Mount Kinabalu (Part Deux)

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So the story continues (with further reflection I'm trying to look at this whole think in a more positive light, but we'll see how I do ;)

For some reason the park advises people to start climbing this steep mountain at 230am, so you can see the sunrise with a billion others on top of this mountain.  Well, we logically thought - hey, why not leave at 4a - it's still an insane time to get up to climb a stupid mountain, but it will be less crowded.  The only flaw was breakfast.  It was supposed to go from 230-330a, but when we go downstairs at 3a all the breakfast is gone - well almost, there is a bit of cold eggs and toast left to keep our stamina going for this mountain.  sigh.

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The temp listed outside is around 15 degrees C, whatever that is - it's cold.  We put on our wet clothes.  I have 2 semi-wet shirts, a sweater, semi wet pajama pants and jeans, plus my handy scarf and raincoat.  Damion and I also put some  wet socks on our hands that actually work quite effectively as gloves for climbing the ropes that help you get to the top.  I'm afraid we all had to laugh a bit, especially with the sock puppets on our hands.  This is so ridiculous.

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Well, again we start climbing.  Marie takes the lead since she has a flashlight, Damion and I stumble after her, and Richard as usual takes up the back and sometimes points out the way with his flashlight when we start going the wrong direction.  As we get closer to the top there is not much vegetation, just slabs of rock with an occasional tuff of green.  When the sun finally does rise we have a nice view of it from the side of this mountain.  For a few minutes I feel a little less cynical about this whole thing, but then we began to climb again.  It is also quite scary as you hold onto the ropes, hoping you don't slip off the side of this crazy mountain.  I wonder how many people have died climbing this mountain?  I decide not to ask Richard.  Anyway, I take a ton of pictures, since let's face it - I'm not going up another one of these things for quite some time.

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And we made it.  Standing 3,095m up is a cool feeling (mentally and physically) and I got some more pics.  We all split a package of oreos as a victory celebration, breakfast of champions.  After an all to brief time up there, as we are all freezing cold, we head back down -  just another 9 km to go ...

Poor Marie is wearing Converse shoes with barely any treads, which makes it tricky going down the path.  With all the rain it has become a mud slope.  She falls twice getting covered in mud.  We slowly make our way down trying to avoid falling.  This is how we spend the next 5 hours.  As Marie and I walk the last half km (Damion is already far ahead) we look over and see the bare butt and back of a naked asian dude.  He's bathing in a waterfall a couple of meters off the path.  Whatever.  Somehow this seems a fitting way to end our journey.  And, we finally reach the bottom of this stupid mountain.  We still have one more fee to pay - to get a certificate showing our accomplishment.  Hobbling we go and retrieve it from the main park office, then hobble to the bus stop for a 2 hour ride back to KK.  And that ends the mountain adventure.