MT. NUANG DETAILED HIKING REPORT PART 3

I tried to SMS Steven and call his mobile number but there was no response at all. At the same time, we met a group of Reserve Army coming down from their hiking trip in Nuang. We asked whether they had seen Steven but their reply was no. In our mind, there was a possibility that Steven could have hiked to Janda Baik but this was denied by one of the army officer as he was resting at Lolo camp throughout the day while waiting for other army officers to come down. We had some discussion with the army officer and we were advised to wait until time 2030 before making police report and inform Steven’s family. We followed the army’s advised. Approximately seven minutes before time 2030, at that time, we were still discussing our search and rescue plan, Steven suddenly appeared infront of us. I was totally surprised to see Steven coming out from the jungle trail in the darkness without torchlight.

According to Steven, he slept at the dam for one hour and later he hiked to Lolo campsite and then Pacat campsite. He was looking for us at the Pacat campsite but could not find us. He decided to sleep at one of the corner at the Pacat campsite. Until after time 1630, Steven decided to come down from Pacat campsite. He did not explain what he was doing after that. When the day was getting darker, Steven hiked at quite a slow pace as his torchlight was not functioning at all. According to him, he did not sleep at all the day before the Nuang hiking trip as he was drinking beer with his friend. This totally surprised us as we were quite worried about his safety. We left Nuang at approximately time 2050.

Lessons learned:

1. Never ever go for hiking if you do not have sufficient sleep as it is quite dangerous to yourself.
I had in the past experienced this situation which was almost similar but luckily nothing bad happen to me and the rest of the hiking team. We should have cancelled the trip halfway and escorted Steven back to the car park rather than leaving him to sleep at the dam although he was the most experienced amongst us. We felt that Steven should not have joined us and should have asked us to go without him in the first place.

2. Always communicate with your hiking friend clearly.
There was not any clear communication between us and Steven (i.e. miscommunication) and this had resulted such an unpleasant situation that nearly landed us into deep trouble.

3. Never ever check your SMS while hiking.
I made this blunder mistake while hiking behind Loong and this caused my right leg to accidentally kick into the tree roots. My right legs was pain and swollen. The injury was not so serious. At that time I was watching every step I took carefully but I made this blunder mistake and hurt myself.

4. Always ensure that your torchlight is functioning when hiking
Steven should have ensured his torchlight is functioning before hiking. Torchlight is one of the necessities if you are going for a day trip hiking as you may need it when the need arises.

Although Long and I managed to reach the summit without much problem, I was not so happy as Steven could not join us. In hiking, safety aspect of everyone should be the main priority before starting the journey. Steven was supposed to lead us but I ended up guiding Loong up to the summit and back to the car park. I realised that it is never easy to be a team leader as a team leader has more responsibility to the team mates and to himself to ensure everything goes according to plan.