Mt Kinabalu

Kota Belud, Malaysia

Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia on the island of Borneo in South East Asia is an awesome mountain towering over the surrounding jungles at a height of 4,095m. It sits within the Kinabalu National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and is home to a myriad of botanical and biological species covering a number of distinct eco-regions from the lower semi-tropical jungle up to alpine environment close to the summit. To climb Mount Kinabalu there are two trails you can take; either the Timpohon Trail from the main park Head Quarters or the Mesilau Trail which is somewhat longer at 8km. The Timpohon Trail which runs from the Kinabalu Park Head Quarters up to Laban Rata resthouse is 6km long, which doesn’t sound long but the gradients are steep (from 1,564m at park HQ to 3,272m at Laban Rata) and the terrain extremely rough and rocky making it a tough climb in around 5 hours or more. Laban Rata is the main accommodation hut on Mount Kinabalu at a height of 3,272m and is the usual overnight stop used by climbers prior to doing the final ascent to the Low’s Peak summit. There are a number of private rooms but the bulk of the accommodation comprises 6-man dormitory bunk rooms. A restaurant offers breakfast, dinner and supper. From Laban Rata resthouse to the summit of Low’s peak, the highest point of Mount Kinabalu, is a steep trail of 2.7km rising a total height of 823m. Leaving Laban Rata at 2:30am in the morning, after a few hours of rest in a 6-man dormitory, the first portion of the final summit trail consisted of hundreds of steep steps rising up through the last of the vegetation. Moving up using just the small beam from your headlight and trying to suck in the thin air as you struggled with the gradients is a tough experience. We were lucky that it was a full moon which illuminated the whole mountain creating a surreal experience. Soon we reached a steep granite rock slope where we then had to use ropes to assist us climbing up till we reached the final rest hut, Sayat Sayat, at 3,668m. From here to the summit was a steady steep slope over the large granite slabs of rock. I struggled with this last section as by now altitude sickness was causing me to gasp for breath and required frequent stops to regain my breath and get the heart rate down. Just after dawn at 5:50am I completed the last steep scramble up the rocky peak and reached the summit for a magnificent view over the other mountain peaks of Kinabalu and down to the coastline of north Borneo where we could see the lights of Kota Kinabalu and the sea. As you sit on the summit you see the other peaks of the mountain including, Alexandra Peak, St John’s Peak, South Peak, Donkey Ears Peak, Ugly Sister Peak, King Edward Peak and Tunku Abdul Rahman Peak. Just to one side of the summit is the heart wrenching sheer drop down Low’s Gully which is an 1,800m deep gorge on the north side of the mountain, one of the least explored and most inhospitable places on earth.