yes she did, but calling her my ‘other half’ is a bit premature! i’d like to find out what type of owl it is!

great owl pic dan.i noticed that the guide has the same clothes on that he was wearing when he took me up.i hopes hes washed them.did your other half make the trip?????

I climbed Sinabung last week and I cannot imagine there being a more interesting mountain in North Sumatra. We climbed at night and for the most part had excellent weather so by the time we reached the top the views were spectacular, especially of the new crater which is just a small gash in the old crater wall but sends out a near-continuous stream of white gas into the air. It took just over 4 hours to the true summit and about 3 hours to descend. Just before our descent down to Lake Kawar, we spotted a small owl having trouble flying, presumably injured and/or disorientated.
My GPS gave a reading of about 2450m at the true peak (crowned with a cement monument) and so I reckon Sinabung is indeed North Sumatra’s second highest peak (after Sibuatan at 2457m) and will be amending all relevant website data at the end of 2011.
For guides, it was a little more difficult and expensive than I had anticipated. There are certainly plenty of losmens and even a tourist information centre in Brastagi. However, the tourist information centre asked for 800,000 for a guide and transport – a price which I found a bit steep. When I said this, they quickly asked me how much I wanted to pay (!) but I told them to forget it after they’d tried to rip me off!
I asked around at the losmens instead and Sibayak Losmen arranged a guide for me (though they weren’t very forthcoming when I repeatedly requested the HP number for our guide). I would recommend contacting Geleng directly (number will soon be on our guides page) because he seems to be the local man who is the first person contacted when a tourist wishes to climb Sinabung or Sibayak. His English is good and he is mildly obsessed with Cockney rhyming slang. He certainly knows the mountain. Expect to pay about 250,000 for guide plus 350,000-400,000 for angkot transport to/from Lake Kawar (27km each way).
A fabulous mountain that really lived up to my expectations after reading Chris’s report.

Hi Dasmir – a very interesting question. I have only ever seen Sibuatan listed as 2457 but I have seen different figures for Sinabung ranging from 2412 to 2475. The most common is 2460 (Wikipedia and many other sources) and this broadly fits in with our SRTM analysis. We were never able to check the Bakosurtanal data – because we had problems with the staff at the offices in Cibinong. I will be climbing them both in April with a GPS so I should find out more then.

Hi Dan,
Just wanna know which is higher, Sinabung or Sibuatan? In some other references in some web, Sibuatan is higher.

May I know which is your reference?

Thanks,
Dasmir

from what i saw there seemed to be only 2 main craters and a hole next to the big rockface where the smoke is coming out.i guess you could deem that as a crater.my guide also told me that after the recent eruption there were 8 craters instead of the previous 2. but when he showed me what he meant .they were kind of muddy pools of water that were inside one of the main craters.

What’s this I hear about there being 8 craters instead of the previous 2? Correct?

i have word from a guide in berastagi that it is safe to climb sinabung. i will find this out first hand next week.

Another eruption this morning….
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/indonesian-volcano-spews-new-burst-of-ash/394361

A fascinating image gallery from the BBC website…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11126417