Mount Kinabalu: Day 2

Day 2, a lot of noise outside my room, people were getting up at 1.30am. I hadn’t managed to sleep properly, so just started to rearrange my bag as I could leave the bigger part in my room for the final section as we return here for breakfast in a few hours time so was blessed with a lighter load for the final period.

At 2.30 I left with nearly everyone else, some of the faster people from yesterday (Egawa included) were to leave at 3am instead. It was certainly different climbing up in such a large group, maybe 50-60 of us altogether meant any delay was met with a tail back, I was quite grateful for this though, as it gave short frequent stops and the initial steps were steep.

A large rocky section was next but again very steep so slowed a few people down, including myself a bit. After 50minutes of climbing (at 3:20am) Egawa passed me and Lucy stayed behind me, yep; it took him a mere 20minutes to do what everyone else had done in 50minutes. I also noticed he was wearing a mountain rescue suit too, so yes very much done this before.

I had layered up my clothes and one of the few there without a big jacket (one of my initial travelling plans was not to take a jacket) and pleased to say I didn’t feel the cold at all. Lucy did lend me a spare pair of gloves though, and a torch.

We then came across the rock face, it was the end of climbing just using large steps and rocks and time to grab a rope to shift the whole body up.

A bit more of this and we passed 7.0km and 7.5km, so was getting there, but slowly, the altitude and early start was starting to get to me and I became dizzy. To make matters worse I knew I had to get to the top for 6am to see the sunrise, After getting to the final section I noticed the sky light up, it wasn’t even 6am so I missed the sunrise unfortunately.

The ground then levelled out and the last section before the peak could be walked, it was still steep and uphill though, but at least there was no steps. Lucy informed me I was out of time, 6.30am is actually a limit they don’t tell you that you have then you have to turn around to make breakfast at the café. I’m not sure how I would have reacted if she told me that earlier, more effort or give up? She said to try make 8.5km as an achievement anyway, so I humbly accepted and pressed on.

As it turns out 8.5km is right at the bottom of the last peak anyway, I saw no reason why I couldn’t do it. I saw Egawa at the point after he came down from the top. Completely worn out he saw me and said I had to do it. He also insisted he came up with me. I decided to go for it. Lucy went in front for a bit. I’m not sure why but she seems to go at the perfect speed for climbing, following her I felt it was fast enough to make progress but not so fast that I wear out quickly, I think this was one of the major reasons why I ended up slow as I tried to do it too fast and wore myself out, meaning I had to take breaks and ending up behind of where I’d be if I just went at a slower pace to begin with.

After a certain point though the peak was in view, the ending was bigger rocks that had to be climbed over (rather then walked) it felt like proper climbing this section, whereas the rest of the moutain is just a hard walk. Egawa followed behind, 15-10-5minutes he said as we progressed up. Finally I had made it.

I was not the last to make it either. I must say I didn’t feel much excitement, pleasure or happiness, just relief I made it, wanted to take a picture and get back down again. The view wasn’t even as good as I expected it to be, I can’t say it took my breath away honestly.
With that we headed on down to meet back up with Lucy who was taking a rest at the bottom. She congratulated me on doing it, Egawa kindly gave me a bottle of sprite too, but it ended up making me feel a bit dehydrated. I got a picture with Lucy but unfortunately not Egawa, she is standing on a big rock here to make herself seem taller:

Now time for the descent, which is a different experience altogether. Rather then power and stamina to get up, the descent requires agility and skill to get down. It is very hard not to run it because of the incline. I ran a bit at first and unfortunately tripped landing on the sprite bottle Egawa gave me and ripping my trousers. So a lesson to be learnt here then.

After resting for a bit Egawa came over (he had previously stopped to talk to others, everyone seemed to want to call him strong for climbing the peak twice!) and decided to put a bandana around my head. It says Japan but wearing it is something a kamikazi person would do, which I think is why he gave it to me, for running down and making the peak in my first attempt.

Egawa then ran off for the toilet and I never got to see him again unfortunately. Not someone I will be forgetting though. I admired the view in the daylight and made my descent down the roped area and down for breakfast. You can see in the picture just how steep it is, the slope seems to just drop off these pictures.

After getting back to the hut I had breakfast, got my stuff together and left as quickly as I could. Lucy was nowhere to be seen so I just went down on my own to start with but she caught up eventually. It almost took me as long as it did to get back up, the walking stick is essential as it helps spread weight so on the steeper steps there isn’t so much of a shock to the knees, there still is a shock though so it’s good for only so far. At one point the clouds I was walking through seemed like they were raining, my bag got a little wet but I didn’t, visibility was reduced but not bad enough for me not to see.

I got blisters on both sides of both feet so it was quite painful to get down as well, although I put plasters over them at the hut during breakfast that didn’t help much after the first 2 km.
At the bottom and I collapsed pleased that I made it, it was 5.30pm, I had missed the last bus (4pm) to Kota Kinabalu and also missed the lunch that came as part of the deal. Luckily I managed to negociate the dinner instead, but wasn’t allowed the BBQ section (from what I gather the only difference between lunch and dinner as well as the price). Whilst the receptionist said I could stay over (and thus get a cheaper bus in the morning). I had already booked accomodation so had to get a taxi instead at 150RM it was 10x more expensive then the bus I got yesterday, as a bonus I managed to get a bit of sleep in the taxi and he was much quicker then a bus, almost killing us in a head on collision overtaking 3 cars and a truck uphill on double white lines. ‘Dangerous huh? haha’ the taxi driver said. I was too worn out to care.

Tagged as: Borneo, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Travel