Mount Kinabalu III - Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Third Day

After I was deemed to be complaining too much on the water heater, I began to suspect the front desk is having a revenge on me. Now, the heater in our room for some how outdone itself. Our room was in a state of oven cooker. It was so hot that I had to switch it off. I looked the time. 2AM. It was time to get ready.

Thick jacket - Checked
Beanie - Checked
Headlight – Checked
Analgesic Cream – Checked
Carbohydrate-rich energy bars – Checked
Gloves – Checked

Money – Checked (In case you need to pay porter to carry you up or down)

Yet once again, with no good warm up, we ascended the fleets of staircase with huge gasp. With the air getting thinner, most of the packs stop more frequent to catch some breather. Puah as usual dashed to the front. Walking along the wooden staircase was one of the toughest moments as you feel like it is never going to end. I began to ask myself:

“Why am I so stupid to put myself into such suffering?”

The thought of giving up was there. Luckily, I climbed in one group. If I climbed alone with no encouragement, you will easily raise the white flag. I looked at the face of Han Ching. She didn’t say anything. I told myself since she’s not yet given up then I might as well not too. I guessed at that moment she was thinking the same. When no one was willing to utter the words, it forced us to continue. Then, our guide came to us and struck us with bad news. Jay was no longer able to continue the climb. The pain on his knee was unbearable. He needed to make a U-turn. Looking ahead, we continued with one of our soldiers down. Soon, we reached the dreaded rope climbing part. Some claimed this is the toughest of the whole climb.

Surprisingly, not to be arrogant, this was the easiest part of the whole journey for me. It can be seen very dangerous at certain locations. This is a fact I must admit. One wrong grip of the rope and you probably land yourself back to Laban Rata. However, when you have the ability to use the upper part of your torso to ease the burden of your lower limb, I found it less tiring. At this stage, we didn’t see anyone at our back apart from Derek and Ren Hooi. We were sure that they are many people behind us. Most of them had already given up I guessed.

At this stage we were as if praying. 10 steps one kneel. 5 steps one bow. The altitude was getting higher thus the oxygen level was getting thinner and thinner. I told Han Ching not to bother by the sunrise view. Our primary target now is to reach the peak. The last part of the hike was all rocky terrain. From far we saw a long trail of head light marching towards the peak. We stopped by to consume our energy fluid. Taste bad. I closed my eyes and immersed myself in the sound of silence. I felt very peaceful inside out. We gazed at the dark sky. It was so captivating.

Soon, we reached at Sayat Sayat gate to register our name. I asked the staff there how many people are behind us. I glanced at the name list as he flipped through. From rough estimation, there are half of the names that were not struck out. We continue our journey. Ren Hooi managed to catch us. She told us that Derek was at the back. He was suffering from altitude sickness and asked her to move on instead. From six of us, two down and one had already on his way to the peak. Three to go. We began to see people getting down. Most of them with faces showing sign of relief. Then, we saw Puah. He told us he’s been waiting at the peak for quite a while. It was very cold for him considering he’s wearing normal jacket. The sun has already risen and the fact that we were above the cloud; we could feel the warmth from the direct sun light.

The last few meters were really exciting. There were less people there. Most of them had left quite a while ago. A last few push and then……..

We were at the peak of Low’s Peak. 4095.2m above sea level. We felt like champion. We had conquered Mount Kinabalu!! From early on, we were worried whether we could reach here. All the doubters have been cleared. We had proven without proper preparation we too can reach the top of the mountain. We looked around. It felt like we had conquered the world. With no one waiting for us down there, we had the luxury of posing and even sitting with the signboard. We even had our light breakfast there. We found blessing in disguise for coming up late. We need not to bother others. The peak belongs to us. After months of preparation for this trip, it had finally gone down the wire. Sheer joy and excitement. All the pain had became our gain.

After half an hour spent there, we began to go down. It was another tough road. For the first time, we began to exert stress on our knees. Our guide was not amused by the fact that we were wasting too much time forcing our way up. We ignored his instruction to forgo the climb to the peak if we exceeded 6.30AM. Initially, we don’t care but having to get back in time to catch our breakfast, I began to see his rationale.

Walking down from the peak was a real agony to my feet. I understood why descending is tougher than ascending. A mixture of hot sun and sudden strong gust of wind was causing headache on me. This was not help by the fact I had finished my water. With the guide not helping out, I had to stop and rest constantly. However, with encouragement from Han Ching, I soldiered on. Ren Hooi had gone down with Derek who was waiting for her at Sayat Sayat gate. Derek just missed out the peak. He was a few hundred meters before the altitude sickness really got hold of him. Eventually, we reached the Laban Rata rest house.

The same mountain behind your RM1 note

Our insistence to climb the peak after the time limit had set the bar on us. We had no time for breakfast or rest. By noon, we were off from Laban Rata. After taking 2 Ponstans, my headache subsided. Our concern was now on Jay. His knee took a worse from bad. Puah was kind enough to offer his help to carry Jay’s luggage. Within seconds, the “Speedy Gonzalez” blazed down the trail. Puah can apply part-time porter here. He is so tough even the guide was shocked with his endurance and speed. I suggested to Jay to be stretchered down. The long journey down will aggravate his knee again. The guide suggested that we reached at least half way down before resorting such action. In the end, Jay was carried down by the guide too. Funny though, they were even faster than us when he started to carry him 2KM behind us. Luck was not on our sides; rain ensued and hampered our progress. Putting on my newly bought Bossini water proof-don’t-play-play jacket from Hong Kong, we braced the tropical rain.

With wet and slippery surfaces, we had to take every step carefully. Going down Timpohon trail, I was right to ascend via Mesilau. The view at Timpohon trail was nothing than ordinary jungle. The trail is made of giant steps. Going up or down along this trail can have your leg’s muscles strained to the maximum. Just imagine the force it exerted on your toes when you are going down. Puah’s shoes were torn and pebbles got stuck between his toe’s nail. Gross. As I said earlier, the decision to go against the order of our guide really affected our descent. It was 6PM and the jungle is getting darker. We were worried as our headlights were with our guide cum porter. We saw the sign board showing 1KM. I thought 1KM of going up was difficult but it was the same case going down too. The last 1 KM was like it never going to end. We received a call from Jay. He had reached. Our guide was heading back to get us. We could hear Derek was grimacing in pain. Still, the fear of walking in dark spurred us to walk faster. Soon, we met our guide. Within 5 minutes we were on our last staircase to the exit gate. We saw light. It felt like the scene of a UFO aircraft. A last few huff and puff, we were there. We were out from the jungle and into civilisation.