mt kinabalu

I have a night of broken sleep. Not only is it noisy, but apparently sleeping at altitude is difficult anyway. I am awake when Aldrin’s alarm goes off at 2am and Laban Rata is already abuzz with excited climbers.

A coffee and a small bowl of cereal is all I can stomach at this early hour and we make our final preparations for the summit. We set off at 3am and it is cold and dark outside, but thankfully, not raining. There is a steady stream of people heading up to the summit despite the early hour. Everyone has the same idea as we do to see the sunrise at the summit of Low’s Peak.

The Low’s Peak summit is 2.8km away from Laban Rata and 8.7km from Timpohon Gate where we started yesterday. the climb starts off with a series of steep man-made steps, interspersed with rocky sections. The sections become more rock and less steps as we near the rock face. Because it is still dark out, we see by the light of headlamps. A trail of lights (and James) show us the way.

The Panar Laban rock face is traversed by hanging onto ropes cabled to the side of the cliff. We don’t realise it, but the other side from the rope is an almost straight sheer drop off the cliff. Darkness obscures this fact though so we don’t even know it until the climb back down. Shuffling along the mountain and pulling myself up the side of the mountain was SO much fun. There were frequent stops at people either tried to work out how to get up the mountain or froze in terror at the ridiculous predicament they had found themselves in.

As I snaked up the mountain, everything got even steeper and the low oxygen environment had me breathing hard and audibly. Just after the 7km mark is the check point where we have to show our passes. If you forget your pass, you will be asked to turn back.

The terrain becomes more even, but is still very steep. I find myself having to stop frequently after what only seems like a few shuffling steps to catch my breathe. The low oxygen environment means everyone is doing the same thing as me though.

I pass several people who appear to be succombing to altitude sickness and feel sorry for a girl I pass who is violently throwing up. Unfortunately, the only cure for her will be to go down to a lower altitude.

By this point, I can see the summit, but it is deceptive as it is still over a kilometre away. After what feels like an age, I finally spot the 8km sign post.

Mt Kinabalu by moonlight

It is slow going up the mountain, but I finally arrive at the base of the summit as the sky is beginning to lighten up. The climb up to the summit is tricky but I finally scramble along and pull myself up to reach the top. I find myself a rock and sit down with a huge sigh. It is 6am.

The view from Low’s Peak at the Summit of Mt Kinabalu

The view around me is spectacular. The sky is tinged with orange and the morning is clear and calm. Perfect conditions. It has been two days of pain, cursing, rain and exhaustion but the view is breath-taking and absolutely worth it.

Now that the sky has lightened up, I am able to finally take in the scenary around me. Rolling clouds, gorgeous hillside and jungle below is a stunning sight.

I grab a quick photo with the summit sign and watch the sunrise. There is not much room at the top with a few hundred people all vying for room.

I did it!

At 6:30am, I set off back down the mountain to head back to Laban Rata with Ronnie, Dave and Veronika. Going down was definitely hard on the knees and quite a few people freaked out about having to get down from the summit. That said, going down was a lot more fun than going up.

Veronika going down the mountain

In certain sections, I was able to basically abseil down the cliff (thank you thick gloves!) and those sections were by far my favourite part of the climb. Wheeeeeeeee!

Up to the summit

Now that it was light, it was also a good chance to finally stop and take in the surroundings we had climbed up in.

Mt Kinabalu

Sarah catches up with us in the last section and Team Alpha were re-united and once again crossed the line as the first group at 8:45am.

Exhausted, I tuck into a second breakfast and treat myself to another cup of hot Milo. We find out that a member of our group had succombed to altitude sickness with about 1km to go and had to turn back. Luckily, I seem to have dodged that bullet, feeling no ill effects other than those from the physical exertion and sore muscles.

The respite is short-lived as we’ve still got 6km of mountain to climb down. Team Alpha decided to leave at 9:30am to beat the inevitable afternoon rain. Soppingu is surprised we are leaving so soon, but points us in the right direction and tells us “look after each other…. no jumping!”.

Pitcher plant

Although it isn’t raining, the rocks are still slick with water from the previous night’s rain and dew. Going down is tough as we try to find the balance between getting down off the mountain and not falling on one’s ass – which I admittedly did a couple of times. Suffice to say, it’s probably not the most graceful someone has looked coming down off the mountain.

Porter

There are far fewer people coming up the mountain than the previous day, but I do take time to stop and wish walkers heading up the hill good luck. I can be smug knowing that I have gone to the summit and know what pain they have in store tomorrow. SUCKERS!

The walk down wreaks havoc on the legs and knees. Reaching mile markers and huts become small victories as we slowly count down the distance remaining. When we finally (FINALLY!) see Carson Falls we let out a cheer, only to turn the corner and see the steps we have to go UP to reach the gate. We take a breather and tackle the last set of stairs. We all end up crawling to the top of the stairs and collapse. The time is 1:45pm and we have beaten the rain. Huzzah!

I ask a fellow finisher (I can tell he finished recently because he was drenched in sweat and looked knackered) to take a group photo of Team Alpha with the finishing sign. I offer to return the favour by taking his picture and he replies in broken English “this face now… not good for photos”. Gold.

Showing the guard our passes, we officially check out off the mountain.

Because we made such good time, our transport back to the park headquarters hasn’t even arrived yet. Tired and hungry we wrangle a taxi to take us to a restaurant across the road from the headquarters. We crave and subsequently destroy a plate of french fries each before walking (shuffling) back across the road to the park headquarters and waiting at the designated meeting point.

We find Barry and Ronny at the meeting point and catch up with them. As the afternoon rolls on, we can see the mist settling in and soon it is steadily raining. I feel bad for the walkers still coming down the mountain and am relieved our motley crew beat the rain.

It is 5pm by the time the last of our group stumbles in, soaked from the rain. We bid farewell to our guides before jumping on a bus and taking the 40 minute ride to our accommodation at Poring Hot Springs.

A quick shower and dinner are the first priority but everyone crashes soon after. Understandable as we have been up since 2am.

Borneo Travel Diary

It’s a 6am wake-up because today is the big day, we start climbing Mt Kinabalu! With our packs ready, we departed from our hostel and headed to breakfast to fuel up for the day ahead. We are issued with our park passes which have our group ID number and our names on them.

We meet our mountain guides: James, Edwin and Soppingu who will be looking after us over the next couple of days.

Mt Kinabalu

It is a bright sunny day, with no hint of the rain from the previous night. I sigh with relief, but know that this may be short-lived as it usually rains in the afternoon, if the previous few days are anything to go by.

After breakfast, the bus drives our group from the Kinabalu Park Headquarters to Timpohon Gate, the official starting point of the Mt Kinabalu climb. It is a total of 6km to Laban Rata where we will spend the night before attempting the summit the next morning.

6km. Pssh. How hard can that be?

Let’s go!

After checking in with our passes, the offical hike starts… by going DOWNHILL. What? We pass a small pond and Carson Falls and the track quickly increases in steepness. There are some makeshift ‘steps’ that have been created at intervals, but also a lot of stepping up rocks and carefully finding your footing.

Just under 1km we reach the first hut stop where we stop to catch our breaths. I’m thankful I brought my water bladder along in my backpack which meant I never had to take my pack off to take a sip of water. In hindsight, I felt a very false sense of security thinking I was already 1/6th of the way to our rest stop for the night at Laban Rata.

The huts provide shelter from the elements as well as some information about the elevation, distance to/from the next huts and the local flora and fauna. Moutain Rats scurry about looking for opportune scraps of food.

Mountain rats

There are also bins and toilets at the huts. Having warmed up a fair bit, I remove a few layers and immediately feel better.

Over the course of kilometres 2, 3 and 4 we stop in at more huts along the way which are spaced out at random intervals ranging from just over 400m to almost 1km apart. They became a very welcome rest point and marking sign posts along the way gave me a mental boost to keep going.

Mt Kinabalu scenery

Throughout the day, I am passed by porters going in both directions. I am struggling with my 6kg pack but these guys are carrying supplies to and from Laban Rata with what seems like superhuman strength. The huge weights they have on their backs leaves me in awe as they nimbly bounce along the rocky paths. I never once saw a single porter stumble or falter, which is more than I can say for myself.

Mountain porters

By this stage, I am definitely feeling very weary. The terrain has become increasingly more steep and difficult with some parts requiring me to pull myself up onto the next step. My walking pole becomes my saviour, helping me push up to the next piece of rock.

The air has become cooler as I climb higher and higher. Walking through mist and clouds was very cool to see and gave the jungle an eery, but beautiful feel.

.. and then the rain started.

We stop at a hut to refuel with lunch and take refuge under the huts. It starts lightly at first but then quickly becomes a steady stream. You cool down very quickly once you stop walking, so after eating lunch, the appropriate rain covers for myself and my bag were donned and I was ready to set off again.

If I thought the first 4 kilometres were tough, these next 2 kilometres completely kicked my ass. The gradient has inclined significantly, the terrain becomes extremely rocky and there is no longer the shade of the jungle. The exposure means that there is no barrier from the rain and the rocks are slippery and akin to walking uphill, through a river.

Dave, Veronika, Sarah and I formed Team Alpha. Being slightly faster walkers, we found ourselves at the front of the pack. It was great to be walking with such cool people and I feel like having them there definitely helped me to mentally push myself to keep going.

When I finally see Laban Rata, my heart jumps with joy. Walking through the doors of the rest house, I sit down and my legs feel a surge of relief. We all set off at 9:15am and arrived at Laban Rata around 2:20pm so the hike has taken just over 5 hours which is apparently a very good time – not that we were setting out to make any records, but it was an extra sense of accomplishment for Team Alpha.

View from Laban Rata

We locate our dorm rooms (12 to a room) and kick off out boots. My feet luckily remained dry and I am pleased that I don’t have any blisters. Not particularly wanting to brave a chilling cold shower, I pat myself dry and put on some clean, dry clothes. It feels SO good to not be wet and cold. I have brought along a tennis ball and give myself a foot massage by rolling my feet over it. My dorm mates eye my actions curiously but all nod in approval when they try out my little trick and the tennis ball makes it’s rounds.

I order a big hot mug of Milo and it is the most glorious drink I’ve ever had. As Team Alpha recaps the day, other members of our group start to filter in. We greet everyone with applause and/or high fives. We’ve all earned it!

Weary walkers at Laban Rata

Laban Rata sits at 3272m above sea level and I am happy to report to date, I have not felt any kind of altitude sickness. Hopefully sleeping at this height will help even further with the acclimation process.

Sunset from Laban Rata

We all set into the buffet dinner with gusto as we recount the day and swap stories. I chat to Soppingu who has been climbing the mountain for 38 years. He started out as a porter when he was 10 years old and has been portering and guiding ever since. He has lost track of how many times he’s climbed Mt Kinabalu but knows it is “thousands of times”. Soppingu has 10 children and some of them have followed in his footsteps to become Mt Kinabalu porters. In 1997, Soppingu held the record for the fastest climb to the summit and back at just over 3 hours. His record has since been beaten, but I can’t even imagine how that’s humanly possible, given how I feel.

Aldrin gives us a briefing for the next day to prepare us and it’s an early night as we are going to wake up at 2am the next morning to attempt the final climb to the summit.

invadercee

Ramblings of a Melburnian

Day 5: Mount Kinabalu – Low’s Peak Summit

Borneo Travel Diary

Day 4: Mount Kinabalu – Laban Rata

Borneo Travel Diary