Conquering Mt. Kinabalu

So we made our way to Kinabalu Park HQ readying ourselves for the big climb early the next morning! HQ is about 2 hours bus ride outside KK and high up itself and very chilly! as we jumped off the bus we realised just how chilly it was and made us a bit concerned about how cold it would be at the top!!

Feeling very excited and slightly apprehensive we checked into our accomodation... a shared 10 bed dorm and paid our fees to climb. Annoyingly they had been increased only within the last month but oh well too late to complain now! Grabbed a meal at the local cafe (outside the park... cheap) and then made our way over to a 6pm briefing on the climb tomo.... basic stuff.... take it slowly... loads of chocolate etc etc sounded good to me. Made our way back to the dorm and got to bed early! It was difficult sleeping as i was excited about the climb and also freezing cold!

at 6 am it was time to get up. we grabbed some tea and instant porridge (yummmm) in the kitchen which we had taken with us to give us an energy boost and made our way to the HQ desk. To climb to the top you need to have a guide with you so we waited until we had found some other guys to share the cost with and picked up our guide.
Although a guide wasnt needed for the first days climb it was UNESCO (world heritage site) policy that for the hike to the summet one was needed for safety reasons. We then bundled into a 4x4 and made the ten minuite drive to the trail entrance!

Before climbing we were given security ID cards that we had to keep on us all the time and were used to tick us off at each check point heading up to the peak and then down again.

Interestingly there is a time record board here showing the quickest times achieved to the peak and back! Would you believe that the quickest achieved is just over two hours!! And we were taking two days!! We were also told by a park ranger that the oldest climber was 84 and the most impressive climb... a porter carrying a washing machine on his back up to Laban Rata (6k point)! Amazing!

Now the start of the climb is annoyingly decieving.. once you have checked in the path goes down steeply for about 100m... ahh this is easy i thought to myself.. how wrong would i prove to be!! As soon as this section is over the trail hits woodland and after passing a small waterfall its up all the way! Now i havent got the longest legs in the world... Frances loves to joke about this and i have to admit that the steps going up were prooving quite difficult in that they were high!!

The first two K went reasonably quickly with the group setting a good pace. During a point at each K mark there is a rest shelter which houses a toilet and untreated water tank. These shelters were great for having a breather, chugging down a load of water from our flasks and scoffing mars bars! by the time i had reached 3km i (frances) had drunk all my 3 L of water, i was so worried about dehydration!!!

There are also notice boards to inform you along the way how far you have come up or down the mountain along with a map.

Now the route shoots up extremely fast and you really become aware of the air thinning and how hard it becomes to breath normally! Our bodies started to slow as the route got steeper and i especially started to develop a banging headache that wouldnt shift untill the following morning! The group as a whole started to feel dizzy though with the occasional complete loss of balance!

The higher you get the more impressive the view gets and by the 4k rest point we were really starting to feel the strain! Also, what didnt help at this point was seeing the previous days climbers passing with the look of sheer horror on their faces! It didnt look good ... but we were all in a good spirit and carried on!

The 4k mark onwards is tough enough to challenge any experienced climber. The route shifted to being much steeper, rockyer and the path more uneven. More stops were taken and the strain was beginning to tell.

at 5k the climb was becoming so steep that we were resting every 20 meters. Breathing normally was becoming a real problem and by now it was getting quite chilly! I was pouring with sweat because of some of the layers i was wearing, but take them off for a minuite while you stop and you instantly feel how cold it is! It can be really uncomfortable especially knowing you have limited supplies in a small rucksack but i didnt have much of a choice! it was so difficult to continue as all our energy had gone, if there had been any choice i think i could have stopped there but as soon as you stop it gets freezing so the only option is to keep going!

At one of the rest stops up here we noticed how many squirrells there were around our feet! Now squirrels here have short tails, look like rats and are incredibly fat. They obviously get fed well on the energy boosting choccies!

At just under 4 hours we hit the 6k mark of Laban Rata resthouse and the place of our stopover! thank god! In booking mountain acommodation we had gone for the cheaper opyion of having the non heated huts rather than the fully heated resthouse! Funny enough the most annoying discovery is finding out that your non heated hut (that you pay riddiculous money for by the way) is a further half a k up the mountain...... great!!

After catching our breath we proceeded upto our acommadation and settled in quickly. luckily we made it in at about 1pm, before the rain started we were above most of the clouds but looking up the mountain the view was covered by all the clouds. The building had about 20 small rooms in with bunk beds, crappy luke warm showers and a shared kitchen facility! After mooching around and saying a quick hello to everyone staying in the building we went to bed absolutely shattered and fully clothed as it was freezing cold!

Woke up to the sun setting outside our window and rushed outside to enjoy the view and take a fe piccies! It really looked beautiful high above the clouds and if if it was that stunning at this height then just imagine sun rise at the peak!!

After grabbing some food.... instant noodles, mars bar and oat biscuits.egh we got to bed for about half 8 in prep for the 2am wake up call and our climb to the the summit!

2am...........ok so we hardly got any sleep... dont know if it was being excited, or fearfull of the final push but we got up, grabbed some porridge and waited the arrival of our guide. i had that groggy tired feeling but also excited and full of adrenaline, It was pitch black and very cold but it was clear enough to see the tiny street lights below us!

Light relief came in the form of a group of Ozzies who were heading up with us. After the usual 'moaning pommies' banter we got on really well. Even more amazing was that there was one guy in the group who was going up in these skimpy cycling shorts!(they were shorter than mine!!).... no man should be seen dead in these on the ground let alone a bloomin mountain! His knobbley white legs looked frozen and a good laugh was had by all before he left for the summit with 'nnnnnnnnnaaaaahhhh wooorrriieesss' ringing out as walked away. How these boys do it i will never know!

As soon as our guide picked us up we headed immediately for the summit trail and the route becomes very steep! I dont know if it was our bodies aching from the day before or just that we were still half asleep but it was very tough! after 10 mins i just couldnt move, my body couldnt climb, i couldnt breath, it was a nighmare. some people had turned back at this point but there was no way i wasnt going to make it now!!!To make matters worse... the torch started giving us problems.. i was hard enough with one torch between 2 of us but as i was finding it so difficult i was really slowing luke down. we ended up having to rely on other peoples light.. the climb was hard enough without having to watch every foot step!

About 1k on up the trail a white rope appears and in single file we grabbed hold of it and made our way up. The terrain by now had turned to granite and although a fairly smooth surface it was becoming very difficult to maintain momentum. We were practically pulling ourselves up on the rope on a very tight walkway. It was still pitch black so we had to really concentrate about where we were putting our feet and keeping our eyes focused on the rope. By this point my body had woken up and i was really enjoying myself, i was so hot but the air on my face was freezing cold, i really felt alive! it was such a buzz! luckily i (f)
still hadnt got a headache which was great, poor luke was feeling a bit groggy though from the altitude.

Some people were really struggling now and although we too were finding it very difficult we maintained a good pace and continued past stopping every 100m or so for a rest. BY now, even though it was pitch black you could see the sun starting to rise in the distance... the view already was stunning and as we looked onwards we could start to make out the shadows of the huge rock formations on top of the mountain. the surface we were walking on was like a field of granite, it looked beautiful. We past the well known 'donkey's ears' formation although it was difficult to make them out in such darkness. One of our group had a kinetic torch thankfully that was really powerful, although he spent much of the climb having to shake it rigerrously to get enough power!

I ( L)had taken some ibruprofen befor the climb to combat my ,by now pounding headache.. it was hard work, very cold and hard to breathe. The parth was becoming very wet in places due to the nights terrential downpour and we began to slip over certain rocks... the journey was becoming a scramble to the finish!

We continued to follow the white rope upwards but it became hard to see in places the best route. The rope had obviously been played about with because i grabbed hold of it to climb over a rock face and ended up slipping and falling sideways. It had been reported in the past that some people have gotten lost on the rockface after losing track of the rope and never to be seen again. We really didnt fancy having that happen but the morning mist was becoming thicker.

After the 8k mark we could finally see the summit of Lowes Peak. Climbers already up there flashed their torches to show us that it wasnt much further, although it felt like they were just plain showing off at the time. We were shattered and losing energy.

Now what i didnt realise was that there was going to be a final climb up to Lowes Peak and it was very steap. We started the final push but legs were so tired that many just sat at the bottom for over 15 mins before attempting it. it took forever to reach the peak, we climbed and climbed and it never seemed to get any closer! Frances and i pushed on and finally reached the summit at about 5 to 6 in the morning.

I (frances) got there first!!!

We sat there frozen and wearing these stupid hats that we had bought the previous day making us look like a couple of prats, but we really didnt care. Our gloves were soaking wet and our hands frozen.. but to look out from the peak was a sight to behold! it was very difficult to keep our balance, we were feeling very wobbley and the peak was very uneven but we managed to get some good piccies!

The sun was beginning to rise and we could see the light bouncing off the granite rock face. We could also see the whisping cloud well below us starting to take shape.

Our goal had been achieved and we were shattered. It took a bit of a fight to get near the summit post but i was determined to get our picture taken as proof. It was made all the more difficult that our batteries froze up so we had to stand at the top of this bloody mountain trying to warm up batteries while we were freezing cold just to get our pics!!!

It was then that we saw our ozzie mate in his skimpy shorts shivering at the top with a big grin on his face.. He's certainly not the first ozzie to reach the summit but he may well be the first to reach it in the shortest shorts!

Gazing out over Borneo from the peak was a fairly quick affair. We spent just over half an hour there, anything more and i think we would have frozen to death!

Making our way down from the summit felt really good. The sun had come up fully now and we were able to see around us for the first time. Everything had changed color and looked completely different. we didnt remember any of the climb up so it was like we'd never been there before! It felt as though we were in a different world and the rock formations were amazing. The view through the clouds to the land below is something we'll never forget.

On our way down to Laban Rata we realised just how steep a climb we had had. The rope section was practically hanging off the cliff face... one false move and ... well i dont even want to think about it! some of the climb had to be done backwards, i was like we were absailing off the side of the mountain! crazy!

By the time we reached Laban Rata we were physically and mentally exhausted. It felt a bit like we had been walking all night and the tiredness was really kicking in. We packed up our stuff from the room and headed down to the heated resthouse for some much needed breakfast. We had sworn to ourselves that we wouldnt pay the riddiculously priced breakfast... 25RM (approx 5 pounds) but we really needed it. I swiftly scoffed the equivilent of 4 all day breakfasts... no kidding.. porridge and noodles can only go so far!

Anyways what we didnt realise was how tough going down would be! After saying our goodbyes to the team we left about 45 mins later and came down very quickly....

By the 4k to go mark we were absolutely shattered and becoming more and more dizzy. at this point we were also starting to see people making their way up to the top.. the look of us must have given them one hell of a shock! After talking to them straight.. that it was going to be the hardest climb of their lives and that they might not make it ,we said our goodbyes and were back on our way.

The endless steps were really taking their toll and it had started to rain.. legs turned to jelly and we were having to lean on any railing we could find to help lower ourselves. it was a nighmare, all the way up we had incentive, we wanted to get to the top. on the way down all we wanted was a hot shower and bed but the slope went on and on and on. the steps were unrelenting and if we put too much weight on our legs our knees buckled! after nearly 3 hours of climbing down, we were completely knackered and stumbling in silence. finally we spotted the end.. the last insult came with the 100m of steps going up.. i had to stop 3 times before i could make it to the top. exhausted and unable to think we jumped into a van that took us to park HQ where we then hung around for an hour to get a bus back to KK.

We sat at the bus stop exhausted but buzzing from the climb, it was such a fantastic experience!

By the time we got back to KK and settled into the YH we were in bad shape. Both of us were hobbling around and i (luke) am black and blue all around my toes. They are really bruised to the point that my toenail is practically hanging off! Lovely huh!

Am well chuffed though... Highest mountain in SE Asia down.. have to get o with planning the next one now....

Everest here we come!

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