The long and winding road.....

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I have been elected to write the story of when we climbed the mountain. It was bloody hard, but we did it! It was every bit as amazing as we hoped it would be.

After the fiasco that was trying to organise our own independent trip up Mount Kinabalu we decided to just head to the Park HQ which is at 1700m and try and organise it there. The Lonely Planet had filled us with hope that we could just rock up, chose a guide, buy a permit and off we go. It certainly wasn’t that easy but we managed it.

Unfortunately Stu was still complaining of feeling ill, although the squits had long since passed. But we hoped that a few days of healthy mountain air and clean living would sort it out.

So with much moaning about the weight of our luggage,(which was obviously my fault for taking too many clothes and nothing to do with the wetsuits or extra leashes and fins we were lugging as well!) we headed off to get the local bus.
En route, we came across a minivan of locals that was heading that way who wanted to fill the remaining empty seats with tourists to make some cash. The deal sounded good enough and it meant we didn’t have to walk any further with our packs. Of course it didn’t seem such a good idea when we saw how cramped the thing was. I couldn’t even fit my foot into the area my legs were supposed to go, let alone the rest of me, and it was worse for the knobbly giraffe. Still, they squeezed us in and luggage and boxes. It was a painful 2 hours, the driving was fast and erratic, and the tropical rain came down hard, the further into the mountain we headed the worse the visibility became with heavy mist and cloud. I get sea sick when snorkelling, so the journey was not the best, but I held it together, or in should I say.

We were staying at the Rose Cabin about 2km from HQ. It was nice enough, and better than staying in the expensive lodges in HQ. It was a little dated, and smelt a bit musty, but very roomy and we had a balcony that looked straight out to the peak. Of course we couldn’t see the peak or anything further than 2m ahead as we were in the clouds. Lucky really because if I had seen it on the first day, I wouldn’t have tried to climb it! We had hot water (the first in a while) and satellite TV. The constant cloud cover made everything very damp, whether it was in the room or rucksack or out on the balcony. The gas water heater was as old as the décor, but it was cosy and comfortable. We needed to acclimatise to the altitude and the drop in temp, we had come from 30 deg + to 12-15deg.

Stu was finally feeling well again. We decided to explore the area, and walk up to HQ. There was literally nothing around, nowhere else to go or to eat. Stray dogs would follow us whenever we would take the walk to the park and wait for us outside until we came out. After a chat at the reception area we were still none the wiser of how to get a permission to climb.
We persisted, phoned a few agents and managed to get a permit through a company called Via Ferrata. This is a European based venture that provides alternative mountain climbing. We had to book our own guide, climb the mountain, and on the descent we were to try mountain climbing. For that we got accommodation at the Via Ferrata hut - the Pendant, rather than Laban Rata where all the tours get to stay. It was booked for the following week. We met a rep to confirm the details and we were finally going to do it.

Unfortunately the weather never really cleared so still the enormity of the task ahead never really hit. We ate all our meals in the Rose Cabin. The girls who ran it were lovely and friendly although not overly helpful. The menu was varied but unfortunately the flavours weren’t. We spent the next 3-4 days walking trails around the park. Each varied in length and height and difficulty. I was aching after a 6km continuous uphill slippery forest trail, round trip of 14km; little did I know that was nothing. We were entertained at the cabin by the wildlife huge insects and birds, and the pet psychotic wailing cat that literally meowed constantly.

The day before the climb the weather cleared. Oh my word. The summit was huge. I was nervous when we finally set out. We met up with our guide at around 7.30. We were assigned Iggy initially; unfortunately Iggy had no teeth and couldn’t speak English. After a few harsh words from Stu and threats to take our money back we were assigned Billy. Billy was about 4ft 5in with gastrocnemius as wide as he was tall. He was the perfect guide, he only spoke when spoken to, and let us set the pace.

The trail is continuously uphill as you would expect, and stretches only 8km, but reaches 4100m. The surface is variable, some gravel or mud paths, through to uneven steps fashioned from bits of tree, to clay rocks, to giant boulders. The first few kms are in tropical rainforest, then it turns to waist high brush, finally to just granite rock. There are rest stations every 1-2km. Mountain water is provided and safe to drink.

It took us 4 hours to reach Laban Rata at 3200m - ish, which is apparently quite good time for amateurs. The skies were clear and sunny and the views amazing. Every step was hard. My legs were heavy and I had to will myself to keep going, a few pushes and drags from Stu helped. It was much harder than I thought it would be, but that made it all the more satisfying to reach the top. I was shattered when I arrived at Laban Rata. The clear skies were now dulled and the rain drizzled down. We were well above the clouds. After lunch we had ‘orientation’, a little lesson on how to use the climbing gear. My mind was firmly on the task ahead of reaching the summit…..or not, I would worry about the climbing bit later.

After dinner at the lodge we slept in our dorm in the Pendant hut - which we had to ourselves luckily. At 2am in the dark, with torches and warm clothes we headed for the summit. We were ahead of the tour groups luckily, a string of torch lights from mainly Japanese groups followed behind. If the first day was hard, this was harder. The surface was now much steeper and more slippery. We had to use ropes to pull ourselves up. I was feeling the effects of the altitude. I felt heavy and nauseous. Stu seemed to be ok. We kept a constant pace and with a bit of encouragement from Billy we finally climbed up the last boulders to the summit. What a sense of relief and achievement. It was so exhilarating. It was only 5.30am. Plenty of time to sit and watch the sunrise. It was really very cold, but we were happy. The skies were clear and when the sun came up, it was possible to see the whole of Borneo laid out before us. We sat right on Lows Peak, overlooking a gully that dropped down thousands of feet.

Then it was time to climb down. At the Sayat Sayat check point (the last rest stop before the summit) we were met by William, our Via Ferrata guide. He made us a quick cuppa instant tea! And we were strapped up and ready to climb. I didn’t think I had it in me to hold myself up. But I soon forgot about the aches and pains when I realised how much fun it was. We both really enjoyed Via Ferrata and would definitely recommend it to anyone. After the climbing we met up with Billy again (he had gone on ahead) at Laban Rata for the descent.
The climb down was almost as hard as the climb up. It took 3 hours of continuous downhill stepping. Stu struggled with this bit more than going up. I still think I prefer the descent. By the end we were both incapable of walking on flat ground and both looked and felt as though we needed bilateral hip and knee replacements.

We caught a bus back to the Cabin, we deserved it. That night we ate a huge meal, it makes you extra hungry you know. We had promised ourselves a well deserved beer - but we were too tired to drink it. The next morning I couldn’t stand for longer than 10sec and certainly couldn’t bend my knees. It was at least a week before I could walk up or down steps without it hurting.

It is difficult to describe how wonderful this experience was. I know I have said how hard it was, but never once did we want to stop or not think it was worth every ache that it brought. We did it without any preparation or training. A little bit of exercise leading up to it would have helped, but it was still achievable. I hope the photos in some way show how amazing it was.

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Photos

Mountain Style
Even at 4100m this pair looks good. This is taken not long after reaching the summit. My weird expression is due to altitude sickness and relief.

Rocks and Stuff
Arty, just like Morph. Actually it is sayat sayat from above

Monkey Rock.
Or Marco Rock as we called it, look hard the little welsh trojan is in there.

Via Ferrata
Me and william doing his thing

Comments

[Welshy]

Wow!
That is one amazing mountain. Just my sort of place. The photos probably don't do it justice but it looks awesome and well worth the effort. I'm with Stuey, descents are waaaay harder than ascents! Hope you both are cool xx

[laetitiaaroundtheworld]

Waouh!
Great blog! Looking at doing the 2D1N + via ferrata too :) and even more motivated now that I read your blog! Which path did you do, low circuit? Cheers