How to get there:
The airport with frequent flights is in Bima. You may check flights
to Sumbawa Besar, as this is much closer.
From Bima it is about 5 hours by car to Sumbawa Besar. From there,
proceed to the small, pretty remote village named Tepal. This village
is now connected with a paved road,
about 50 kilometer, but narrow with
some road damage. It takes about 2 hours to drive there.
There is a house at
the very top of the village where you may spend the night.
This location is at South 8.62498, East 117.17673, elevation close to 900 meter.
The local guide is Payi, you can most easily make arrangements by contacting
Ayat (Whatsapp: +6285253511178), he lives in Sumbawa Besar.
Route description:
From the upper (base camp) house, a farmroad continues, gently arching
right. The route follows this road for several kilometers. The first
main fork even has a roadsign. Go left here. You should always stay on
the road that follows the top of the ridge. There are several more forks,
but it is easy to choose (right, left, right). The road eventually narrows
to a motor bike route, often improved with a concrete stripe in the middle.
You are now already about half way with respect to distance. The rule remains,
stay on the ridge. Thus, you will fork left onto a smaller trail near
location South 8.60073, East 117.14774, just above 1200 meter.
The next section was badly overgrown from limited usage (2025),
Fortuneatly, you will soon reach terrain with bigger trees and less undergrowth.
The trail is again quite visible and easy to follow. It will start to gain elevation
in a more determined way. You bypass a minor hump on its right side. A short descent
to a local col
features a more narrow section
of the ridge. Finally, you
arrive at the ridge highpoint. This is a huge boulder.
The route has a bypass on the left,
however an old ladder provides access to this nice viewpoint.
The summit of Sangenges is straight across.
The ridge now
descends steeply to connect with the hillside beyond.
Shortly, you will hit a trail
that runs left and right (S8.57879, E117.13299, 1725m).
This is the "famous" "Japanese road." used by soldier from
Japan in WW-2. Lack of use has made it fairly rough, but it still provides the
key traverse from this location to the base of the peak itself.
The final ascent first gains the north ridge by a somewhat steepish hillside climb.
Finally, follow this ridge to the summit,
the slope eases as you get closer.
Note how you arrived, a pretty visible trail also descends more north-west, be careful
to descend the way you ascended.
A track is posted on Peakbagger.
Comments/Trip report:
I transfered by car from the base of Tambora around the big bay, to Sumbawa Besar
where we picked up Ayat, We then continued to Tepal.
Pretty nice road, but there
are signs of early water damage. Unless they fix this, the road may quickly get
worse to the extent that it may be difficult for normal passenger cars.
I was warmly received, a bedroom
reserved on the second floor of the base camp
building. Interesting, a
steep bamboo ladder to get up there.
Next, we walked a few
houses down the street, entered the house
where Payi lived and had
a nice dinner.
Early to bed with an agreed start time the next day
at 0500.
We walked for quite some time before forking left to stay on the ridge. Here, we ran
into dense vegetation that completely covered the trail. Fortunately, this only lasted
until we entered a forest with bigger trees. The trail gained elevation and we reached a nice
viewpoint on a boulder. The peak was partially visible among clouds. Ayat had fallen behind
and we waited about 20 minutes, but no Ayat.
Shortly, we reached what they call the Japanese Road, a trail made/used by the Japanese during
World War II. Clearly little use since then, this traverse took longer than I had expected.
Next, a pretty steepish ascent on slippery ground to gain a ridge leading to the summit.
We were up in 4:30 including the long wait for Ayat.
After about 15 minutes
we started our ascent.
I went ahead, but soon realized that I was descending the wrong ridge, up again, then down where we
had ascended. Before reaching the base, we met Ayat. I suggested we could wait while he
visited the summit, he was close. No way, he was more than happy to just turn around. The return
trip went smoothly and I was back at the hut in 3:55.
Big thanks are due to Payi and his family
for great hospitality and for showing the best
route to the summit. Also to Ayat, he fascilitated this trip connecting with Payi.
