Mt. Kinabalu
Trip Start
Sep 18, 2007
1
79
98
Trip End
Ongoing
Laban Rata Resthouse,
Malaysia
Monday, May 26, 2008
The next day (that night really), we started to climb to the summit shortly after 3a.m., after maybe 1 or 2 hours sleep. Definately a bit of "altitude insomnia" due to Laban Rata being at 3270m above sea level. The thinner air makes it a little harder to breath even at this altitude, especially when you've just come from sea level.
Shortly after we left Laban Rata, we left all vegetation behind too. It was just rock for the last 700m. The trail is marked with a rope from there. You have to use the rope on alot of the steep sections to stop from falling over, and over, and over, as you tend to do when you fall on steep parts of mountains. Other than a line of head torches, the moon and stars, the only other light that could be seen were flashes of lightning jumping between the clouds below us, which was pretty cool.
So, we managed the 2230m climb from Timpohon Gate (1870m) to the summit of Mt. Kinabalu (4100m) for 5.40a.m.. Sunrise was at around 6a.m.. That meant all the clouds below us started to change from a moonlit dark blue to different shades of red and orange. It was too cloudy to see the sun rise above the horizon or to see everything below the clouds. But it's not uncommon for people to be told it's too dangerous to go to the summit due to bad weather, so we'll settle for that.
After breakfast back at Laban Rata, it was back down to the finishing line at Timpohon Gate.
Low's Peak (4100m): The summit of Borneo...woohooo
The clouds we were looking at earlier going "wow, look at that lightning" dropped water on us the whole way down the mountain. We finished soaking wet with legs like jelly. We got the public bus back from the park which took about 2hrs, so it was well overdue by the time we got a hot shower and dry clothes.Now, going up and down Mt. Kinabalu for the likes of the porters and guides is a whole different experience. The porters (men, women and kids, literally), carry peoples baggage up and down for them. We were too tight to pay a porter by the way, so we carried our own gear. Most porters are employed to carry supplies weighing up to 40kg (6.3 stone) up to Laban Rata. This is everything required to keep the Resthouse operating. Huge gas bottles for cooking, bags of rice and god only knows what else. They are tiny people in general, and it's amazing to see them climb up and run down without breaking a sweat.
Our guide, Safreys, takes part in the Mt. Kinabalu climbathon each year. He finished in 3rd place back in 2006, I think he said, and 4th place last year which put him just outside of the prize money. In total it took us over 6hrs climbing, with nearly a 12 hr break in the middle, to get to the top. It takes them around 2 hrs 40 mins to get up and down in total. That's 1hr 50 mins to the top and a break neck (as well as every other bone) speed to make it down in about 50mins. The starting line for the race is on the road well before where we started. It's just crazy.
