Conquered Mt. Kinabalu: The Journey – Day 2

The journey up Mount Kinabalu continues on Day 2…

Day 2

• 2 AM : Depart from Laban Rata for the remaining 2km up to the peak of Mount Kinabalu
• The temparature is now about 6 degress, and the surroundings is dark but still slightly visible thanks to the full moon. We’ll need to gear up in warm winter clothings, beanie, gloves, and a torch (headlamp) to light our way up from here on (some snacks and water too)



• It’s another series of steep stairs for the early part of this trail (about 500m). Many climbers would basically be queuing up the steps and the exhaustion from yesterday’s climb will start to take its toll for some
• Next comes the exciting part of the entire climb, the beginning of our “rock walk”. Climbing up along the edges of the mountain rocks with a white rope to lead us to the peak and to help pull ourselves up along certain steep path of the rocks, which is also perhaps the most dangerous part of the climb



• We’ll then arrive at the last rest hut – the Sayat-sayat checkpoint where we’ll have out permit checked before the final ascend up to the peak. The climb from here is just a long uphill slope up the rocks. It looks like we’re very near the top from here, yet it’s actually quite a distance from the peak. The tiredness and the thin air effects starts to have some impact on the climb up



• As we get closer to the peak, we’ll see a couple of other peaks along the way such as the Donkey Ears, St. John’s Peak and the South Peak



• I only manage to reach the Donkey Ears during sunrise (Approx. 5:30AM), but eventually made it up the highest point, Low’s Peak at about 7AM. The satisfaction of finally reaching the peak at 4095m and the sense of accomplishment… all the tiredness and pain seems to disappear for a moment



• After admiring the scenery around the peak, it’s time descent back to Laban Rata. The journey down is much easier to the muscles but the pain on my knee can slowly be felt. The stairs can be rather slippery and I almost slip at some part
• About an hour plus later, we’re back down at Laban Rata for a short rest, freshen up and have some breakfast before resuming the descent down
• It’s now all the way down to Kinabalu Park on the same 6km trail. Here’s where a walking stick can be helpful along some tricky parts of the descent and a helping aid to my sore knee. It took me about an hour to descent 1km on average
• Remember the easy downhill walk I mentioned during the ascent? The last 100m of the descent is now a climb up to the Timpohon Gate where we started our trail. After all the descend for the day, my legs felt like giving up on climbing up the steps. I basically limped my way with the walking stick
• Finally, we got back to Kinabalu Park and got our color certificate of accomplishment for having reached the peak of Mount Kinabalu. Due to the time we took to get down, we sort of had our belated lunch cum dinner at the Kinabalu Park’s cafe before departing back to Kota Kinabalu

While documenting my journey up Mt. Kinabalu, I’ve also found an interesting website [ClimbMtKinabalu.com] that’s worth checking out (I think it’s a better description of the journey than what I’ve wrote).

It’s an amazing journey up Mt. Kinabalu. I do certainly recommend anyone with the heart for adventure and nature to give it a go. Despite experiencing severe muscles ache to the extend where I’m basically limping around and going up/down stairs is a real pain for a week after the climb (thanks to my lack of regular exercise and physical preparation prior to the trip); the journey is worth it in my opinion, and I’m proud to say… I’ve conquered Mt. Kinabalu!!