Summits & Sunrises

dawn on summit
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We took a MAS Wings flight out of Mulu National Park back to Miri, that afternoon we left Sarawak on another Airasia flight and headed for Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

After having no internet/phone for about a week, we left it a little late to book the accommodation for climbing Mount Kinabalu and had to fast track our plans to start climbing the next day due to availability. We took a taxi and minivan to Kinabalu National Park Headquarters where we were staying for the first night; the park couldn’t find our reservation we had made that morning. Lucky for us they still had accommodation and we saved about 75 pounds on food because our initial reservation had to include all meals? We had an early night in a 4 berth dorm room to start the climb to Laban Rata the next morning.

sunrays
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After a buffet breakfast, which we also managed to get lunch out of too, we met our guide Wilfred at the headquarters. We were bused to the starting point at Timpohon Gate where we started the 6km trail. Easy at first the climb got harder due to the steepness and the altitude, after every 1.5km we were taking short breaks at the rest stops, Wilfred didn’t even break sweat. There is a race every year to the summit 4095m and back down again, the record is 2hrs 39 minutes! Wilfred our guide had done it in 3. It normally takes between 3 and 6 hrs to get to Laban Rata, it took us 4, and we made it just before the heavens opened. We sat in the restaurant the rest of the afternoon watching the clouds and other climbers reach the top, it took one group of young women 9hrs, one of them was so tired she couldn’t even keep her eyes open.

lows peak
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After dinner we went to our dorm another 50m up hill at Gunting Lagadan where at 2.30 am the next morning we would start for the summit in time for sunrise. Wilfred was waiting for us outside and after a hot chocolate and snickers we started to climb. The first km was tough going steep steps and slippery rocks to negotiate. The next 1km was roped where you have to pull yourself up the steep granite rock, at 4am in the morning you start to question why on earth you are doing this. The granite rock flattens out at around 7.5k where you can see the summit, a triangular mound of rock that looks enormous in the dark. Gail got to the bottom of the rocks sat down to get out of the cold wind, where she wanted to stay until I came back down. After a 15 minute rest we carried on up the ropes to the summit, it was so cold we had our picture taken and started to descend quickly.

made it
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It all became worth while when the sun started to rise shooting out fiery red rays into the sky, the wind died down and started to feel warmer. We descended down to Laban Rata taking numerous photos on the way. After breakfast we set out on the 6km downhill back to the bottom, it was hard going on the knees and thighs and by the time we reached the start point three hours later, our legs had jellified, it was the toughest 2 day trek we had done.