Gunung Merdai

Information

Elevation

1.401 m

Country

Indonesia (ID)

Location / Range

Punggungan pedalaman di sekitar kompleks Gunung Nyiut, perbatasan Kabupaten Sanggau–Landak, Kalimantan Barat

Mountain type

Puncak berhutan di punggungan pedalaman Kalimantan Barat, bukan gunung berapi

Volcanic?

No (non-volcanic)

Coordinates

0.8833, 110.2500

Difficulty

Menengah–berat untuk ukuran gunung Kalimantan: tanpa jalur wisata resmi, medan hutan hujan yang lembap dan berlumpur, serta akses jalan darat yang panjang. Gunung Bagging mencatat perjalanan realistis dari Pontianak pergi-pulang butuh minimal sekitar 4 hari, termasuk waktu tempuh darat.

Best Season

Bulan-bulan yang relatif paling kering — sekitar Juni–Agustus. Data iklim rintisan Wikipedia Cebuano (berbasis data global GeoNames) menyebut curah hujan tahunan sekitar 3.792 mm dengan bulan terkering Juni (~183 mm) dan terbasah Desember (~545 mm), jadi tidak ada musim yang benar-benar kering.

Permits & Rules

Belum ada informasi izin resmi yang terdokumentasi; Gunung Bagging mencatat status izin, sumber air, dan logistik menuju titik awal sebagai "unknown". Praktik lokal yang lazim di Kalimantan Barat adalah lapor dan minta izin ke perangkat desa serta memakai pemandu warga setempat.

Hazards

Hutan hujan tropis rapat tanpa penanda jalur resmi sehingga risiko tersesat tinggi; jalur licin dan berlumpur sepanjang tahun karena curah hujan sangat tinggi; lintasan air yang bisa naik cepat setelah hujan; jarak jauh dari fasilitas kesehatan dan sinyal telepon yang tidak bisa diandalkan; ketidakpastian ketinggian dan penamaan puncak (lihat catatan di ringkasan) yang bisa membuat pendaki salah menuju puncak.

Description

Gunung Merdai is the highest point of its immediate surroundings in the interior of West Kalimantan, straddling the boundary area between Sanggau and Landak regencies. Local hikers know it far better as Gunung Bentuang. The PeakVisor database lists it at 1,401 m with a topographic prominence of 1,249 m — a figure that shows how thoroughly it stands above the surrounding hill country; the nearest higher neighbour is Gunung Niut (1,413 m), roughly 39 km to the west-northwest. Reported summit heights still disagree: Gunung Bagging notes a 2020 GPS reading of only 1,393 m, while summit boards put up by various local hiking clubs claim as much as 1,421 m, and the GeoNames-derived Cebuano Wikipedia stub gives 1,395 m. A spread of a few dozen metres is unsurprising for a peak that has never been formally resurveyed. Note too that PeakVisor lists a separate, much lower "Gunung Bentuang" (about 795 m) 2.3 km to the west-southwest inside the Gunung Nyiut Nature Reserve, so one name covers two different points and hikers should confirm the coordinates of their objective. The documented approach starts from Desa Perbuak in Landak Regency. On its slopes is the Sempatung waterfall, reached in about four hours of walking, which marks the lower part of the route. The surroundings are almost entirely forest with a very low population density (about 35 people per km²) and a mean temperature near 22 °C. Verified information on this mountain remains thin: there is no official managing-authority website, no standard permit information, and no published official trail map.