Training Day – Bukit Gasing Hill Climbs

According to one of the Jungle Babes, this hiking trail at Bukit Gasing was harder than the Northface Outdoor Challenge so I am going to share the route here. We did this trail a week before TNF Outdoor Challenge as part of our preparation for the distance. It was supposed to be a 10km trail but we cut it short because one of our team mates thought she could wing it without breakfast.

I generally do not advise hiking without a decent breakfast – especially not when you’re planning to do a 10km hike. Or when the over enthusiastic “mountain lamb” decided to throw in three extra inclines on top of the regular two we normally did…

While it is a challenging trail, I don’t think she would have thought it was quite as hard if she had eaten breakfast. But you try it out and be the judge…

The Trail

The distance we ended up hiking was only 7.32 km, but it would have been closer to 10 km if we had taken the trail to Raju’s to get back.

If you’re wondering about the drop in pace, those were the points where we stopped to take photos. Yes, we can’t help ourselves. Must. Take. Photos. Even if it interrupts the training.

There were five steep inclines in this trail which I have marked with letters on the map below:

Incline A

Incline A is the “killer stretch” a.k.a. “heart attack slope” as it is known as on Strava. It is located on the ring loop where the suspension bridge is. When you enter Bukit Gasing from the Pantai Hill Park access, take the trail on the right when you hit the T-intersection.

The photo below shows the start of the killer stretch. It goes up further than what you can see in the picture:

This is another angle from the top down but still not from the very top:

Incline B

Incline B has no name but we dubbed it the “vertical stretch”. Yes, I know, not very original. It is somewhere near the metal suspension bridge. There are too many turns to explain how to get to the start of the vertical stretch, but you will pass the top of it if you follow these directions:

• From Pantai Hill access, take the left trail when you hit the T-intersection (opposite to the killer stretch).
• Keep walking until you hit a sort of “roundabout” with a tree in the middle and a couple of wooden benches. Take the left fork.

• Follow the trail until you reach another fork – the left fork looks like it’s making a bit of a U-turn and the right fork goes straight. You want to follow the left fork (the right fork will take you to a steep descent with rock-steps and end at some ruins).
• If you keep walking along the trail, you will eventually reach this clearing which is at the top of the vertical stretch. We normally make loop around to the bottom of the vertical stretch (trail goes straight ahead in the picture below) and hike back up to this clearing (trail enters from the right of the picture below).

The vertical stretch is newer and isn’t carved out with makeshift steps. This is us at the base of the vertical stretch before starting the grueling climb up.

I tried to capture an impression of how steep the trail is but photos don’t really do it justice.

If you see this tree along the way, then you are definitely on the vertical stretch:

Obviously, we had to stop and take photos…

Incline C, D and E

Incline C, D and E are all near this platform:

Incline E leads up to and ends at this platform. It is the path to the left of this picture. To get to incline C and D, you need to follow the trail behind the camera person in this picture. It will take you down a steep descent until you reach a stream. Cross the stream and follow the trail to the right. The first fork to your left is Incline C. If you keep walking on, you will come to a T-junction and Incline D will be to the left. Taking the right trail from that T-junction will lead you to a clearing where the start of Incline E begins.

This is the final stretch of Incline E:

I know these are not the best directions but I like Bukit Gasing because you can’t really get too lost in there. As long as you remember where you came from, you can always retrace your steps back out. The whole area is surrounded by houses, so even if you do forget, you just need to follow the sound of the cars to any road and Grab back to your car.