Yesssss! Strike through one of my resolutions in 2011 is such a great feeling. I had climbed up to the submit of Mt Kinabalu which is Low's Peak (highest peak in South East Asia). The feeling is indescribable. It's the toughest climb I have attempted. I am glad that all my teamates made it to the submit. We did the climb safely and everyone descend safely as well.
The climb from Kinabalu park entrance to Laban Rata took me 6 and half hours. Its challenging due to:
- The air gets thinner as we ascend upwards (from ~1900m to 3300m)
- The trail is made of steps and rocky path, at some point need to hold on to ropes
- The chill wind occasionally blew on us
- The bag packs that I carry weigh roughly 6kg
- My tired legs
We stayed one night at Pendant Huts. Its the accommodation that is provided to those who enroll in Via Ferrata (world's highest via ferrata is located in Mt KK). After had our buffet dinner we rest for tomorrow's ascend up to the submit.
Everyone woke up at 1.30am gear up for the climb to the submit. After had our breakfast all are ready for the final climb (another 2.5km) to Low's Peak. We are lucky because the rain the night before stop before our climb started. We started to climb at 2.30am.
It's all dark and we only rely on our headlamps to guide us through the path. Along the path, we had to climb through some steep rocks. With assistance of the rope, we had to carefully maneuver ourselves through this dangerous cliff. It's definitely end of the world if at any one time, I let go my hands. The most dangerous cliff is at km 6.0 where we need to climb up the rock using just the rope.
All of us had to register ourselve at Sayat Sayat hut before continue our climb to the submit. From km7 to km8.5 is all rock (as Mt KK used to be a volcano but its now dead). Along the way, I manage to catch a glimpse of South Peak (the one on the RM1 note), Donkey's ear, Sister ugly etc. Low's peak is the submit.
The final climb up the submit was a bit torturous as its made of rocks and its steep. So we had to be extremely careful.
Finally when I reached the submit, all the sweat and toil was forgotten momentarily. While I stood there to enjoy the marvellous view, my thought is WOW such a magnificent place no earth. I felt I am tiny. It's such a great feeling.
After spending about 15 minutes on the top, I descend down the mountain to embark on another adventure. Fia Verrata (Work the Torq circuit) is where we want to go. It's an adventure where the climber hook on harness will ascend down Mt KK alike rock climbing style. 5 all us plus the trainer went down together. I was made the leader. I was kind of nervous in the beginning as I need to climb down first and having only one time experience rock climb, I slowly build my courage to go down. I have to find my way down and also guiding my team members down safely. It's such a good experience.
It took us 1 hour 45 minutes to complete the circuit. What a relief.
From there we adjunct to our hut where we had our deserved breakfast. After breakfast we packed and ready to climb down Mt KK. It started to rain quite heavily when we started our descend down the mountain. We had to put on our rain coat.
The descend was all wet, slippery and rocky. Finally after 6 hours of hiking, we reach our park HQ. It's such a good feeling to finally made it. Although I am tired, its still a good experience for me. All in all I enjoyed the climb.
Even though I enjoyed the climb, I still felt something is missing. Yes, I miss my dear ! Sorry for making my dear sob sob, you're definitely in my mind and I can feel your motivation.
