Some of you may know "the beast" as being that huge ugly dog from The Sandlot. For us in Indonesia "the beast" is something much nastier and much more intimidating and has been known to take small children, not just baseballs. Located just about an hour away from my home in Madiun is the infamous "Gunung Lawu". This is a 12,000 foot mammoth of a mountain.... we conquered it twice within a month. Usually the way we do it is to leave from the base around 8 pm and book it to the top in order to make it by sunrise. This leaves little time for breaks and stragglers are usually left behind... (with someone to make sure they are OK, were not that hardcore). Climbing mountains such as this has shown to be great opportunities to grow our friendships with the Indonesians. Pak Jim, the 65 year old pictured below has tackled "the beast" close to 10 times and the Indonesian kids see him as their hero (so do I)!!!
These crazy guys are getting ready to head up and have no idea what is in store for them....
We made it, and the glorious sunrise was worth the effort.
The climbers... next stop Mt. Everest
I'm pretty sure this could classify as "picture of the year." Here we have all K-Staters, including our fearless leader that graduated back in the Mid 60's.
Just some shots of the scenery.
