Mt Batur

Gunung Batur

One of the active volcanic mountains, and no it’s not the one that recently erupted (Nov’17). We tried but there is a ban on climbing Mount Agung.

The beauty of traveling to new places and trying new things is pushing the boundaries within me. Learning new things as well as learning more about myself – finding more reasons to love me and not in a narcissistic way.

Before this climb, another climber said that we will go up with no back-up plan or the worst-case-scenario plan. Has he not heard of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? Roll-back protocol? Emergency procedure? Hope for the best, prepare for the worst?

My worst-case-scenario plan is that I will stop half way and wait, or go back down. Well I was told that with only one guide, we have to stay together, and unlike Inca Trail where it is one way up against a mountain, Mt Batur has multiple ways to go up, down, and sideways. As a team, we go up, stop, or go back, together. All or nothing.

I had less than 24 hours to not resort to my Product Manager behaviour of there is multiple solutions to this problem – there is only one solution to this – we will go up. All or nothing, and if we have to stop, we will deal with it later, but we must start the climb with one goal in mind, to finish.

While there were slippery and challenging paths due to the volcanic rocks, the climb was not overly difficult. But how often do we see a mountain (real and metaphorically), and act defeated before we start the climb?

I came home resolute to apply this to my life, all or nothing. Try my best, give it my all, until I fail, instead of starting with a fail-plan.