Mt Kinabalu
Ascending Mt Kinabalu (4095m), the highest mountain of South East Asia, was for me an experience of a lifetime. I hesitated for a long time before I decided to do it. After all, we have plenty of mountains in Switzerland and California that I can climb anytime for a more reasonable price and without dealing with the usual Malaysian hassle. An additional attraction to Mt Kinabalu was that it also has good climbing and the highest via ferrata in the world. So in the end, I decided to just do it, and I did not regret it.
I started the ascent at 8.40am in the morning. I was assigned to a gay guide together with 6 Malay guys, some of them were quite visibly military fanatics. This should be an interesting group… The guide told me immediately that I would probably be faster than the Malay group and should just go ahead by myself. I was also told that the briefing for the climbers would be at 3pm and if I don’t make it up until then, I would not be able to go climbing. I don’t consider myself that fit, so naturally, I was a bit concerned about the timing. I was told the climb could take any time between 4 to 10 hours.
The ascent was indeed very painful, 6km uphill, but I advanced at a steady rate. To my greatest surprise, I already arrived at 12.45pm and ended up being the first one up at the Pendant Hut. Right after me came a group of Japanese researchers and then a German couple. I was really surprised to get there this quickly. Funnily, it earned me the title of “superwoman” among the guides. I was also particularly entertained to see the military fanatics trying to find all sorts of excuses as to why a woman and a skinny gay guide were so much faster than them.
Apart from the climbers briefing, I didn’t have anything else to do for the day, but I enjoyed hanging out at the Pendant hut and chatting with the other hikers. The weather changes very quickly at this altitude and is quite unpredictable. But whenever the sun came out, we went outside to explore this beautiful area. The view from this altitude was just incredible, almost surreal. It was really a moon-like landscape and I literally felt every cloud that was passing by.
I was glad to finally get dinner after the briefing. They had only given us 4 toasts and 2 eggs for lunch and by now I was totally starving. The dinner in the cafeteria was a huge and very tasty buffet. I really appreciated it. Not only because I was very hungry, but also because all day long I watched the porters carry up the gas containers and all the ingredients for cooking. I was told that each porter carries up to 50kg. If my hike was difficult, I really don’t want to imagine what theirs must have been like… Shortly after dinner, we all went to bed around 7pm, because we knew we had to be up at 2am again for the last bit of the ascent. Luckily, they provided really good sleeping bags for the night, because the temperature was close to freezing that night.
My guide ended up picking me up at 3am for the last 2km to the top. I went again very slowly and steadily to the top and arrived at 5.15am. The ascent at night was really stunning. It was a clear night, so I could see the city light of Kota Kinabalu far below, the black outline of the various peaks in that area, and a sky full of stars. I felt really fortunate to be able to experience this. I could only start to imagine what the landscape must look like during the day. I wish I could have taken pictures at night!
Because of the altitude, I moved a lot more slowly than the previous day, but somehow it also felt less exhausting. However, the hour I had to wait at the peak for sunrise was very painful. Of course I didn’t take my big winter jacket to my trip to South East Asia. So I used my usual strategy in this situation and just wore all the clothing I brought with me on top of each other. It would have been fine without the wind, but because of the wind all hikers were bundled together in clusters trying to keep each other warm. Every so often, we would take turns going up to the peak again and seeing how the sun was doing. Of course the peak was the most exposed to the wind and therefore also the coldest.
At 6.20am, when the sun was finally half way out, I decided I had seen enough and went back down. I just couldn’t bear the cold any longer. I was among the first people to go down which also ended up being very special because I had the whole area almost to myself. There is something really beautiful about doing sunrise ascents. Since you go up in the dark, you really don’t see anything at all. So it always seems magical when you finally come down again by daylight and discover the area that you ascended. The scenery was just unbelievably beautiful. Although I didn’t have my good camera with me (too heavy!), I still took lots of pictures on the way. I was really really lucky with the weather. The guides told me that the weather hadn’t been this nice for a very long time, which is why we could see all the way to Kota Kinabalu and the ocean.
Some way down from the peak, I started my climbing/via ferrata package. When booking the package, there were multiple options I could choose from. I took the one that would include the nicest climbs and views. Only four people booked this combination for that particular day, but for whatever reason the three other people backed out in the end and it was just me and the guide. I had a fantastic time! Most of the time, I was hanging on the edge of the cliff and enjoying the view.
Again, I was so lucky with the weather. The climbing was enjoyable because the views were just breathtaking, but not particularly challenging technically. This was probably a good thing, since I felt already pretty tired from the ascent.
By the time I got back to the Pendant hut, I was really exhausted, but the worst was yet to come: the remaining 6km downhill… As well as I did on the way up, I was really suffering on the way down. My knees were in such pain and at the end I had to advance very slowly. If it hadn’t been for the guide to set the pace and drag me along, it would have taken me many more hours to get down… Maybe not surprisingly, I was so tired that I totally fell asleep in the bus back to KK. Although my knees recovered pretty quickly, it didn’t take long until I felt terribly sore legs… I walked like an old lady for the next few days. Regardless, the ascent to Mt Kinabalu felt very special and it truly was a unique experience. I feel very fortunate to have been able to experience it, especially with such amazing weather conditions.
See more photos here.
