Mt. Kinabalu

What, or who, is this mountain?
In 1991, two climbers from Sarawak went missing and were never found again.

In 1994, eighteen British soldiers spent a month lost in the thick jungle.

In August 2001, two British teenagers missed a turning on the granite slope and got lost as the weather conditions detriorated rapidly. Most unfortunately, the 16-year old girl was found dead six days later.

This was the mountain we wanted to climb -- the highest peak of Southeast Asia at 4095.2km -- Mt. Kinabalu.

The local Dusuns treat the mountain with the deepest respect. Every year, seven white cockerels and seven eggs are offered to appease the mountain spirits at Panar Laban, which means "place of sacrifice" in Dusun language. While foreigners like me see a large, imposing nine million year-old granite mountain formed by the movement of the earth and grows at an average of 1cm every two years, Dusuns see the spirits of the mountain.

Even the British-Malaysia team that made the first full descent into the insurmountable Low's Gully in 1998 conceded that it was not so much that they had "conquered" Low's Gully as the mountain "allowing them passage". The team admited that their historic feat would have been impossible without the coincidence of an El Nino which kept conditions dry enough for the descent.

Who is this mountain? This is her Dusun name: Kinabalu -- the "revered place of the dead".

Mt Kinabalu, taken from a suspension bridge by the road

The route to the Park Headquarters
The trip from Kota Kinabalu to the foot of Mt Kinabalu took us about two and a half hours. It is a long and winding route and we had a driver whose idea of avoiding motion sickness is to put your seat down, close your eyes and relax. My idea of avoiding motion sickness is to NOT weave in and out of winding streets and NOT accelerate and brake like a maniac, duh. We passed by a large overturned trailer by the side of the winding road, glass shattered everywhere; it had been going too fast.

If you are not car sick, thank God, the view on the route between Kota Kinabalu and the Park Headquarters is quite something. At one point, I think near Kampung Kelawat, the mountain rises dramatically as you round a corner. The sheer size of the mountain can give an otherwise normal city girl megalophobia, the fear of very large objects. We are going to climb that?!?

We stopped at Pekan Nabalu where our driver got his kopi while we snuck out to get the picture below. Shifting cultivation covers most of the hills here.

Clothes hanging out to dry with the peak of Mt Kinabalu behind

From here on, the weather gets cooler and the mountain peeks in and out of view as you go along. We caught sight of the impressive long trailing waterfall of the Kadamaian -- it looked like a large gash on the side of the mountain. The water on Mt. Kinabalu is freezing, as I would find out later...

Got to the Park Headquarters at 9am and stood around with the other climbers, anxious to start this adventure.

The Climb to Panar Laban
One of my favourite bits of this route is watching the vegetation change. It starts out looking like a tropical rainforest with a thick canopy, and as you climb higher, it gets sparser until you are surrounded by gnarled looking trees. Below are the variation by altitude:

Lowland dipterocarp forest	Rich with fruit trees such as rambutan, durian, and figs.
Lower montane oak-chestnut forest	Above 1,200m, conifers and oaks become more dominant. Oaks and chestnuts are important food for squirrels.
Upper montane forest	Above 2,200m, trees are thickly cloaked and shawled with mosses and liverworts dripping with moisture. Abundant orchids.
Sub-alpine zone	About 3,300m, the trees are gnarled and stunted, forming a shrub community with conifers and rhododendrons dominant.
Nothing zone	Above 3,700m, fierce winds and torrential rains make it impossible for plants to survive. A few bonsai-looking shrubs exist in sheltered places.

This part of the climb is remarkably enjoyable, with breath-taking views both of the peak as well as the valley below at various points of the climb. We stopped at Layang-Layang for a sandwich, chicken wing and boiled egg lunch. The last bit with the granite stones is steeper and more tiring, it gets colder too, especially if it starts drizzling, and it is a relief to see the Laban Rata resthouse finally in front of you.

The picture on the left is of a pitcher plant (Nepenthes), a carnivorous plant that traps, drowns and eats unwitting insects.

View from Laban Rata

The view from Panar Laban steals your breath away. The locals were playing sepak takraw on the ledge against a backdrop of sunset and clouds, undescrible! Literally, it is the same view as from an airplane, only that you were outside with the clouds.

Sepak takraw in heaven?

The mountain that steals your sleep
I couldn't sleep a wink. Nada. I had a headache, felt like I couldn't breathe, couldn't get comfortable, and lay there with my eyes closed and my mind running a mile a minute. I was actually grateful when I heard the first people getting up at the unbelievable time of 1:45am 'cos I was sick of trying to fall asleep. What an ominous start to a long day..

The *cough cough* race to the summit
We were up at 2am for a slice of bread with jam and a hot cup of coffee. I wore practically everything I brought -- one sleevelesss top, one t-shirt, one long-sleeve sweater, one windbreaker and one lined track pants. Met our guide at the breakfast hall and left at 2:30am.

I was a bit worried about climbing in the dark but after a while I realised that it was really just a matter of going one step at a time, and not worrying too much about what you cannot see. A bit like life I guess. ;P

The climb up is steeper than the day before. About one-third way, S got nauseous because of the altitude and took some maxolone. The nausea was worse when we stopped for a break. At one point, because of the dark and the thin air, I found it somewhat hard to breathe, but I think that was more like a mini-panic attack and it went away once I stopped thinking about it. :)

Our torches died twice enroute. In the end, we climbed by the light of the moon. Thank God it was a half-moon night! Because we couldn't see very well, I stepped into a large puddle of icy-cold water. Brr! I yelled at S not to step into it, but the next thing I knew, in her foot went as well. It is amazing how quickly you stop feeling your toes.

I will always remember looking back and seeing the little moving points of light behind us (like The Lord of the Rings!), and the little lights from the villages far below. Without the lights, the landscape is desolate and makes a person despair.

We reached the summit at 5:55am, 5 minutes before the sunrise. We were tired, cold, and wet, but the view was awesome.

On top of the world!

Sunrise from the top

Back down again



The trip down killed me. I have one tip: bring a walking stick. We didn't have one and by the time we got half way down, we needed all the help we could get. Our legs would suddenly buckle and we would laugh -- our legs were that far gone. I thought I would never get out of that god-forsaken mountain! Altogether, we took nine hours up and six and a half hours down, but the journey down feels so much worse.

It was made worse by the rain which made everything slippery. I think I slipped at least five times. One Japanese tourist slipped and fractured her leg and so had to be rescued. How awful!

Back in Singapore
Cannot walk, cannot stand, cannot walk down stairs, feverish, nausea, no appetite, but so worth it! :)