[Malaysia] Climbing Mt Kinabalu

So I climbed Mount Kinabalu some 2 weeks ago (and a mere week after getting Lasik on my eyes) and I must say it was much harder than I thought it would be. Y and I had been thinking about short getaways we could make that very weekend, and suddenly she blurted out (on a Tuesday, no less) that we should climb Mt Kinabalu. My response: "okay!" 

{This is Y, my roommate. Yes I share a room with her at work so no, we are not flatmates neither do we camp in the office 24/7. Not usually, at least.}

Mt Kinabalu is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in the East Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo. Borneo, in turn, is the third largest island in the world and its territory is split between Brunei, Indonesia (state of Kalimantan) and Malaysia (states of Sabah and Sarawak). Now if you think all that sounds confusing, believe me you're not the only one; on our second night, I wondered out loud whether we were in Sabah or Borneo. 


Before booking a climb, you need to decide whether you want to climb via the Mesilau or the Timpohon trail and whether you want to climb for 3D2N or 2D1N. Compared to the Timpohon trail, the Mesilau trail is longer (approx 5.7km vs. 3km) and more challenging (approx 5-6 hours of walking vs. 2-3 hours of walking) and since I was doing all the planning, no prizes for guessing here which trail we went with. There is also the option of descending on the via ferrata (Italian for "road of iron"), and with that you can either choose to do the introductory "Walk the Torq" route, or the more advanced, and longer, "Low's Peak circuit". While the former overlaps with the latter, the "Low's Peak circuit" is also the world's highest via ferrata.

After checking that there were beds available at Laban Rata (accommodation on the mountain), we booked our 2D1N climb with Amazing Borneo. The plan was to ascend via the Mesilau trail and descend via the Timpohon trail and because we booked our climb only a few days in advance, the via ferrata routes had been fully booked by then. 

{Hammocks in the village of Kundasang, en route from Kota Kinabalu to Timpohon Gate to register and get our climbing permits before making our way to Mesilau}

The climb on the first day up to Laban Rata was pretty tough, miserable and cold, because it rained the entire time and the trail was extremely slippery. The Mesilau trail first winds its way upwards, before you are brought to an extremely steep and long downhill past waterfalls and eventually you know you may only just be re-starting the climb when you realise that you're faced with a steep ascent with lots and lots of steps, before the trail merges with the Timpohon trail and then you reach Laban Rata. We started at about 10:00am, and after a long slow walk, finally reached Laban Rata sometime around 5:30pm. I'd been wearing shorts all day and did not think to bring waterproof trousers, so I was more or less drenched from the waist down and shivering from the cold.

{Mesilau trail}

While the buffet dinner is in the restaurant (food was very good), we could only get rooms in Gunung Lagadan, which is some ways above Laban Rata itself. I thought the facilities were more than adequate with small rooms but comfortable bunk beds and bedlinen and clean bathrooms. At over 3,200m you can't really ask for much. We went to bed sometime around 8:00pm and woke around 1:30am for a light breakfast, before Y's brother, S, and I set out with our guide around 2:45am for the summit while Y, having caught a chill, remained in bed.

{Bumping into S at Laban Rata. What are the odds!}

Personally, I thought the summit push was harder and more intense than the one up Kilimanjaro. There is a long rope section that goes up all the way to the summit and much scrambling. That very day people ascending on the Timpohon trail mentioned seeing a guy being stretchered down the mountain. Apparently he'd strayed from the path and fell, breaking that fall by clinging onto a tree but also breaking his leg in the process. I was paranoid and cautious throughout the climb because of this, and also because I wasn't exactly in the best physical condition then, what with the Lasik and the long hours in the office in the preceding days before the trip. All of this culminated into one big rush the night before our flight to Kota Kinabalu, as I left the office at 4:00am or so, rushed home, packed, caught 1.5 hours of shuteye and then rushed to the airport to board our 8:50am flight, so you can imagine how tired I was even before we began the climb. That being said, aside from some breathlessness I experienced none of the typical symptoms of altitude sickness, so yay!

{On the summit with Y's brother, S, who came along} 

{On the summit slope during the descent, wearing untried and untested Smith Anthem ski goggles and La Sportiva Valles GTX boots. The goggles protected my lasik-ed eyes from the dry summit air, and the boots kept my feet nice and dry after all that rain.}

{Above cloud cover, making my way down after reaching the summit at 4,085m.}

Other little bits of information:

 

If you have knee problems or if you're a total klutz like me, it might be useful to bring a pair of knee guards. I've fallen on my knees while descending both Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Kinabalu - the latter was especially bad, as it had been raining and I slipped on a wet metal plank and landed on my chin and both knees. The only good thing about that story was meeting R, a Guatemalan girl who grew up in America and currently lives in Japan. She loves climbing mountains too, and she was really good (and incredibly patient) company on the descent!

 

We flew Silkair from Singapore to Kota Kinabalu and stayed at Hotel Sixty3, which is a 20 minute ride from the airport. Most Mt Kinabalu climbing packages include a two-way hotel transfer so hotel location within Kota Kinabalu should not be an issue. The hotel is located on Jalan Gaya, which is a nice quaint street that's got a string of bak kut teh stalls with some very, very good bak kut teh and also this place which sells giant baos - you can't miss these. All we did on the first day was walk from one stall to another eating our afternoon away. On Sundays, the entire street is closed off and transformed into a market, with people selling everything from clothes to kitchenware to pets and to natural honey collected straight from the forest and not from an apiary so it is quite a nice place to be, but beware the pickpockets! 

{Giant baos}

We also ate at Welcome Seafood Restaurant, which is a 10-15 minute walk away from Jalan Gaya. For 2 crabs, lobster, prawns and vegetable dishes shared among 3, the bill came up to S$17 per person, and we liked the food so much we went back on our last night for a second round of cheap good seafood.

For the climb itself, I would suggest bringing along some fleece and proper gloves and a beanie. You will need them, especially for the summit attempt, because it gets extremely cold. It will also be extremely useful to have raingear, proper trekking boots (i.e. waterproof and with a mid-rise design for ankle support), a headlamp and trekking poles/walking stick. 

For the extremely fit (or if you're a loon), you may want to think about joining the Kinabalu International Climbathon. The guide did say it was going to be cancelled this year, but don't take his word for it. 

Useful information can be found on Wikitravel.