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Published: February 2nd 2008
Mt Kinabalu
Taken out the bus window just days before our climb. This was the challenge that awaited us.One of the primary reasons for my visit to Sabah was to climb Mt Kinabalu. At 4,095m, it is the highest peak in the area and therefore worthy of the effort - and the amount of effort I significantly underestimated!
Rather than climb up to the peak and back the same way, our group started from the west on the Mesilau trail which is 2 km longer but much prettier than the Summit Trail. So Day 1 consisted of an 8 km trip to Laban Rata. I thought 4 hours would be a good estimate of the time required. I was wrong, so very wrong. It took me 8 hours to reach our accommodation for the night. The path was reasonably steep and certainly required some good cardiovascular fitness that I do not possess. However, the slow speed also allowed me to take in the beautiful surrounds and views that so often escape your notice if you walk too quickly. My roomie, Roslyn, and I spent most of the afternoon walking a few 100 metres, taking a break, taking a few photographs and chatting to our local mountain guide, James. Our knowledge of the local plant life improved significantly as
The trail
Always looks easier on paper! did our bahasa (the official Malay language) and our lungs did get to take in lots of good mountain air!
Laban Rata was a great spot to stay. There was a cafe/restaurant to cater for all tastes and a pot of milo after a long day's hiking is always welcome. The prices for food were great value considering all the ingredients are brought there by porter! Sunset on the balcony was lovely and gave everyone a chance to view and reflect on the achievements of the day - it was a long way down!
Sleep did not come easily that night as first we had the very loud banter from a group of Koreans seemingly incapable to communicating at close range, screaming down the corridor appeared to be their favored method. And after that, the heaters came on in the rooms for the rest of the night. We were on a mountain, it was meant to be cool, not tropical!
At 2am, it was wake up time and we managed to start our trek to the peak at 2:35am. Unfortunately, the first 500m of the 2.75 km climb took us 60 minutes. Given sunrise was around 6am,
Mesilau trail
Reasonably steep right from the beginning... it was at that point I seriously doubted I would be sitting on the peak to see the first rays of light for the day. The initial slow speed was due to the high volume of traffic on the trail. As we spread out over the next kilometre or so, those who were up to it were able to increase speed whilst I simply tried to keep a steady pace and make progress between frequent rest breaks.
Rather than rock cairns or arrows painted on the rocks, the path to follow was marked by a rope which sometimes was useful in ascending, and, later, descending the rocky path. My petzl headlamp was hardly required as the moon provided excellent light through the early hours of the morning.
In the end, for me, it was so close and yet so far. Despite the continual encouragement of my favorite guide, James, sunrise happened about 10 minutes before I made it to the top. Most of my tour group were there waiting, and generally cold given how long they had been waiting. I was so happy to have made it but a little disappointed with the timing. A few quick snaps
Just look at the view
Even from early on in the day, looking back down from whence we came was spectacular on the peak were taken, views of the coast admired, and we headed down back to Laban Rata.
It turned out to be an extremely long day. We had breakfast around 9am before taking the 6 km path back to the start of the Sumit Trail. I do not like descending at the best of times, in particular my knees don't enjoy it, but this descent was one I will never forget. Such big steps down rocks for way too many kilometres, not to mention the downpour we were in the the vast majority of the time! Scott and I reached the end of the trail at approximately 3:00 pm. I was so pleased for the pain to be finally over and enjoyed the massive pot of coffee we purchased at the local cafe - our meeting point.
Once everyone had gathered, it was time to say goodbye to our mountain guides, Juru and James, and our porters, Jerry and Janus. We tried to arrange for them to spend the evening with us to celebrate but unfortunately the logistics were going to be too difficult to deal with.
So here we were on New Year's Eve, we
Juru
First break on the way up the mountain - our guide Juru had not even broken into a sweat! had made it to the top of Mt Kinabalu and were all too tired to be in high spirits. That evening, despite my encouragement, no one wanted to see in the Malaysian New Year. We toasted Auckland's New Year, Melbourne's New Year and Perth's New Year but were all tucked away in bed by midnight after consuming local rice wine (interesting) and a few beers (except for me - I still have not acquired the taste for it).
I certainly underestimated the mountain but maybe have a greater sense of achievement for having climbed it as a result. I would certainly recommend it to anyone interested in trying and haven't ruled out going back another day for another attempt. My slow recovery afterwards and the pain I suffered during a massage the next afternoon reminded me just how high 4,095m is!
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