Gunung Gede - the 2958m challenge

At 11pm we started our way with Tobi (german) and Tristan (french) to climb the volcano. After a short ride on the back of a little truck we started at the National Park entrance at 1200m.
The way started quite easy with big stony steps through the jungle. A clear starry sky covered our way and falling stars we sighted when the torches were turned off for a short break.
After 1,5h the way became steeper and soon we reached the hot springs. That resulted in some hot little waterfall just beneath our feet and we had to find the few stepstones to pass it without falling down the mountain.
Not all of it passed the way with dry feet :P I was luckier then Benni on that part. But after another 5min rest the luck left me and I did fall down and hit my knee on a stone (still swollen now after 5 days :P).
After 4 exhausting hours we reached the camp site. There we had 1h break with some hot tea/coffee/chocolate before continuing to the summit. The temperature was meanwhile low enough to see your breath and we were all wet from sweating... brrrrrrrrr :(
Now the really funny part was about to start... the steepest way was ahead to reach the summit. I have no idea how we managed that, but we climbed the wall one handed, as we were holding torch and supplies in the other... on the way back we were tightly using both hands to not die from falling down. Danger appears less when you hardly can see it^^
Finally we reached the summit at 5:30am. The sunrise was supposed to happen in just about 15min. But what was waiting for us? The most mist and clouds our guys had seen so far on the summit at this time of the day. The even lower temperature was supported by some fine breeze and made us shivering. We decided to wait in hope for a better view... but despite from some small wholes in the mist we saw nothing, not even the crater of the volcano, nor the view over West-Java. After 1,5h we were simply too frozen to wait any longer... we wanted to place our selves into the hot springs. So we started the way down, which suddenly looked pretty dangerous on some parts in daylight.
On the way down we felt every freaking stone through our anything but trekking designed shoes.
The visit to the hot springs was a nice break and provided good feeling and a way better view than on the summit.
After a long break the suffering downwards went on. A visit to the waterfalls and the green lake were giving us an aim to go for. But we turned into broken men, mindlessly keeping to walk and suffer. Even the nice view of the water fall could not rise a smile into our exhausted faces.
When the trip was finally over we had a short 1h sleep before continuing by bus to Pangandaran, which we were to reach after midnight :P

desperate tries to heat up at the summit

a glimpse of the sunrise

10sec hole in the mist

looks cozy, doesn't it? :P

demotivated :(

felt soooooo good... hot sulphuric spring water :D

that is a view into a real forest :P

the way over the hot springs, same we took in the dark

the first waterfall

and the second :)

but too exhausted to enjoy :o