Mt. Kinabulu - an Epic Climb!
The four adventurers/sadists began our hike at 830 in the morning. The
first portion of the hike would be 6km, and we only had a deadline of 4:00pm, because we had to be at Pendant Hut (HQ of Mountain Torq) to do the Via Ferrata safety briefing. Pretty doable, even if you’re going slowly. The first few kilometers were pretty relaxing. A gradual incline with interspersed with boardwalks or stairs when the terrain was a bit steeper. The mountain side was a hundred different colors of green. I never knew moss could be so beautiful. We were also lucky to find a few pitcher plants along the way, a parasitic plant that drowns its prey.There were stations every ¾-1 kilometer for a quick rest, bathroom break, and potable water to refill our bottles. I was really grateful for the fresh water, so I didn’t have to fill my pack with 3 liters of water! You really drink a lot when you are in such a humid atmosphere.
The terrain became more uphill at the 5th kilometer, and we had to go up long staircases made of uneven boulders. I actually preferred this less organized route, as your mind is occupied on finding the best footing, and isn’t as ponderous as stair after stair. The 5th and 6th kilometers both took twice as long to finish as the rest. We were getting tired and the air was a bit thinner. The weather was holding out, but a heavy fog blanketed the view below us.
We arrived at Pendant Hut (our place for the night) at 2:00. Ate a snack of bread and butter and jam and then we did the safety briefing for our Via Ferrata. Basically, Via Ferrata means “high road” this was an extra cost – extra adventure choice you could do in addition to climbing the mountain. My friends and I chose the “Low’s Peak Summit,” which would involve being strapped into a harness and attached to a wire with safety cables and a rope, and then we would rappel our way across a granite face of rock! I paid really close to the instructions, trust me!
Dinner began at 5pm and it was a really nice buffet. There were at least 100 people climbing the mountain, but only 30 or so were doing the additional Via Ferrata. After dinner, I went straight to bed. It was getting a lot colder, so I put on all my warm clothes. Somehow I managed to pass out immediately, even though the others had a lot of trouble. I guess that sleeping bag was pretty comfortable!
We were woken up at 1:45am for a quick breakfast of toast and coffee. Our guide, Ren, was waiting for us, and we started up to the summit only our headlamps to light the way. We quickly passed all the slower hikers and made it to the last kilometer, which had a long white rope to guide the way and to act as a pulley when the rock face got too steep to do safely. I could tell the air was getting a lot thinner, because I just seemed to tire out so easily. Trudging up that granite plateau with only 3 feet visibility, and no end in sight, was pretty daunting. Add to the fact that every 50 feet we had to stop and get our breath back.
At last we reached the summit! There were perhaps 20 other hikers who’d made it before sunrise in addition to us. We found a rock to perch on and wait for the sunrise. We sat for around 30 minutes, but it was so foggy, we only saw a glimmer of pink for a minute before it was gone. Most of the hikers gave up on a nice sunset and started the descent. About 100ft from the summit, we stopped to talk to some Japanese hikers we’d met earlier, and I took a self-portrait of myself as a joke, because you literally couldn’t see anything behind me, just fog. Then I turned around and noticed there was sunlight shining on one of the summits behind me. “How pretty” I thought, and then everyone made a collective gasp. It was as if a giant hand had swept across the sky and sent a wind to remove the clouds from the sky. Everyone raced back to the peak, and what followed was one of the most glorious sunrises I have ever witnessed. I was standing on top of the world. The clouds swirled below me, dipping around the mountain peaks, and clinging to the rock crevices before moving on. The sun seemed to rise steadily, and every second was changing and equally spectacular. We watched for 10 minutes or so as the world opened up below us.
We had to move on, since we had a deadline to reach Low’s Peak by 7:30. It was startling to realize that, while in the dark, I had walked across a huge granite plateau, completely unaware of how immense it was, or how close to the edge I was! Slower hikers continued on their way to the top and I felt so sorry for them that they had missed out. Suckers!
Low’s Peak was only 30 minutes down the mountain, so we arrived around 7:00. We took a quick snack break and sat on the rock face, contemplating the clouds below us and making nervous jokes about what we were about to do! Fred, our Mountain Torq guide, got us all strapped in and before I knew it, we were starting. There was no bunny slope either – it was all go big or go home! Straight over the edge we went. The first few steps were okay, but then we had to turn around, lean back, and walk backwards over a sheer cliff. I admit it – I whimpered in fear, I nearly almost cried. But I just reminded myself that the first time I went diving (remember the shark tank in Korea?) I was petrified, and today I am a divemaster. So basically I told myself to suck it up. It worked!
I was too nervous to take my camera out, so Fred 
offered to carry it, and the proceeded to take almost 100 pictures of us! The motions were very repetitive – remove rope loop from metal swivel, replace on different side, unclamp one cable, place on other side of metal loop, repeat with 2nd cable. Over and over again. I began to get used to the motions and even felt comfortable to lean back and enjoy the view! Then came the surprises – first a swaying bridge over a crevice. Second, a lone metal cable wire over a crevice. And third, a sideways “monkey bar” contraption over, you guessed it, a crevice! My friend Karen actually cried on all three, haha, but I managed to keep it real, surprising myself.
After 2 and half hours, we reached the monkey jungle trek section – we were all slipping and sliding so much, I think it was more dangerous then the Via Ferrata! Then we had one more 1-hour segment to go. Oh yeah, that’s when it started to rain on us. The last 20 minutes, I was so tired mentally and physically that I was making stupid mistakes (getting tangled) and I was ready to finish!
The last test – Fred made us let go of our cables, lean back, and trust the harness. It took me minute or two to do, but I finally did it! Maybe the hardest part! We finished the course, my legs shaking from exertion, so happy and ready to have lunch at Pendant Hut, and then we remembered something…we still had 6k to go down the mountain! We’d already been going 10 hours straight! Oy.
We took a one hour lunch break, and then we started down. The floodgates opened and at least ¾ of the way was in the rain. At least we were going down, not up! We made it to the bottom in 3 hours – moving fast! Then we just looked at each other in sheer physical agony and absolute shock that we’d completed the mountain!
Definitely the most intense, the most adventurous thing I’ve ever done. Loved it!
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