Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo

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To me the word Borneo has always held an elusive quality. In my mind as a child growing up it was where nature flourished and wildlife ran free. Thoughts of Borneo and the sounds of David Attenborough came streaming into consciousness, describing the call of a bird, the play of monkeys or the attack of a crocodile. I had come to the island for one purpose, to climb Mount Kinabalu, 4,095m of rock towering into the skies at the north-western end of the island. But having made it this far across the planet I was going to make sure to stay a while longer and experience some of Attenborough’s Borneo for myself before returning to Singapore and beginning the final leg of my journey south that would bring me to Australia in time for Christmas.

MOUNT KINABALU.

I had a 40th for my 30th! Well kind of. It was finally time for me to admit to the world that I wasn't as young as I looked and where better to do it from, than the top of the 40th highest mountain in the world. At least there I was sure that few people would hear me! I was not fit. Too much beer along the way or something like that seemed to be the biggest culprit. And unfortunately for me, Zaid who was climbing me, was and is almost always like a jack in the box that has just been electrocuted! He has energy coming out his ears and being so psyched for the 2 day climb it was now more evident than ever. This bearing heavily on my mind it was agreed before ever a foot was set on the mountain that we would go at our pace for the first day and that we would meet each other at the overnight camp which was an estimated 4 hours away. Well 4 hours for the averagely fit, I was counting on a little longer, Zaid on a little shorter! It was just over 6km distance and brought us to an altitude of about 3200m. We arrived at the park headquarters just before 8am and were soon assigned a guide and within minutes were on the 10 minute bus journey through the park to the foot of the mountain and to the official start of the climb. I was carrying close on 10 kilos of weight on my backpack. God only knows why but I had packed as if I were doing a 10 week expedition of Everest. Stopping only for a moment to take the 'before' photo while we were still looking healthy and fit, we were soon off and within 20 minutes...what am I saying, within 2 minutes I was dying. From the very start it was uphill and uphill steep. There was no easing into this climb. And Zaid was like the greyhound out of the traps that I had expected. In all fairness he did try his very best for the first 15 minutes to keep himself paced to me but he just could not hold his energies and soon all I could see was his shadow disappearing into the distance up in front of me. I found the initial part of the climb extremely tough. I think it was a mixture of the heat (which was not that bad to be fair because we were already well up into the hills and away from the humidity of the coast), the steepness and the sheer shock on the lungs. My muscles and my bones were not a problem, it was that I could just not get any breath. My lungs were finding it tough and this was only the beginning, what was it going to be like on day two when we were climbing in higher altitude and in thinner air? But I was determined and I had not come all this way to give up on the second bend. I had known beforehand that the climb was all about stamina and not mountaineering ability. Most of the climb was non technical and its greatest challenge was its unrelenting steepness. Two days of up and up and more up with little or no levelling out along the way. Our guide had agreed to let us at our paces and to follow us up behind so over the space of the first 40 minutes, while Zaid had bulleted off ahead I slowed right down and begun to find my pace. And after an hour I had regained the full use of my lungs and was making ground steadily. As the morning progressed I began meeting Zaid at more regular intervals as his faster pace began to take its toll and he was finding himself taking longer breaks. Buy 10.30am we were back walking together constantly and after climbing over two-thirds of the days climb unknownst to ourselves. We had begun to meet people passing us down in dribs and drabs. Some with faces wide with delight at what they had achieved, others with faces wide with pain at what the climb had done to their feet. But they all were still in good spirits and congratulating us on making it so far so early. And not only that but to be the first up that far also. We were impressed with ourselves so we took a well earned rest for some breakfast and a refill of water before continuing on the final 2km to the camp for night one. When we got to the camp, we were indeed the first up and had done it in well under the four hours, about 3.5 as far as i can remember....and all without a guide too because we had left him trailing a few km behind us. I was absolutely delighted with myself and slowly beginning to think that I was not that unfit after all. And young Zaid paid the ultimate compliment by saying that for a guy my age I was surprisingly quick! Oh the young folk of today!!! We were so early in fact that we could not even have a shower and get our bed. We had to wait well over an hour so we set out on the balcony and looked at one of the most beautiful views you are ever likely to see while having a well earned coffee. Soon however the rain started and we had to head in. We were both exhausted by the climb and our thoughts were going out to everyone else that were still on the way up. After we had finally got a shower we made our way back to the communal area for the evening where we got chatting to the four other people that were around the table. The evening flew by and before long it was 8...yes 8pm and we were the only ones left up, which wasn't surprising really as we had a 2am rise to continue the climb to the summit. Once everyone had witnessed the glorious sunset over the shores of Borneo they had went off to get some rest for themselves....which we decided was not a bad idea.

Fast forward a few hours and we were up and off again. This time in pitch darkness only for the torch strapped around my forehead. And it was great. The steepness suddenly didn't seem to matter anymore. It was all like a big adventure this morning. It had got steeper and the ground underfoot had turned into almost polished rock. Before long we were using ropes to pull ourselves up along some of the steeper sections. It was glorious. We could look up ahead of us and in the darkness see the parade of torches of fellow climbers lighting our way as if a candle vigil were making its way up the mountain before us. As we had been first to arrive the night before the guides had kept us back so were among the last to start the final assent up. But as the morning progressed we found ourselves passing more and more people out as more and more were finding the high altitude completely exhausting and some had to even return because of the sickness and cold. It was funny..all the Asian climbers were cloaked up as if they were just about to conquer Everest...and I was so warm that I had stripped back down to a T-Shirt. Again Zaid had disappeared off ahead of me, this time not to be caught up as I really had to take a slow pace as the air was so thin I found it harder and harder to get a deep breath of air. Seconds over two hours later and I had finally made it. After taking it steady I had left most people behind me once more and was climbing the final assent by myself. And it was such a great buzz. Every inch of me could feel that i was over 4km above the ground. As I sumitted there were less than 10 people already on top, Zaid of course being one of them, although he gasped that I was less than 5 minutes behind him although we hadn't seen each other in over an hour and a half. Again some comments on not being that slow for my age were made and that it could only have been me coming up as no one else would have dared burst into "Hey there Delilah" and "Oh I do like to be beside the seaside" on top of a 4,100m mountain.....at 5am in the morning!

It was still 50 minutes to Sunrise and I had begun to really feel the cold so all the spare clothes were layered on and the bitter cold wait begun. Eventually it got so cold that I had to even put on the shiny red balaclava that I had bought for such an occasion. When the jibes began to come about the Irish man in a balaclava from the English guy we had sat with the evening before I simply turned and informed him that it was casual Friday in the IRA.

Sunrise was beautiful. But it was as short as that sentence. In the 50 minutes waiting for it, we had got so cold that we could bear to stay on top no longer. The obligatory photographs were taken as the sun broke through and it was an immediate off back down the mountain passing by the people still trying to make it to the top. My heart felt for them. That was all that could feel at that stage. Blood had completely disappeared from my toes and fingers and for the 15 minutes after leaving the top I had to get my hands slapped to try and kick start the flow of blood back into them. And oh my good God, I am not joking you, I have never felt pain like the pain of blood recirculation back into my hands. Tears were in my eyes....tears were on my cheeks....It was like a Chinese torture. It was almost unbearable. But it was worth it. The Sunrise, the climb, the people we had met, the sense of achievement, all combined to make this one of the highlights of my trip to date and a memory I hope to cherish for many years to come.

We got back to base camp about 7.30am where we had some breakfast before setting off back down the track we had climbed only the day before. And it took almost as long to go down. Where as the climb up was steep and unrelenting on the lungs...the climb down proved unrelenting on the muscles and the bones. It took a long and arduious 3 hours to get back down. When we eventually did we were beat. It had proved an amazing two days but it had definitley tested me, although not to the limits that i had been expecting. We finished off by having some lunch with the guys we had met the previous evening before heading back to Kota Kinabalu (the city) and rewarding ourselves with....you guessed it, a bucket of cool refreshing beer!

....fast forward to the morning after...."Feeling Great"
....fast forward to the morning after that...."Feeling not so great...my muscles hurt a bit"
....fast forward to the morning after that again...."Oh my God! Feeling S*ite. Cannot move...and I am staying in a room 3 flights of stairs up...torture, If they are going to hurt that much...just saw them off!!!"

This pattern continued for another 2 days until I had finally drank it out of me...actually turned 30 and felt I was old enough to go off the beaten track and head into the jungles of Borneo.

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This is just a side note to anybody that is thinking about climbing Mount Kinabalu and has stumbled onto this page in the hope of finding out some information and words of encouragement....there are none...turn back now!!! ........wait wait, just joking! The best bit of advice I can give really is to take it easy and you will get there. For example I got to the first nights camp in about 3.5 hours, some people took twice that length. It didn't matter...we were both eating at the same table at the end of the day. Day two’s climb is much more technical than the first days but that been said, anyone can do it. Vertigo may be the only concern for some people. There are impressive drops along this section of the walk..none of which you can see on the climb up in the dark. And bring lots of layers and gloves and hats. You may look ridiculous at the bottom but they are a lifesaver at the top while waiting for the sun to rise. And finally...don't under estimate the climb back down. It will be a breeze on the lungs but you will notice it on the legs. But even that said, all in all it was a lot easier for me, who I consider only averagely fit, than I had made myself believe it would be. And if you are heading Borneo way and have thoughts in your mind of doing this, then do it! It may be relatively expensive for Borneo but in my mind, it was worth every penny!

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Photos

Mount Kinabalu
Thats not small....that's far away!

The Summit, Low's Peak
I made it!!!

Mount Kinabalu
This is the mountains own shadow as the sun rose!

Descending through the rainforest
...literally walking back down through the clouds

Mount KInabalu
Ropey business climbing this mountain!!

Comments

[James Bonsall]

Easier than Croagh Patrick?
Oh come on Aidan you wimp - you didn't even do the Stations of the Cross on your way up! Go back and do it properly! Very impressed mate, you should be really proud of yourself.