Mt Kinabalu

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When we arrived at Mt Kinabalu park on Monday afternoon the mountain was covered in cloud. The next morning after a night in luxury accommodation (because there was nothing else available), we saw the full height of the mountain and wondered what we were getting ourselves into. We grouped together with an English couple to share a guide - you can't climb without a guide. Our guide was called Wilbert and he had a voice like Barry White, quite funny for a small Malaysian. The way it works is you climb the mountain over two days. On the first day, you set off early in the morning and reach the resthouse below the summit after 4 to 6 hours climbing. You get some sleep in the resthouse and usually head for the summit in the dark around 2.30 am on the second day to see the sunrise. You do the descent on the second day too.

We started the climb at 1800m and climbed to 3300m over 6km the first day. There are steps along certain stretches but the higher parts are mostly rocks. We spent the morning trying to distract ourselves from the pain of the climb by looking for pitcher plants along the way. We found a few good ones along the way. Unfortunately the skies opened around 30 mins before we reached the resthouse on the mountain where we spent the night. The trail we were following turned into a riverbed which made things more interesting. We arrived in looking like drowned rats and ate our dinner almost before the plates hit the table! The rain stopped and we headed on up another 100m to where our resthouse was. Then the rain started bucketing down again and an electrical storm began. The lightning gave us some great views of the mountain but it was raining so hard it stopped us from heading back down to the restaurant for our dinner. We made do with cuppa soups I had left over from the Trans Siberian!

After a few hours of broken sleep, it was 2.30am and time to start climbing again. We piled on the layers of clothes because it was quite cold. I was glad the final part was in the dark because I couldn't see how high I was climbing or how steep some of the rocks were. Thankfully they have thick climbing ropes to hold onto for the last 2km. Maybe it was due to tiredness but I think the altitude had a lot to do with the dizziness I was feeling at times.

We reached the summit of 4100m around 5.10 am in plenty of time for a really spectacular sunrise. The climb was worth it for the sunrise alone. We'd reached the top but we still had a four hour descent ahead of us so we headed back to the resthouse for another hour of sleep. Afterwards we grabbed breakfast and headed down. Mt Kinabalu done!

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Photos

porter
even the guides couldn't believe this porter was carrying so much weight -- 2 mattresses!

Comments

[waty]

nice
hi..guys im from sabah borneo..tht my hometwn..ya there is a wonderful place u see..