Mount Kinabalu!

We got up early in the AM at took a 7am taxi to Kinabalu National Park. Courtney was feeling better and we were psyched to get our legs moving and to conquer the mountain! During the 2-hour trip we got some great views of the mountain from the road.

After we arrive at the park HQ, we got registered and assigned a guide. Julius, our guide was such an incredible guy and very knowledgeable about the mountain and Borneo in general. He briefed us on the route and after a transfer to Timpohon Gate, we took off on the trail! 

The weather held off for a bit and we had a nice sunny and pretty hike up for the first 4 km. Julius told us all about the mountain and pointed out some cool flora and fauna including the famous pitcher plant!

  

It was at about 2,700m (almost 8,800 ft.) when I started feeling the altitude and the air thinning. It was a pretty strange feeling, like there just wasn’t quite enough air to fill my lungs. So it took some adjusting… Nevertheless, the relentless uphill and the pounding headache started slowing me down and making me doubt why the hell I was doing this. Plus the instant onset of hard rain did not help. After lunch at 4km at Layang Layang Hut, we pushed on through the rain through the last intense and steep 2 km. We arrived at Laban Rata Resthouse exhausted and drenched!  The positive from the rain was that there were some beautiful waterfalls down the side of the mountain. 

We arrived at the resthouse at about 3:30pm after around 5.5 hours of hiking. At 4:30pm we had dinner and I was fighting hard against a headache. We immediately went to sleep so that we would be rested for the 2:30am start for the summit. Little did I know AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) was setting in, and I spent the night with a throbbing head, chest pain and a hard time breathing. Super fun and no sleep! Thank goodness I was not alone, one of our roommates was going through the same thing. Misery loves company!

 We woke up at 2am and had a quick breakfast and headed for the summit at about 2:45am.

After about 1km Courtney pushed ahead and the Julius hung back with me as I slowly made my way up the trail. My symptoms were not easing up but I was determined to make it to the top. Despite the physical and mental battle with myself, I still fully appreciated the beautiful clear night sky and amazing stars as we were hiking, and the beautiful sunrise plus incredible views after the sun had risen.

So after about 3.5 hours, 2.7 kilometers, 900 meter elevation gain, lots of rests and throwing up, Julius and I hit the summit just after sunrise.

Proof that at 6:20am, Julius and I arrived at Low’s Peak, the 4,032m summit of Mt. Kinabalu!

It was freezing and I was beyond done so we took some pictures and headed down. We booked it and made it to Laban Rata Rest house just 15min after Courtney. I hit the bed for 30 min and after some persuasion from Court, we continued back down to the Park HQ. It was a very wet and exhausting walk down, consisting of A LOT of rain, sore legs and an amazing fall down some wet, slippery stairs for Courtney that resulted in a black bruise the size of a melon on her butt. We were literally walking down the trail and stairs like old women… must have been a pretty sight. We arrived back at Timpohon Gate and caught a shuttle back to HQ.

All in all, it was an amazing experience.  It pushed me both physically and mentally, and allowed me to see an amazing part of the world. It was such an incredible mountain. The rocky slab landscape of the summit made you feel like you were on another planet… so cool! Still, it felt good to be done. Here is our “we’re finished!” photo with our incredible and short guide Julius! Not only was the mountain amazing, so was our guide. He was very knowledgeable, patient and kind. He put up with all our obnoxious questions and was so supportive.

We spent the next few hours peeling off wet clothes, drying off, packing and enjoying our complementary buffet lunch.  Once we were dry, fed, and packed, it was off to our next adventure!