The Starting Point

My second living in the mountain was still about the process of recruiting new members of Pasmalima. This time was the main session of the recruitment process. Whoever passed the session, they became the new member of Pasmalima, some kinda inauguration moment.

We camped for five days, wore wet clothes every day, did the physical and mental training every minute, and practiced the theory of basic skills of mountaineering, just like the one-day training, but in extended version. I can say that the experience taught me so deep. How I could get survive from the physical attack, from the mental games, using my narrow prior knowledge of mountaineering, I never really understand. But it did teach me a picture of the wildness of the nature I’m going to explore.

The main session was held in the raining season, which made it worse actually. We were trained to be ready, to be strong, to be prepared, to have initiative, to think straight and right, to feel the real condition, facing the nature.

There was an accident in the second day, exactly in Christmas day and in one of my friend’s birthday. Some of us were collapsed because we inhaled the toxic gas from Kawah Ratu. We were going to demonstrate our ability to do the land navigation, so we went to Kawah Ratu, further way than before and we came from the opposite direction as well. Luckily, I wasn’t one of the victims. When they – my friends – were about to kneel, suddenly they lost their consciousness and fell down. I was halfway leaving the area where they were poisoned when they collapsed. Nisa, one of my friends, lost her consciousness the longest, we panicked. Fortunately, she finally awaken when one of the committees was about to give her CPR. It was really a shocking tragedy; Taruli was having Christmas and Desrin was having her 15^th birthday.

We finally became the official members of Pasmalima on the last day of the event. Nine of us trough, nine of us got the slayer, and nine of us finally have the membership number. Nur is 248, Desrin is 249, Resti is 250, I am the 251, Mbil is 252, Taruli is 253, Bram is 254, Nisa is 255, and Andi is 256. So here we were, the new member of the Pasmalima big family. This is when my adventures begin, the starting point to the next marvelous, amazing, magnificent, and extraordinary adventures with Pasmalima :)