Climbing a mountain is definitely one of the things I've gotta do in my life.
Where else to start but somewhere close-by which houses one of the
highest mountain (5th) in the whole of South East Asia : Mount Kinabalu.
Mount Kinabalu is located in the East Malaysian state of Sabah and stands at a height of 4,095m (13,435ft) above sea level.
Getting to Kota Kinabalu and doing this climb wasn't exactly very cheap
either (~$1k SGD), contrary to popular belief that everything is
half-priced in Malaysia. Nevertheless, it was worth it!
Trip was arranged for me by
http://www.adventure-quests.com
People from this company are very professional. They are meticulous in
the preparations for all their customers. They always hold conditioning
and training sessions for their clients every fortnight at Bukit Timah
Hill.
On top of that, they organise briefings prior to your trip, informing
you of all the necessary precautions, conditioning and admin matters
that you have to attend to before letting you embark on your trip.
As long as the physical condition of your body is well maintained, all
you gotta do is bring a whole load of heart and will power and you'll
definitely make it to the top!
The Climb
Timpohon Gate
The starting point of the climb. Armed with a fully packed bag, camera, 2x 1.5litre bottles and a packed lunch.
Personally I'm not really into the idea of hiring porters as it will
really make the whole experience meaningless. If your gonna scale the
mountain, you do it with your own bare hands, not get 'carried' (pun
intended) by others. A guide is necessary though.
The trail resembled something you'd see from Bukit Timah Hill, just that
there were so many freaking steps. It's like your literally doing
thousands of weighted lunges, good for the legs but your quads will
start aching after a while. That's for sure.
On top of that, my shoe's were SAF PT Shoes (cause I've got no money for
proper hiking shoes ): ), so every time I stepped on a rock at the
wrong angle, I can feel it piercing into my feet. GOTTA SUCK IT UP!~
Me and my bro left our cousin behind at times,
but at least the guide's with her.
As we got close to the base camp, there were steep ascents (and more
rocky steps) which really made us quite shack. We were panting even at
walking speeds.
At this point of time, we're within the clouds. Vision becomes blurry
and hazy, however it still feels pretty bad ass though to plow through
the fog like a boss.
Eventually we got to Pendant Hut, our base camp for the night.
Pendant Hut
The place was cold, but still cozy as we bunked in with several other climbers in a dorm-like sorta place.
Rest-Area
Dinner was a nice-buffet spread at the adjacent Laban Rata building. It
was really nice to finally get to replenish all those carbs that we've
burnt.
Took in a few astonishing views as well!
Standing above clouds!
Retired into a cold night to get some sleep before making the climb to the peak.
Base Camp to Summit
Armed in 3-layer's worth of clothing and a torchlight, we left the base camp at around 1am the following day. This part of the climb was the toughest part yet.
It was pitch-black all around. If it were not for torch lights,
you probably couldn't even see the person in front of you. The air is
also getting thinner due to being in higher altitudes.
That's not all, the way up was STEEP as FUCK. After a seemingly endless
flight of stairs, you had to hold ropes and pull yourself up incline
portions of the mountains or risk rolling down and dying. It pretty much
became a dangerous trek.
Me and my bro took more frequent breaks as well. Every time we did so, I'd
look up in the sky and see hundreds of stars and even the milky way! Our spirits were lifted instantly!
The final portion of the climb was the toughest of all imo. There were
no longer safety ropes for you to grab onto, the rocks were also more
'raw' in the sense of it no longer being a 'path'. It's just stacks of
rocks piled up together and you start climbing on all fours in darkness.
Thinking back, it's scary, cause if you slipped, your gonna roll down on
a lot of mis-aligned rocks which is definitely not gonna be nice. (I
even had a few close calls!)
NEVERTHELESS, PERSEVERANCE > ALL. WE MADE IT TO THE SUMMIT!
Low's Peak (Mt Kinabalu Summit)
Reached at 445am, and my did it feel good! It was FUCKING cold though.
Even under all the stacks of clothing I had, my body was literally
shivering non-stop.
Had to sit around till 6am to catch the sunrise, which was regrettably
blocked by clouds, but no matter, the effect's still nice. :)
Sunrise
Can't really stay at the summit (where the sign is) for too long as there's a queue of people trying to flock into that small space to get photos/touch the sign.
Low's Peak
As per what I have indicated in the picture, that is the highest point of the mountain that trekkers can get to.
Hanged around the base of the summit area and spammed loads of photos.
Random peak adjacent to us
Bagus ah!
Apparently, I've searched online and many people have taken countless photos of this peak. Guess I now know why, it's stunning!
I like the effect of how the sunlight has shaded this rock in pure golden light-rays of goodness!
The tour guide told us that there was this rock with a face like King-Kong, how can we possibly miss it?
Mountain-water reflection w/ 'King Kong'
Shadows w/ 'King Kong'
Just Chillin' :D
Had to hurry back to the previous checkpoint to prepare for our 'via Ferreta' route down the mountain.
'via Ferreta' is also known as 'Iron Road' in Italian. Basically it is a series of
rungs, rails and cables
embracing the rock face which a climber has to use to move around the mountain.
There
are more than 300 via Ferrata
routes available around the world and
Mount Kinabalu hosts the highest one. Basically we had to manoeuvre down
400m of steep inclined rocks from 3800m to 3400m and cross crevices
with just ropes.
Credits to our lovely trainer for taking the photographs. =D
After the Ferreta, we headed to and checked out from Pendant Hut.
Had to hike all the way
back down to Timpohon Gate. (Yes, the exact same way we came up from)
Going down actually takes less effort, but it can be quite dangerous at
times. I slipped quite a lot (didn't have proper hiking shoes), but
nothing serious happened. My toe-nails felt like they were broken from
all the landings onto the rocks. It also felt like there were blisters
at the ball of my feet and that the skin had torn off under my sock.
After a whole lot of trekking downwards, with the encouragement given to
us from passer-bys which I thought was really damn nice, we finally
made it back to Timpohon Gate where it all started.
WE HAVE COMPLETED THE CLIMB! YES!!!!!!!
FINISHED! Look at all our SHACK faces.
The feeling of accomplishment you get from such a feat can never be
bought with money. There's so much satisfaction you get from it, it
fills you up with happiness. :D
Back at our hotel, we feasted like kings at several of the nearby stalls, which had really good and cheap food!
Got our well-deserved rest after.
Cert - Achievement Unlocked! :P
My advise to all potential climbers is that if you can afford it, please
try to get proper hiking equipment (which I did not lol). It will
really make your life so much easier. A proper hiking backpack with the
waist attachments, torchlights that can be strapped to your head, hiking
shoes and even a walking stick.
If you're out of shape, please train up, especially your cardio and leg strength. You will thank yourself for doing so.
Last of all, enjoy every moment of it and never ever give up!
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