Towering into the sky and dominating the island of Bali is mount agung, with an elevation of just over 3000m (3013m) it is a worthy challenge.
It remains to date the hardest climb I have ever undertaken. I climbed with a friend of mine Dave who is american and quite experienced and one of the few people I know fitter than me at least at the age I was back then.
We approached the climb through a monastery and it was the wrong season the trail was washed away at points and I found myself having to climb tree roots vertically. The gradient was incredible on average and it took a massive 6 hours to get up there and 4 down. Climbing down was a long and enjoyable affair on the way up it did make me cry a couple of times in a way I hadn't before (sheer exhaustion) and I consider myself quite a grown man, the mountain didn't beat me but on another day it might have. I would love the chance to one day scale the beast again.
Wikipedias info on the mountain : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Agung
Photo by Dendy Darma Satyazi