PETALING JAYA, March 24 ― Shah Alam woman Jamuna Karmehen who took on the ‘impossible challenge’ of climbing Mount Kinabalu has inspired other women to follow suit.
Since completing the hike, many women ― young and old ― have messaged her on Facebook praising her for bracing the hike and had even asked her for tips and advice to hike the mountain.
The 44-year-old hiker had penned down her hike journey she did two weeks ago of almost giving up and discontinuing her hike to the peak when her legs were weak.
Jamuna, who runs her own training and leadership programme, wrote that she felt extremely demotivated at the Sayat-Sayat checkpoint, which was 1.5km away from the peak of Mount Kinabalu ― Low’s Peak.
“I saw the peak from where I was standing but it felt so far away.
“But I felt like I couldn’t carry my legs ― I was slow and had stopped at many points.
“All my other eight hiking friends from the same group had already reached the peak and I was the only one left behind,” she told Malay Mail.
She said at that point, she was already drafting a failure speech in her mind and wondered whether she was really weak or that bad as a hiker.
“I saw many hikers who were descending after conquering the peak with their proud faces while I was just there, walking and deciding to turn back.
“As a trainer who would give leadership talks to clients, I told myself that if I continued the journey, I would have a successful story that I can inspire them.
“And that was when I decided to continue the journey no matter how slow or hard it was as I wanted my clients to know that it was possible to hike Mount Kinabalu if I put my mind to it.”
At 8am, she reached the peak and teared up after conquering her biggest challenge and while her guide offered to carry her down, she declined and said that she would take a slow hike.
Her determination to descend the trail on her own despite taking it slow made her finish the entire hike at 9pm to which she was proud of.
“The rest of my hiking team had finished two to three hours earlier but I’m glad I also completed my journey later, but at my own pace.
“My outlook towards life has changed too ― I tell myself that I can do the impossible and nothing is ever too hard and feels difficult.
“Most importantly, I have another inspiring story to tell people ― that if I can overcome a mountain at the age 44, so can anyone else,” she said.
