Mt Kinabalu

11/02/2012 4:40 PM

Me one KM in

OK, so I'm going to try and write as much of this as possible, but I have been up since 2:00 AM with only about 2 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours, so please excuse my crudeness. So I walked to the bus station around 7:30 yesterday morning to catch a bus to Mt Kinabalu National Park. The bus left a little after 8 AM and I got to the park around 10. I got signed in and was assigned my guide: Nicolas. I had my own personal guide, it was nice. I believe they do it like this so as to avoid delays with more experienced hikers vs less experienced. Anyways, I`ll give some more info about him later. So we started out around 11 AM. There was no hurry. 

The first two kilometers of the trails are relatively easy, now that is not to say they were easy, but in comparison to the rest of the trail, they are the easiest. Nick had actually been assigned a tour prior to meeting up with me but they ended up turning back about 800 M up the trail, so he was reassigned to me.  Let me give you some statistics about this hike prior to going into detail. Mt Kinabalu is 4 095 M (13 435 ft) above sea level. The Timpohon Gate, where one starts their ascent is at 1 866 M (6 122 ft). So the elevations gain on this trail is 2 229 M (just under 7 000 ft). The trail is 8.7 KM long making for an elevation gain of 256.2 M per Kilometre. This is one hell of a climb.

First shelter

So like I said we headed off around 11 AM and got to Laban Rata just before 4 PM. This is no easy climb. It is essentially a giant 6 km long staircase. So the climb in essentially separated into two parts. Below Laban rata, where one is in the rainforest and generally speaking drenched with either sweet or the perpetual rain caused by the micro-climate of the mountain itself. This is just stair after stair after stair. It is relentless climb. Nick was giving me some figures of the sort (how accurate they are I do not know, but considering he literally lives on the mountain, I assume they are pretty accurate): of all the people that attempt the climb 80% make it to Laban Rata and from that 80% who make it through the first day, only about 45% make it to the summit. So while these figures are not that drastic, it is definitely still something to think about. 

The Steps

So by KM 1.5 I'm soaking wet. It has been pouring rain since 9 AM, as it does every day, and the trail is turning into a river. By KM 3 I'm still in good spirits, however, I am beginning to feel the altitude. On forgets that at the peak of this your are over two miles above sea level and you really feel it. By KM 4 I'm exhausted every step is a struggle and all the while Nick is walking behind me, looking completely at ease, with not a bead of sweet on his face. All the while, he`s been smoking perpetually. He has been working as a mountain guide for two years now and was a porter prior to that. The porters are another thing in themselves. On their way up to Laban Rata they carry about 30 kg and on the way down between 50 and 60 kg of garbage. 

By KM 5 I'm dead; I realize that it will be easier to push on than it will be to turn around so I keep going determined to reach the resthouse. At this point everything is soaking wet, my boots, my bag (aside from the clothes and book I fortunately wrapped in plastic), and the trail has turned into a flooded river. The altitude is kicking in and for the last kilometre I am stopping every 30 M to catch my breath. This is also the kilometre with the most elevation gain. So all factors together, it was hell.

I finally reached the resthouse! What a freaking relief! I check into my room and meet my roommates for the evening who are four swizz backpackers. This is the 5^th summit for one of them. All in all they are not that interesting so I head downstairs for an early dinner. The food is great here. It is a buffet with about 30 different dishes with everything from Western food to Malay classics... all this at 3 272 M above sea level. It is quite the place. 

Laban Rata

So I ended up getting in bed around 7 PM hoping to be asleep by about 8 PM, this did not end up working out. I don’t know if it was the altitude or what but all in all I ended up sleeping maybe 2 hours altogether. 

So 2 AM wake up and breakfast before the summit. This was both on hell of an experience and completely brutal at the same time. From Laban Rata it is a 2.7 KM push to the top. This climb, however, is not like the climb up to the resthouse. The first 500 M is relatively similar, but once you get above the tree-line everything changes. I am happy to have done this in the dark simply for the fact that coming down, you realize how high up in the clouds you are and that if you fall, you are probably going to roll pretty far down the hill. Now, the summit and the elevation prior to it is a scene that is just unbelievable. Its just bare rock all around you; and I'm not talking about something the size of the summit of Mt Washington, this place is huge. Like dozens of football fields huge. It hard to describe, but I`ve got a lot of good pictures. 

Hiking Above the clouds

So we left Laban Rata at 3 AM, myself and my guide, however, there are a line of people walking up the mountain, in the pitch black. We were fortunate enough to have clear skies and a full moon, so the headlamps were almost unnecessary. It was spectacular. By 4 AM were are about 1.3 KM from the summit and this is where things get really, really hard. Now taking into account all factors, lack of sleep, huge hike the day before, no light, altitude, this was brutal but totally worth it. By this point we are totally exposed; there is nothing but rock and the winds and cold are beginning to hit. Its probably around 0 degrees celcius and i`ve got on all the clothing I have with me. Its cold! 

By 5:30 AM we reached the base of the actually outcropping that is the summit; a stone mound maybe 100 M tall. This was the hardest part of the climb. At this point I'm stoping every 5 or 6 steps to catch my breath. I'm`exhausted and the air is thin. This is not fun but I was determined to reach the summit!

Me on the summit

By 5:50 I was up and it is really cold up there. I took a few pictures and opted not to wait around for the sun to rise as I was loosing sensation in my fingers. By the time I reached the base up of the final summit the sun is beginning to rise and this is the most beautiful thing in the world. Watching the sunrise, from the tip of a giant mound completely above the clouds. It was priceless.

So we headed back down after some great photos and went for our second breakfast at the lodge. We reached it about 7:30. It was probably just as slow navigating down the giant rock faces as it was coming up. However, it wasn’t too bad. Breakfast was delicious as it was another buffet.

Climbing down from the summit

Nick and I left Laban Rata at 9:25 and headed for the base. The decent here was probably as hard if not harder than the ascent. Right now I literally cannot bend my knees while I walk. I have no strength in my legs whatsoever. Anyways, we reached the base around 11:45 and after another day of torrential rains I was soaking wet. Upon reaching the bottom we had lunch and I ended up meeting a couple people who I shared a taxi back to KK with; one girl who actually ended up being from Montreal and a guy from London. 

I'm not going to comment all that much on this hike other than saying it was probably the hardest and most demanding climb I have ever done, but totally worth it. I`ll sum it up like this; I am so glad I did it, but do not foresee doing it again... at least for a long while. Totally worth doing!

I'm going to go through my pictures and try to get this posted tonight. I'm dead exhausted and have to do a bunch of planning before arriving in Bali tomorrow.

All for now

PS. This post needs editting, just too tired to do it tonight.