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Man of the mountain
Deceptive: Mount Batur’s slopes appear an easy climb at a distance
Deceptive: Mount Batur’s slopes appear an easy climb at a distance.
‘Better safe than sorry’ has long been Gede Merta’s mountain climbing mantra.
As Mount Batur’s original mountain man, Gede Merta knows only too well the dangers that lone climbers face when tackling the active volcano in Kintamani, Bangli.
The veteran trekking guide recounted an unfortunate story of a Belgian tourist who went missing in 1979. He was among five Belgians who had previously booked a tour to climb Batur, but canceled it.
“They canceled being guided by me and decided to go up alone. Four of them turned back, but one went on alone. Dominic, a vet who had just graduated. He wore thick glasses and there was a lot of mist and high grass. He did not see the cliff ahead,” said the 75-year-old, who discovered the young man’s body during a three-day search and rescue operation.
Gede Merta, known as PakDe, with his iconic Nepalese flute.
Merta, better known as PakDe Trekking, still vividly remembers the day he found the body.
“We searched for him for three days. I played my flute, knowing that if he was alive he would call out — but nothing. I followed an eagle and I found Dominic hanging on clumps of bamboo in the valley. Retrieving the body was very difficult. Yes, that was a bad story,” he said.
In 2010 a young Swedish climber also died during an unguided climb up the volcano, which has erupted at least 26 times in the past two centuries.
Still physically spry and mentally agile, PakDe first climbed Batur in 1968. The mountain, sloping gently skyward from its crater lake and heavily lava-scarred foothills, has been a dominant landmark throughout his life and, like many born climbers, PakDe felt the urge to scale its heights, just because the mountain was there.
“It’s a funny story. When I began climbing, I just wanted to go alone with a slingshot for fun. I didn’t care if I got lost. I was 27 years old and previously, I had never been up the mountain,” he said.
Back then, local people only climbed the mountain to gather grass or hunt for orchids.
“They never climbed to the peak. It’s a holy mountain and they were afraid,” PakDe said.
A helping hand: PakDe leads a little girl up the slopes of Mount Batur in the 1970s. (Courtesy of Gede Merta)
His first climb up to the mountain’s lower ridges was to change his life. Mt. Batur was calling him as a young man. Since then, the man who learned to speak English from guests at his father’s guesthouse had been guiding people up through the mist that shrouded the mountain for the past four decades.
“When you see the mountain from a distance it looks smooth and easy, but when you climb you sweat. I climbed to the peak; it’s not an hour, it was a long trek following a dry river. In those days, the tracks we have now were not there. It’s easier these days,” he said, adding that he would climb to the summit with just flip flops on his feet when he was young.
Mt. Batur is not the only summit on his list of climbing adventures. PakDe has also scaled mountains in Thailand, Malaysia and Nepal. He might not have reached Annapurna’s “bloody” 8,000 meters in the Himalayas, but it was not something he regretted.
“I was 42 years old and I climbed to 4,000 meters. Not too bad.”
The trip to Nepal gave him the flute made of wood and mother of pearl that has become his signature on the mountain.
“I had no money to buy souvenirs, but the 10 rupees for this flute, I could afford. My Nepalese flute is my trademark on the mountain and my 1963 Volkswagen on the road.”
His reputation for honesty, integrity and knowledge on the mountain has led less scrupulous guides to claim the old man’s identity to drum up business.
“There are now many guides claiming to be me, PakDe. They say I have died, that I have gone to live in Yogyakarta. They [also] play the flute. But not this one,” he said.
Cleaning up the guiding industry on Mt. Batur is key to maintaining and improving visitor numbers. According to PakDe some guides “trick” their clients, taking them just halfway up the mountain for a quick, easy dollar.
“In some cases, people are cheated. They are not taken to the top. Guides get their money and then are quick to get back down the mountain. For me, when guiding, the whole day is for the client.”
PakDe blames the local Bangli administration for failing to develop and enforce regulations on mountain guiding.
Group pic: Gede Merta (center left) with a climbing group during the 1970’s. (Courtesy of Gede Merta)
“Tourism is dynamic and always changing. We must follow, and set, new trends. I am 75 years old. I have been guiding for 45 years and I am still learning. So, the tourism office needs to be dynamic,” he said.
In one of his visitor books, a note has been left by Kartika Soekarno Seegers, one of the daughters of the country’s first president Sukarno. She wrote last year: “Dear Pak Gede, this was a wonderful morning trek through the soft hills of Sidemen listening to the sound of your flute. We will remember forever we were on ‘top of the world’.”
PakDe has retired as a mountain guide and now develops countryside walks. However, Bali’s rivers, valleys and mountains continue to call the gentle man, who is happiest sharing the beauty of his island home with others.
“I don’t want to retire completely,” he said
— Photos by JB Djwan
