement of Pos Kemar just south of Temengor

We left Ranipauwa (elevation : 3700 m) at 08:30, shortly after we finished our honey pancakes and tibetan bread with jam. The mist had lifted slightly by then, but despite all the posters that were scattered around the town advertising the Yartung festival that was supposed to have begun that morning, the town was still sleepy and there was really not much going on. From the start, the town had felt too touristy

We started hiking at 06:45, almost an hour later than we had originally planned. There had been rats in the walls of our room the night before, and they had been scratching and scampering around the entire night. My earplugs would normally render me impervious to distracting sounds like those made by the rats, but the thin wooden walls of the room seemed to nullify the efficacy of the earplugs and instead amplified