Summit

We reached the summit of the Dragons Horns via the West Face at 12 noon on wednesday the 19th, shattered and exhausted just in time to receive the full force of the midday sun. You know what they say about mad dogs and english men, which is probably an apt name for the final pitch. We were on the wall continuously for 5 or 6 days and were jubilant with the clear skies and fresh south breeze on the summit.

We had originally planned to follow a corner system out right through the impending scoop, however loose death blocks the size of TV sets 60ft above where Steve was belaying meant we (Steve) chose a line out to the left. At first we were dismayed to have to turn away from this aesthetic final pitch but soon realised our new line took us to the highest point of the West Face, a most excellent outcome.

Rounding a blind lip with some aid up an overhang and curving crack the summit seemed impossibly far away and the exposure over the north west face was immense and very impressive. There are some appealing lines to the left, which appeared to be less steep and with more ledges. One could even get a plumb direct line.

It was a hard five days on the wall and a 24 hour continuous push from the summit to Mukut awaited us. Through the night we began to rappel our pitches with our massive pigs. Crashing back to the Trench our fondly named jungle base camp and quickly realising it was no place to spend the night in the dirt headed for Mukut.

The prospect of a final run back in to the forest to collect our remaining kit still hung over us. A quite depressing task in deed, but eventually it was completed.

Now we're kicking back in KL for a few days and enjoying the normality of tourism. Keep watching the blog as we will post some photos of the climb from our digital cameras in the next couple of days.

Thanks for reading!

Matt and Steve.

Resupply

We have made a swift visit back down to Mukut to pick up some essential supplies that we were running low on. The pitch through the roof took a lot longer than expected, along with the hauling to the base of the roof. I (Matt) took four falls on the roof pitch, two of them around 30ft or so, ripping out a time consuming and technical aid traverse of copperheads, hooks, tipped out Peckers and finally some short tied off knifeblade pitons which gave way under bodyweight.

Hauling our 100kg loads (mostly water) has proven the most tedious part of the climbing so far. The last day we got caught out in a rainstorm, the wall was streaming with water from all the overhangs, some free falling a hundred metres and then landing twenty metres out from the wall.

We are heading back up today and will probably spend tonight on the wall beneath the roof. We aim to reach the summit from here in a multiday push, not sure how long it will take but we have food and water for six days including our descent. We don't get phone coverage on the west face so maybe out of touch for a week to ten days, will continue to take photos and blog whilst on the wall but will have to send them when we are back down in the village around the 23rd.

Thanks again for tuning in,

Steve/Matt

Wear and tear

So as Matt said we returned to the coast on sunday evening and escaped the claustrophobia, humidity and oppression of the jungle. I really wouldn't recommend it as somewhere to relax, as we spent most of the time in camp green with envy of friend's chilly bivis on the wide and winding glaciers of the Alps.

The final pitch below the great roof at half height initially looked OK from below but on viewing from our last belay was shown to blank-out, this leaves us with the predicament of how to cross it to get into the system of cracks that will lead us through the roof. The blankness of the slab is also echoed in the total lack of protection and for that matter after three or so metres, the lack of even the most minute edge to hook.

Our woes, or my woes in particular, were compounded when hanging on a hook, primed for a swing back into the belay if it popped, when my index finger became the meat in a 22oz. hammer sandwich, the blow intended for a fiddley number one bird beak (piton) split the pad of my finger and the end still remains numb three days later further adding to our growing list of ailments! Matt is also enjoying a numb big toe after the sole of his right shoe decided to delaminate and split - have a look at the picture attached, along with the broken pump for the MSR Dragonfly, which is currently being re-glued together (crudley). Let's hope the fuel leak doesnt catch light and set the portalegde alight as we dangle in it, really would suck both fiscally and physically!

Matt and I have decided that a pendulum will pass the slab and get us across to the roof and into its cracks with the minimum of fixed gear being left.

We completed another water run of 106 litres (kg) to top up our depleted supplies. I (steve) tried to ride the pig full of the majority of the water down the ab stuffing any spare into my rucksack, with a combined weight of over 200kg including me it was a less than graceful descent and I shredded any skin that came between the pig and the gulley wall, I also got a rather nasty burn off my grigri to keep my attention off my numb index finger.

After 10 days of no rain there was finally a storm this afternoon, which should hopefully fill our rain water collection system at camp... We plan to head up again for the push early friday morning and should hopefully be down by the end of next week.

Thanks for tuning in,

Matt/Steve

Down from camp

We're 10-15 metres from the roof now - the last pitch will require a pendulum/tension traverse across a blank slab to a short corner crack. After that a thin, steep and technical crack should bring us through the roof and in to the upper half. The previous pitch was good fun requiring quite a bit of hooking in mostly positive water worn pockets. We've named this pitch 'Loose Change' as I seemed to be constantly searching all the pockets for something worthwhile.

Now at our half way point we are back down in Mukut for the next couple days to catch our breath, restock with water and discuss the final push to the top of the wall - all has gone well so far.

Below is a shot taken of the Horns at dusk last night. The clouds were particularly unique last night, seeming to develop on the Horns itself and wrap and roll down the face, ocassionally forming a halo around the summit.

Thanks for checking in, please continue to do so!

Matt and Steve.

A long wait.

Sent from a small belay ledge about three hundred metres above the forest canopy. Matt leads, you may be able to spot him in the pic, while he places a rivet and continues to hook his way to the next belay, I let the GriGri do the work and text this.

Weather is looking a little ominous and the clouds are swirling around the summit, it's very humid and I am keen for Matt to complete his lead and set an anchor that we might be able to dodge the storm if and when it breaks. Matt's been on this pitch for maybe five or more hours as it's thin aid.

On the up side, we are nearly at the roof that marks the half way point, maybe another pitch after this. It is a massive feature and it looks as if there may be a crack system through the middle, it'll make an epic pitch if the seam turns out to be good.

Above, the overhung scoop is looming and possible lines are showing themselves.

Should sign off now as the pair of fish eagles that have been buzzing around our belay since sunrise are building confidence and I think they have their eyes on my noodles.

3 pitches up.

Matt after jugging the first pitch of the route (looking a little pink). We have climbed three pitches so far and crossed the large vegetated ledge below the massive roof at half height. We are edging our way up towards the roof and to what looks like good crack systems. Above you can also see a somewhat grainy picture of Steve abseiling down the gully.

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Well, we've made our camp at the base of the route on sunday. First night we arrived everything broke; MSR stove has fuel leak and won't pressurise, water bladder exploded, steve's hammock was unusable due to a manufacturing fault and is as useful as a fruit basket and finally the portaledge fly sprung a random leak.

Though fortunately everything is sorted now. Bad luck comes in tens ; )

The first couple pitches to the big ledge are complete. Climbing is nice and steep and hooks have been used as protection. We can now see the massive roof in clear view half way up the face and some decent crack systems leading to the left edge.

Today we're gathering water and hoping to get another couple pitches underway. There have been some storms brewing in the South China Sea, so the weather has been touch-and-go.

We should have some pictures of the route in the next few days. We can't actually get reception at camp or on the face at the minute.

From the portaledge of Matt and Steve,

Thanks for reading!

July 24th 2009

Matt beneath the villa sized boulder on the way up the main approach to the Dragon's Horns. All our kit has been brought up via this path and while the boulder marks the halfway point and a chance to catch a light breeze it is also home to many mosquitos and large spiders.

We have just had a heavy rain storm here and while it serves to charge the rivers and make water collection easier all our gear is up on the route as well as two ropes and is now probably soaked if it hasn't been struck by lightning...

All gear is wet but in place and we head up today to camp and begin fixing lines over the next couple of days to a large vegetated ledge above which the proper climbing starts. And load humping obviously.

Steve/Matt

Got enough gear?

Hopefully this picture uploads successfully. Below is picture of Steve with all our sacks loaded up in Mersing prior to catching the ferry to Tioman. Fourteen or so bags and 200kg of weight.

More pictures to come in the next few days! Please continue to check regularly.

Thank you to those who sent us confirmation that our blog is working ; )

July 20th - 23rd

Although only a few days in to the trip it has been a very busy period. So far we have shuttled 40kg each of climbing gear, food, water and basic camp kit to the base of our intended route. A 30m abseil (now fixed) down a loose drainage gully, a fair amount of chopping, fixing lines over a couple boulder ruckles and finally 30m of 4th class terrain seems to have brought us to where we need to be. We are aiming for a prominent roof half way up that appears to have 200m of good cracks above it to the summit.

Wild life so far hasn't presented any major problems other than a monkey throwing a branch at Steve and an aggressive species of ant that seem to gnaw at slings and rope... Dwarf shrew-like creatures hide under boulders, termite nests and spider webs litter the base of the Horns and bees are a nuisance at the start of the first pitch.

We're hoping to reach a vegetated terrace over the next couple days and then beyond that more sustained climbing should present itself.

If you have successfully read this post it would be greatly appreciated if you could send us an e-mail at matthewtraver@hotmail.com to confirm it has been uploaded alright. We aren't sure the mobile network is currently supporting MMS and E-mail!

Thanks for reading,

Matt/Steve.

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Support from DMM Wales

For nearly three decades DMM have been a leading manufacturer of climbing equipment based in Llanberis, North Wales - all their products are manufactured in the U.K.

DMM kindly provided us with a discount on their range of products. This has enabled us to ensure that we have the most functional and reliable climbing equipment for our trip. We purchased some 250m of static rope, 140m of lead (dynamic) line and various metal work - essential for our intended route.

Thank you DMM.

Please check out their website www.dmmwales.com or follow their Twitter at http://twitter.com/dmmclimbing.

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Testing blog update via SMS - please ignore.

About Mersing

Mersing is a medium sized port town populated by 21,000 people, situated on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The primary function of the town is in acting as a gateway to the nearby islands, not only Pulau Tioman, but others such as Pulau Besar, P. Rawa, P. Tinggi, P. Sibu, P. Pemanggil and smaller islands within the Seribuat Archipelago.

Once a smaller town that relied on fishing and apparently once used by the British/Dutch forces, it has seen a healthy expansion from the advent of tourism, yet it still seems to maintain an aura of a Malaysia two or three decades in the past. Aside from tourism, the Indian/Chinese/Malay restaurants and numerous shops appear to keep the local economy moving steadily, with the outskirts seeing small-scale tin mining and rubber plantations. There seems to be a steady and relaxed pace of life here, the local Malays live peacefully amongst the lively fusion of their instrinstic culture and the influence of more Westernised elements.

Image courtesy of Yiping Lim on Flickr

If one should ever visit Mersing, be sure to check out the main mosque in the centre of town, the numerous eateries along the main roads and down the side streets and wander along the fringes of the Mersing River.

Next stop, Pulau Tioman - where we will take a ferry from Mersing to Genting on Tioman, then Nipah (a few kilometres down the coast) then grab a speedboat to Mukut Village.

Thanks for reading,

Matt.

Arrival in Mersing.

Just in case any one is actually reading this blog (and thanks if you are) - I have arrived in Mersing, the port town for the ferry to Tioman Island. I'm awaiting on Steve to turn up on Saturday, so that should mean we will depart for Tioman on Sunday - nice!

Have been looking at the various sorts of food available to purchase, along with certain essential supplies such as parangs (machetes), tarps, mosquito coils etc. We will aim to purchase 5 weeks of food and some 150 litres worth of soda bottles - should make for some burdensome but enjoyable load hauling.

Regards,

Matt

Support from CarePlus

CarePlus has provided us with an extensive range of their first aid/travel/health products for our trip, ranging from venom extractors, sam splints, tailed hats, anti-septic gel, dressings and a bunch of other essential items.

They provide a comprehensive and virtually all-you-could-need product range - Please check out their website http://www.careplus.eu/ for more information.

Thank you!

Beast Products - Equipment shots.

Below are some shots of the equipment manufactured at Beast Products (http://www.beastproducts.com/) for our upcoming trip - 2 haul sacks and 2 rope buckets and also a couple nice T-shirts with printed logos for all those that have supported and sponsored us.

Striking picture of the Dragon's Horns.

Just came across this very high quality picture of the Dragon's Horns on BlueVentures Flickr site (www.flickr.com/photos/blueventures). The photo clearly shows the South West Pillar (the division between light and shade).

There appears to be a lot of nice other looking lines out to the left, the massive scoop, the 'Heart' of the Dragon's Horns, I guess you could say looks like it could be 100 metres of overhanging terrain. Would be awesome to get up in to that feature, eh?

Only two days to go.

Yikes!

Assisting Blue Ventures with scientific data collection on the Dragon's Horns.

We've just received confirmation from Katie Yewdall, project coordinator for one of Blue Venture's projects, which is taking place on Tioman Island. By pure chance we stumbled across the Blue Ventures website and saw that they would be running their scientific programme/projects the same time myself and Steve are out there... so naturally we got in touch and it has now been finalised with Katie that we will be aiming to do some basic documentation of the plants/flowers/leaves existing on the face of the Dragon's Horns itself.

We will be taking pictures of what we come across, as well as collecting some small samples for them - these will then be cross-checked with their existing database to see if we come up with anything new. Who knows, maybe we might find something worthwhile for them? Regardless, it will be great to help them out and contribute to their body of knowledge concerning the species on Tioman Island and the Dragon's Horns itself.


Please check out Blue Venture's website http://www.blueventures.org/ or http://www.blueventures.org/malaysia-expeditions for more specific information on what they are planning to do.

Support from the Welsh Sports Association and Sports Council Wales

Each year the Welsh Sport's Association's "Outdoor Pursuits Group", provides annual Grant Aid support for overseas expeditions, on behalf of the Sports Council for Wales. In addition to the Wilderness Award and BMC grant, we were also one of a number of successful recipients for their support.

The WSA/SCW support a wide range of outdoor sports adventures and expeditions whose participants are Welsh based - whether by descent or residence. Examples of previous expeditions have been Simon Burke's and Olly Sanders' trip to Itoorquatmitt, N.E. Greenland for a climbing/kayaking adventure, John Silvester's long distance paragliding trip across Pakistan/Karakorums/China or Martin Groves' trip to Castleguard cave, Banff National Park, Canada to push and explore the far sump.

Please check out http://www.welshsports.org.uk/OverseasExpeditionGrants.asp for more details on the scheme.

Thanks!

Support from the Wilderness Lectures and the Wilderness Award.

We would also like to thank the Wilderness Lectures for their support. Each year they hold their annual Wilderness Award which is a "cash award made to a UK resident over the age of 18 who intends to travel overseas, returning before 31st January of the following year, to undertake an unusual and adventurous objective in a geographically remote wilderness area." (source: www.wildernesslectures.com).

Previous recipients of the Award have been for all sorts of expeditions/trips, such as last year's winner, Felicity Aston and Jenny Pugh for their uber-long traverse of Lake Baikal using ski's, kites and crampons or Rob Eavis' caving expedition to the White Mountain of Crete. To learn more about the Award and the Wilderness Lectures itself, please visit their website (see above).

In return for their support we will be giving a talk on the 17th Febuary 2010 (yes, a long way away, but time moves fast!) on our trip. Let's hope it all goes to plan and if it doesn't, I expect we will have a lot of interesting things to talk about - that is if it doesn't concern contracting Hepatitis A ; ). Please see their website for their additional talks/lectures.

Support from the British Mountaineering Council

We would like to thank the British Mountaineering Council for supporting our expedition. We were one of the grateful recipients of the BMC's annual expedition award/grant, along with nine other teams that are headed out to other curious and far-flung places such as Greenland, Russia, the Yukon and Kyrgyzstan.

In case you're interested, here is the exerpt from the BMC's Expedition Award page concerning our trip:

"One of the more unusual trips supported is Steve Beckwith's and Matthew Traver's attempt on the unclimbed South West Pillar of the Dragon's Horns on Malaysia's Tioman Island. The Welsh-based pair was awarded £400 and plan to climb in July-August. The only other established climb on the island was put up in 1999 on the South Face: reaching the base of the c500m granite pillar to the left, which will involve trail breaking through dense jungle, is likely to prove one of the cruxes." Source: http://www.thebmc.co.uk/Feature.aspx?id=3083 - well worth a read to see what everyone else is up to.

It seems all are off to cooler climes, except for ourselves as we roast our pale, sun-starved skin in the unrelenting tropical sun and drown in the humidity - maybe they've got it right?

Please visit http://www.thebmc.co.uk/ for further information on the organisation itself.

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Testing to see if I can e-mail pictures directly to this blog from the Blackberry.

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Welcome!

Welcome to the official blog for our attempt at the South West Pillar of the Dragon's Horns on Tioman Island, Malaysia.

There is a link to this blog from our main website (the previous blog has been scrapped due to technical issues and it being a pain to update rapidly).

I thought I would take a minute to explain some things about the communication side - just so if you're interested, you know what the plan is:

Our intention is to use this blog as method of updating before we head off, during the expedition and also on our return. Figuring out communications and how to get relatively live updates is a bit of a challenge, however it appears we should have GPRS phone service on the southern end of the Island and therefore should be able to connect to the blog, upload pictures and update our Twitter. Our back up is to have some of our friends manually upload/update this blog via our correspondence through text, telephone and sending low-res pictures from a Blackberry phone via the internet or multimedia text.

Any pictures sent directly from the Blackberry will be uploaded to www.flickr.com/photos/matthewtraver.

It will certainly be an excercise in low-budget live communications!

If you have read this far, thanks for your interest : )