The Mountain Climbing Club (MCC) was founded by its actual president Hugues Rasamison in 1987. Yes, we've come a long way. Since its creation the club has been very active, we have visited lots of interesting sites and places in Madagascar in order to enjoy its beauty as well as its unique biodiversity, of course our country is a huge island and has a lot to offer in terms of fauna and flora, culture and customs.

HIGHER AND HIGHER is the motto of the club.

OBJECTIVES

One of the primary goals of the MCC is for the members to keep fit; it goes without saying that mountain climbing and hiking are good exercise. But not only do we want to keep fit, but we also want to discover the different cultures and customs in our country, not to mention the unique beauty of our primary forests with their endemic vegetation and animal species.

THE MEMBERS

The Club is celebrating its 22 nd anniversary this year, that means that we have had a lot of members since its creation: so apart from the “former members” who are scattered all over the country and the world – some are in France, some in the USA, in Japan etc … – the actual and local members make the Club very strong as ever. In fact, a “new generation or young blood “keeps joining the club.

The members are all adults and in good shape. The age group is between 20 to 60 years old. The members have a lot of things in common: the love of nature and the wilderness, the taste of adventure, the eagerness to know more about the people and the cultures in Madagascar. What's more, we are all history buffs. We visit some archaeological sites, local museums… In other words, in choosing the place to visit we always take into consideration if there is any historical interest in the region. Since the members have known one another quite well for a long time, it is no exaggeration to say that the club has become a real “Big Family”.

We speak three languages: Malagasy, English and French.

EXPEDITIONS

There are three kinds of expeditions:

As the saying goes:” When in Rome, do as the Romans do”. All the members are aware that they should respect the customs of any regions that we explore.

ORGANIZATION

Each member before and during a great expedition is assigned a specific duty according to his/her preference for example taking care of transportation, logistics, communication… Holding meetings is necessary prior to any expeditions, this is the preparation phase: to decide on the itinerary, the mode of transportation, the different places to visit, how long we will stay at one place, who is doing what, the food to bring, the number of tents to bring, how much it will cost etc… it is also the time to gather information collected by each member. For a Great expedition we have to meet at least three times prior to the D day.

PLACES

It is difficult to enumerate all the different places that we have visited so far, the Club is more than 20 years old now, and I don't think I can remember them all. In fact, the hiking is always a circuit for example: If I mention Ambohimanga it's from Ambohimanga to somewhere, to Ivato ‘bout de Piste' for example or Sabotsy Namehana to Ambohimanga

Here are some samples of places explored :

Antananarivo
Lohavohitra, Ambohimanoa, Ambohimanga, Antsahadinta, Ambohijoky, Ilafy, Antongona, Ambohitrabiby, Soavina Ambanitsena, Alasora, Ambohimanambola, Ankadiefajoro, By pass, Ambohijanaka, Ambatofotsy, City of Antananarivo, Mantasoa, Talatavolonondry, Mandraka, Ambatomirahavavy, Ambohidratrimo, Manjakandriana, Ampefy/ Itasy etc.

Provinces
Tsiafajavona, Ibity Antsirabe, Andringitra Pic Imarivolanitra (Pic Bobby), Ranomafana, Manambato, Vatomandry, Mahanoro, Mahambo, Sainte Marie, Isalo, Tulear, Tsingy of Bemaraha via Morondava, Tsingy of Ankarana via Diego Suarez, Andasibe, Zafimaniry villages etc.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

As nature lovers the members of the Club have contributed to the protecting of the environment by planting trees. In 1994 and in 1996, thousands of eucalyptus and pine trees were planted by the members in Ambatomirahavavy sponsored by the United States Information Service (USIS)

We like to have fun too. Every meeting is an occasion to have good time. We have complete meals, drinks and sometimes we finish off the meeting with a dancing party etc… We had 3 big parties for the anniversary of the club or for fund raising. I still remember the Black and White party at Cemes Soanierana with more than 250 guests, the Country Western parties at Calumet Club and at Espace Conquete, not to mention our annual gift exchange parties.

THE EXPEDITION

We left Antananarivo early in the morning to have our breakfast in Antsirabe at a member's house. As usual we brought all the necessary equipment for the trip: tents, flash lights, kitchen gears not to forget the food for the week: vegetables, eggs, lots of dried beans and lentil. In most places in the Provinces, there are customs that you have to respect; we respect all “fady”(taboos) communicated by the local residents for example pork meat is often banned, so we never include pork in the menu, as the proverb quoted above says “ When in Rome …”

GOT LOST

After passing Fianarantsoa we got to Ambalavao late in the evening, fortunately or unfortunately, the driver missed a turn and we got lost. We didn't realize that we had gotten lost until the dirt road led us to a dead end road in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains , actually it is the other side of Andringitra where Camp Cata is , the driver tried to find the right way, turning around up and down in the dark, but at around mid night we gave up and we ended up in a tiny village, we didn't know where we were, what we could see was some thatched houses whose inhabitants were sleeping tight and didn't even hear us. We tried to organize ourselves and decided to wait there until the day break, so some us spent the night in a small classroom, sleeping on the school benches (I would say squatted the classroom), some stayed in the car.

The other side of namoly

In the morning, we were surprised to see ourselves surrounded by beautiful landscapes, high mountains lit by the early sunlight and veiled in a mist. Despite the morning dew and the cold, we rushed to take photos, the traditional family photos.

Then it was not difficult to find the way back to Ambalavao where we could wash and have our breakfast.

ANGAP GUEST HOUSE

The road to Namoly valley where the guest house is, is quite good, but a little slippery at times. The guest house is located 48km from Ambalavao. It's a newly built traditional house, cosy and well maintained using solar energy. All hikers should start from there. They can rent rooms and eat there, but we, as usual we used our tents and the front yard as a camp site.

The second night was rather cold (the first one in the school classroom), the temperature was under zero although it was almost the end of the cold season- the beginning of August- you can feel this cold especially if you sleep in a tent even using a thick sleeping bag. In the morning our tents were covered with frost.

OFF TO PEAK IMARIVOLANITRA

Day 3

6:30 am off we went to reach Peak Imarivolanitra at 2658meters after a good breakfast. The guides had suggested that we do it in two days and sleep half way, but carrying the tents, the food etc would be no fun, so we decided to do it in one day and bring only water and lunch (lentil with sauce and rice, no pork!) From 1600m where the guesthouse is, up to 2658m where the peaks touch the sky!

We crossed some typical Betsileo villages on hamlet, and once on the ridge we could enjoy the mountains around. The trails sometimes led us into a tunnel of vegetation, sometimes to a prairie of golden vegetation crossed by a lazy stream and at times a bed of Anjavidy.

Due to the altitude, one of the hikers had a problem of breathing, so some of us with one guide had to accompany her all the way at a slow pace following the others behind; from the first aid kit, I took a Ventoline spray for her to inhale and with one puff she could gain her normal breath again, as a result, we could walk faster. She could have given up!

The group got to the camp site at about midday, where we were supposed to stay overnight, this is half way. We paused for a while to grab a bite to eat and started again. The trail is now steep and narrow, with 3000 “stairs”, it is quite dangerous and we could not take photos during the ascension anymore for safety reason. At times, we had to walk one by one against the rock and not to look down nor back because of acrophobia.

After the “3000 stairs” we had to cross a kind of small valley with small streams before the final ascension to the top. At around 3:30pm, we finally reached the very top of Andringitra, this is Peak Imarivolanitra or Peak Boby, 2658m high! We made it to the Top. What a relief! The view from the top is just magnificent, and the breathtaking scenery of the mountains around made us forget our tiredness, since the last ascension was a killer. People say that from the top, the town of Manakara can be seen when the weather is good, but I have my doubt about it.

lunch time

The guide handed us over a book that he had taken from a hole, it was a ‘golden book' in which any climbers write down their impressions, so each of us wrote something. Amazing! Each of us thanked god for letting him/her get to the Roof of Madagascar! Actually, we had been sweating to get there since it took us 9 hours!

Then we had lunch: rice, lentil with sauce and boiled eggs. In all we stayed there for 30 minutes and had to start to climb down. If the thick fog had gotten us on the way back, it would have been impossible to go down the steep trail. That was why we left the top at about 4:00pm.

On the way back the day was getting darker and darker despite the full moon. At times especially in the tunnel of vegetation, it was pitch dark, we could not see a thing! So we had to use the only two flash lights we brought, not enough. Walking in the dark, we were blaming each other. We should have brought more flash lights.

We were so tired that our legs almost refused to move, actually it was the mind which “moved”. We were exhausted, but had to continue. Something that kept us going was the funny fact that almost everyone kept on farting (sorry) all the way due to the lentil and the boiled eggs that we had eaten; that was hilarious! But there was a small problem, one of the members had taken the risk to bring his 10 year old son along with us; as a result the small boy could not make it and was carried by the guide on his back to the end.

At last we got to the camp site at Namoly at 11:00pm, so it took us 7 hours. No need to complain about tiredness, you may say we should have listened to the guide and should have done it in two days instead of one. But that's ok. We were exhausted, but fully satisfied.

The following day was a relaxing day, but a very few of us forgetting their tiredness went on another circuit to see the primary rain forest, the circuit is called Imaitso.

In the evening we organized a big camp fire and invited the local residents to have fun with us, singing and dancing to the beat of the Betsileo rhythm around the camp fire. A night that I will never forget.

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