Climbing Mount Kinabalu

After a few days lounging around Kota Kinabalu (in Borneo), we decided to climb the nearby Mount Kinabalu. With a peak at 4095m (about 12,300ft) this is the highest mountain in South East Asia, and all the more impressive since it stands on its own and is not surrounded by other tall peaks. This was sure to guarantee a great view from the top!

Conor’s cousin, Thomas, had climbed it a few months before (and proposed to his fiancé at the top!) and had told us it was well worth doing. Getting one of the limited permits to actually climb the mountain proved to be a bit of an ordeal.....it would have helped if Thomas had warned us that it needed to be booked well in advance.... but thankfully due to a very last minute cancellation we got it at the last moment (literally 10 minutes before we set off to climb).

Well, getting a permit was hard, but climbing the mountain was much harder than we were expecting. We had already climbed two fairly deep Canyons on this trip so far (Grand Canyon in USA and Colca Canyon in Peru) so we considered ourselves relatively seasoned at such hikes, but Helen and JP had never actually climbed a mountain before so picking this one as their first surely was some challenge. Nevertheless, none of us were prepared for just how tough it was going to be. It was very steep and the conditions changed drastically during the climb (it was tropical heat at the bottom, thunderstorms in the middle, and almost freezing at the top) and the thinning air as we got higher didn’t help the breathing!

Day 1 involved a 6km hike up to the overnight resthouse about 2/3rds up. This was not too bad and we managed to do it in 5 hours. We were rewarded by a great sunset and then a lightning storm in the clouds down in the valley beneath us. Day 2 began at 2.30am (yes in the middle of the night) and we made the 3km hike up to the summit. The idea of the early start is such that you reach the top in time for sunrise. Sounds great but climbing in the dark is not something you ordinarily do and it didn’t help that all of our head-torches failed along the way (only giving out a minimal glow). The later stage of the hike involved pulling ourselves up very steep sections of rock with a rope! Anyway, you’ll be glad to hear that we did all make it up to the top and the sunrise was really spectacular, as was the view of the surrounding area, which gradually revealed itself as the morning got brighter.

The 9km hike down to the bottom afterwards was the real killer. The next day we were all walking around like 80-year-olds with our sore muscles but it was well worth the pain....we’re just not sure why!